JMT // Day 13

Rae Lakes -> Glen Pass -> Forester Pass -> Wallace Creek

22 miles

What a big day! We did the most we’ve done all trip and Whitney is in sight (not literally). We woke up at Rae lakes this morning, freezing. I was pretty toasty in my sleeping bag, but the condensation on my tent had frozen over and my hot breath was melting drops onto my face while I slept. It was a very cold morning, so we both had breakfast in our tents. Marc decided that we have to sleep together tomorrow night to share warmth. His tent is a two person tent, and mine is single.

Our plan for the day was to get over Glen Pass, and set up for Forester Pass. We got up and over Glenn very quickly even though it was a very steep climb with some big snow patches. We came to the bottom of the pass, or the lowest elevation before Forester, and we took a long lunch break. We both laid in the sun, closed our eyes and relaxed for a while. It felt good, but it feels better to keep moving. We were pretty much done for the day at this point since we only scheduled in 10 miles for the day. We are so close to the end, less than 30 miles, and we were getting excited and anxious to see Whitney. In our good spirit and determination, we decided to push on and up and over Forester, and see what happens, how we feel.

Damn, Forester was hard. So much elevation and climbing. At about 13,000 ft elevation we hit a lot of big snow patches and rock scrambling for long stretches. A hard climb.

When deciding to hike the JMT it made the most sense to me to hike South-bound and end with Mt. Whitney. It’s the cultivating moment of the hike, the symbol of accomplishment. A view that matches how you feel: on top of the world. Coming close to the end now feels surreal. Like I’m living a dream, because actually doing this in real life would be crazy. As we get closer to the end, every climb and descent is more difficult and sketchy than the last and I can only imagine how tough Whitney would be. If we had decided to hike North-bound the experience would be completely different.

We took a quick second lunch break at the top of Forester Pass. It was another very steep climb, but the descent was even worse. Looking back to where we came over the pass from, it was a tiny notch in the mountain over a rock slide. We were so tired from the pass, but the flat trail now was giving me some life. We decided we would walk until 6:30pm and stop at the first place we found water.

We turned the music on, and cruised through the big, open plateau. The Bighorn Plateau showed us a completely new setting. Like walking through a desert, with lots of sand and pebbles, hardly any shrubbery. We passed a small lake, with several tents set up not too far away and I could see someone had brought a telescope. They’re going to have some amazing views of the stars, I’m sure.

It was past 6:30 and we could not find water. We could hear water in the distance, and we figured the trail would link us up to it at some point, so we kept on. Finally we started seeing tents lined up along the creek. We found an isolated spot in the woods and set up camp. We cooked up a nice big dinner for our efforts of the day and enjoyed some treats (Sour Patch and Swedish Fish) when we realized we were going to summit Whitney tomorrow!

It was a weird night thinking that tomorrow it would be over and we won’t be hiking anymore. I’ve gotten used to the hiking routine and the physical work that goes into it. We went to bed early. Marc insisted that we share a tent, and so we did.