Saturday August 17, 2019. Mile 823 along Palisade Creek to Below Muir Pass (Mile 834/835?) 7:10am to 3:30pm.
We all sleep well, it’s cool but not cold down along Palisade creek. The mosquitoes sleep in just long enough for me to do my morning business in comfort, then they are up but a little lazy, thank goodness. We pack up and get on trail a little after 7am. The light is pretty, filtering slowly into our canyon.
I’m usually raring to go in the morning but today I want to slow everything down. Sarah is leaving the JMT today and exiting at Bishop Pass because she has to get back to work. I’m going to miss her something fierce. So I walk slowly, dragging the time out as long as possible. I walk in the back so I can look at her for a bit longer too. She is going to camp alone in the Dusy Basin for one night, her first time camping alone! She’s excited and scared. And if I’m being honest so am I.
The trail is a gentle descent most of the morning, following the creek. There is a lovely meadow mixed in too but we don’t stay long because the mosquitoes are hungry here. Just a few stops for photos, then hiking on.
We are making good time, even if I’m trying to drag it out and too soon we are at the footbridge right before the Bishop Pass trail turn off. We stop on some granite above the bridge to eat lunch, it’s around noon. We all filter water and double check that Sarah has everything she needs. She is carrying out our garbage and Violets one sandal, which is super sweet. I snuggle up while eating lunch for as long as possible but the day is moving on so eventually we do too. It’s so fast to Sarahs turn off, I feel a lump in my throat as we say goodbye. I won’t see her for a few weeks at least and it’s weird to not be sharing this time with her. I’m so glad I have Violet for another week, this would be a lot harder without her. Sarah climbs off along her trail headed East, I watch her for a little while, snake into the trees and then she’s out of sight. I tear myself away finally and Violet and I continue North, three is now two.
After the Bishop Pass trail we start climbing and never stop. Le Conte Canyon is super pretty but also all up, up, up. The day heats up and we take lots of small breaks. It’s gorgeous and we are enjoying each others company so it helps with the hard parts. We start a steeper climb out of the canyon towards Muir Pass, we hope to knock a few miles off today to make it easier for tomorrow and the map shows a few campsites. I’m a little ahead of Violet when I turn around to make sure she’s not far behind me and a streak of reddish brown comes out of the trees, about 5 feet to my right. I takes a minute for me to register what it might be as I’ve never seen anything this size out here before and then it clicks, pine marten!!! WHATTTTTT!!! It trots across the trail right in front of me, then up onto the boulders and out of sight. My jaw is hanging open and I just point where it was as Violet walks up. She saw it too and is just as surprised as me. I never thought we would get this treat!
After the pine marten excitement, we ascend a bit more and finally reach a gorgeous lake that we had planned to camp at. Unfortunately the only viable site is closed for restoration, uh oh. We are both pretty beat from the long day climbing in the sun and don’t want to have to climb further up to Muir Pass. We think for a minute and then I remember that I thought I saw a possible option a little bit down the trail. Violet stays put and I drop my backpack. I walk South down the trail for about 10 minutes to where I saw a use trail dropping to the lakes outlet creek. Across the way there is a rise in some trees that looks flat and may work, hopefully. I rock hop across the creeks boulders, miraculously keeping my feet dry and pick up a small trail on the other side that leads up the hill, this looks promising. It really is, there is a perfect established campsite up here with great views, hooray! I go back the way I came and tell Vi the good news. I sling my bag back on and she follows me to the creek. It’s a lot harder to cross easily with my bag on and Violet slips in at one point, wetting her feet and butt a little but luckily she’s fine. We make it up to the site and she agrees it’s worth the crossing. It’s still early, about 3:30pm and we crushed our miles today.
We set up our tents with amazing views, it doesn’t even feel real here. It’s too pretty, there’s a little meadow behind us and we feel like we are so far away from everyone else in the world. A little perfect slice of wilderness hiding on this wonderful ridge. Since we have time and lots of sun left, we do laundry and I hang my light hammock up between the trees. I almost sent it out with Sarah since I haven’t used it yet but I decided to hold on to it for a bit longer. I figured even a few uses would make it worth the weight and I was right. I swing in a gentle breeze, my legs in the sun, trees shading my face, taking turns reading and napping. It’s a perfect day.
Violet washes her hair and lays on some boulders with a view of the Black Divide across the way. The light finally starts to fade from our shelf, just as my socks finish drying, win. I can hear pikas chatting in the rocks but never see them. We make dinner and eat in bliss, sharing bites of things, watching the sun fade, and listening to the pikas saying goodnight. After dinner I walk down to the creek to get water for tomorrow. As I’m sitting on a boulder filtering I see a couple on the trail above, heading south, which means they are coming down from Muir Pass. They look beat and I bet they were hoping to camp where we were earlier, as the light is fading fast now and they are looking around desperately. They can’t see me down here so I call out and invite them to our oasis, there’s another great site just a little ways down from ours and they are welcome to it. They are super grateful and carefully make their way across the outlet. We chat for a little bit after they set up their tent and then I’m too tired to even form coherent sentences so we say goodnight. I keep my tent door open to watch the stars pop up above the Black Divide, the snow on it’s flanks glittering in the moonlight. I hope Sarah’s doing okay camping alone and looking up at same stars too.
Ben Hiking - A Queer in the wild 