JMT // Day 9

Sallie Keys Lakes -> MTR -> McClure Meadow

17 miles

Overall, today was a great day. We hiked the 5 miles to MTR this morning, and were surprised to run into Swede there, hanging around the hiker buckets. MTR had an amazing hiker box, well organized and accommodated a vegan! There were so many flavored oatmeals, bars, and dark chocolate, peanut butter, etc. All the hikers chatted and topped off our bear boxes with food for the remaining days to Mt. Whitney. We also charged up our devices since it would be out last one for the next 100+ miles of trail ahead. Medicine Man and Peter both rolled in an hour or two later picking up their re-supply boxes and giving us the surplus.

We left MTR and before we hopped back on trail, we took a little detour to the hot springs. We have to cross a section of Evolution Creek to get to the springs. The water is shallow but swift, and we use a rope to get across, leaving our packs behind.

We come up to the first hot spring, it’s small so we look for more, we come across a second one and there is a man sitting in what looks to be mud. He claims the water here is 101 degrees and the other one is 104 degrees. Then there was a small lake just past the man that was warm like bath water. We took a dip there and in the brown hot spring. It was our first dark and cloudy day so far on our trip and the warm water felt nice.

After we were done with the hot springs, we made our way back across the creek, to our packs and eventually back on trail. Our goal was to make it as far up the 20 mile ascent to Muir Pass. On the way we passed by many waterfalls, and eventually what was explained to us as the most dangerous crossing on the trail, at Evolution Creek. I took off our sneakers, put on my Tevas, used my pole and followed a strategy I learned to not cross your legs and to walk on a diagonal. It wasn’t too bad, the water only came up tp my knees, but it was scary knowing there was a deadly waterfall not too much further downstream.

On the last miles of the day, my ankle started bothering me. The knob on the outside of my ride ankle, to be specific. I’m thinking it’s an overuse injury to the ligament, and hopefully not a stress fracture. I do tend to be clumsy and trip and roll my ankles very often. My brother thinks that my trail name should be pebbles because that’s all I’ll trip over. Eventually, one step I took sent a shooting pain into my ankle. I could not put weight on my foot and my eyes started welling.

Every day is a roller coaster of emotions. Excited to tired, energetic to grumpy, euphoric to suffering. At the moment, I am exhausted and in pain. I have a terrible pain in my ankle that had been getting worse throughout the day. Just before we set up camp, I had a shock of pain in my ankle that made it extremely painful to put any pressure on. So I hobbled around the campsite, setting up my tent and sleep system trying to stay off my ankle, even soaking it in the ice cold creek nearby. I hope it’s nothing serious that will effect the rest of the trip, maybe some ibuprofen and a good night sleep will help me feel better for tomorrow’s hike. There are no more re-supply spots moving forward so I have to be mindful of the ranger stations and bail out points if this pain gets worse.

Our site for the night is gorgeous. Views of the mountains, leading to Muir Pass, and a beautiful meadow with a bubbling creek. The only downside here were of course the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are by far the worst thing about the trip, Everything else I can handle, but the non-stop bussing in my ears and having to constantly defend my skin drives my nuts.