Pinchot Pass
Pinchot seemed to take forever! We had to climb 4,000 ft to get there. We got to the top about noon. At the top of the pass I gave a big hoot and holler because the other side was relatively snow free and an easy grade down the other side. We still managed to lose the trail crossing a snow patch, but not to worry it was easy to find again. That afternoon we found a large flat rock area to eat lunch by a stream. It was a great place to do some laundry and a little splash bath.
Mather Pass
Mather was another easy climb on the way up. A lot of switchbacks and only a couple small patches of snow. The other side had some steep snow that was still iced over from being so early in the morning. We opted to work our way around the first patch of steep hard snow, then down some hard snow that didn't seem as steep. Eventually we were down and on our way to another beautiful lunch spot.
Muir Pass
Muir is a long flat pass and is the most picturesque with all it's lakes leading up to and from the top. We hit Muir pass early as we got word that there was snow for 2 miles on either side. This information was correct. The most concerning part of the pass was a short low segment of snow where I could hear water running underneath. I wondered, if I fell, how far down I might go. I was glad to be crossing over on solid cold snow. At the top of Muir pass there is a shelter built for winter hikers who get caught in storms. The North side of Muir held more snow and and we felt like we barely made it to the end of the snow in time. We were punching through patches of snow we crossed toward the end. By the time we got over the pass and over the snow we realized we had been hiking for 6 hours without a stop. We found Juice and Peanut Butter resting on a lakeside rock. We stopped and took a long break with them before moving on.
Selden Pass
Selden pass is the lowest pass in this stretch. It had little snow. Our greatest concerns regarding this pass were the river fords on either side. In the guide books both Evolution Creek and Bear creek had warnings regarding the dangers of crossing. The first crossing we chose to take the high water crossing. At the high water crossing the water level was about knew deep and wasn't nearly as scary as we were anticipating. Bear creek was a bit more intimidating because the water was flowing quite a bit faster. There is no alternate option for this one, but we do think we found an easier crossing about a quarter mile North of the trail crossing. Here the water again was knee deep. Yeah we made it through both!
Being able to cross the creek in the afternoon left us with a short day out to the ferry landing to get into our next resupply at Vermilion Valley Resort.
Overall our trip through the high Sierras was wonderful and the beauty was breathtaking. I think we are very lucky to be hiking this year with such a low snow pack. It is hard to imagine what the passes would be like with lots of snow and how much higher the river crossings would be.
Happy Trails!
Trail Statistics Mile: 887
Days: 52
Bars: 36
Bags of Chips: 8
Jars of Peanut Butter: 7 (Shared) Showers: 10
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