JMT // Day 5

Thousand Island Lake → Red’s Meadow Resort 

18.5 miles 

What a long day. Waking up at Thousand Island lake was nothing short of spectacular; seeing the sun rise and light up Mt. Banner is a major highlight of this trip. We had breakfast and coffee, just enjoying the view before packing up and starting on our way to Red’s Meadow.

We got on the wrong trail from the start of our day, but luckily only made it about a mile, all downhill, before realizing we were on the PCT and not the JMT, which meant we had to climb back up that mile to get back on trail.

The trail was amazing today, we passed so many lakes and streams on our climb, we even had our first water crossing. It was maybe 30ft wide, moving slowly and only came up to my knees. We felt pretty safe about it, so we took of our shoes and socks and put on our sandals to cross. The cold water feels great on tired feet and sore legs.

Coming into Red’s Meadow Resort, we got to stop by Devil’s Postpile National Monument and check out the incredible rock formations. Nature’s most sturdy structure/shape is the hexagon, and we got to see how the lava cooling process formed hexagonal shaped posts. There were a lot of tourists in this area, which kind of took away from the experience. We were exhausted coming up to the monument, since it has been our longest day so far (which we were really proud of), and considered even waiting until tomorrow to see it, but we persisted with our plan and got to red’s around 5pm.

Once we were in Red’s Meadow, we ran into many other JMT hikers stopping for a hot meal, showers, laundry, and outlets. First thing we did was hop in the café for dinner. I had their Vegan burger and a fruit salad and a Lagunitas IPA from the camp store next door.

I met some cool people in the café who migrated over towards the outlets/showers after their meals. While my phone and external battery charged, I stretched and chatted with some of the other hikers. We ended up hanging around and chatting until dark. Hikers are some of the most interesting and friendly people I’ve met. Especially if they’re PCT hikers. We missed out on the late night hot spring sesh behind the backpacker campground since we went to bed early, but I was so tired that I was too concerned. Our tents were set up in the corner of the campground, near the stream so if there were any late night happening, the sound would be blocked out by the water.