JMT // Day 11

LeConte Canyon –> Mather Pass –> South Fork Kings River

~20 miles

What a great day.

I woke up early, worried about my ankle being okay to walk or not, thankfully I was. As I was enjoying my oats and coffee, I watched a family of deer, two parents and one baby, walking through the campsite and to the creek for water. We started hiking towards the golden staircase and Mather Pass around 8:30am. We wanted to take it easy since Marc’s calf was bothering him and my ankle wasn’t 100%. So we marched on slowly, climbing the large stone steps and the short and steep switchbacks up Mather Pass. There was a sketchy snow patch we had to walk across, it wasn’t too big, but the area it was located was very steep and a slip of the foot could mean serious injury or death. We also had to do a bit of rock scrambling which we came to realize would be a reoccurrence climbing any of the passes.

Every time we are climbing up a pass, I like to look ahead at the mountains with their many rocky corners and hills, and guess where the trail is going to take us; try to spot the trail from a mile or two away. More often than not, we are wrong and the top is much farther than we estimated. I’ve realized I’m pretty bad at judging distance in miles, especially in the mountains, but I am pretty good at finding the trail again after rock scrambling and navigating around snow patches.

The view at the top of Mather Pass was spectacular. I love coming up to the top of a pass and a whole new landscape opens up, showing us a clear view of where we are headed and where we are coming from. We had a panorama view of Palisade Lakes (where we came from) and the Upper Basin, where we were headed. At the top of the pass, it is only 10 miles to the top of the next pass, Pinchot. It was getting late, and we wanted to make out way as close to to top of Pinchot as we could get before setting up camp.

At this point we have fallen into a sort of hiking routine where we will start our day reaching the top of a pass, then we will descend and get at lease halfway up the next pass before setting up camp for the night.

Surprisingly, my ankle hadn’t been hurting as much as the previous days. I’m pretty sure it’s because Marc started taking things a little easier today with his calf injury. Our pace today was slow but consistent, I was able to place my foot down carefully with each step, not having to rush. I’ve been more and more surprised at my ability to endure long climbs without having to take a break. I can feel my body getting stronger as we get further along on the trail. It was nice to finish the day happy and satisfied rather than tired and cranky as it has been the last couple nights with my ankle.

We listened to music the last couple miles to our campsite, as has become our tradition to finish the day and we danced our way to Kings River. We ended up camping at one of the lowest points between Mather and Pinchot in hopes that it wouldn’t get too cold at night. We always try to camp next to a water source. The easy access to water makes filling our bottles, rinsing off dirty clothes, and cooking dinner and breakfast much much easier. I slept okay, my sleeping bag had been working great for me, but Marc had a hard time keeping his warmth in his quilt.