Hiking the JMT: Squaw Lake to Bear Creek Junction (Day 10)

The view descending the south side of Silver Pass.

Highlights of Day 10

Crossed Silver Pass (and it was gorgeous!)
Tons of poison oak encroaching on the trail, and clouds of mosquitoes
Tasty lasagna + meat sauce re-hydrated dinner.
Scary electrical storm + pouring rain started minutes after we crawled into our tent at the end of the day.

Trail Journal

9:00 pm

It’s storming outside. Gadget and I are in our tent, listening to the rain and counting the seconds between lightning flashes & thunder.

I’m exhausted–we went farther again today than we had planned, and had lots of elevation gain and loss. There was a ton of poison oak (“devil weed,” as we’ve begun calling it) on the trail today. It made for an interesting day of doing something between hiking, contortionism, & ninja moves. At one point Laura compared our day/experience to the Hunger Games: spin the wheel, and we’re attacked by hungry hordes of blood-sucking mosquitoes; spin again, and be confronted with miles of poison oak obstacles; spin again and attempt to escape afternoon rain and lightning bolts.

Minus the poison oak, it really has been a fun day. My appetite is 100% back following my run-in with the flu/food poisoning/altitude sickness/whatever I had earlier in the trip, which has improved things SO MUCH. (We had rehydrated lasagna with meat sauce for dinner tonight–yum!)

We’ve also been getting our “hiking legs” and have been better able to handle the mileage & elevation change. Plus, I think it often takes a few days to get used to any major change in lifestyle, & this certainly qualifies. Now that I’ve settled in to the process of sleeping on a thin mat on the ground, wiping with a “pee bandana” (not the one I wear around my neck) after going to the bathroom, pumping water for every meal from a stream, river, or lake, being bitten by mosquitoes constantly & much more….

Once I settled in to all that, I’ve been really loving it. Everything that we see, every day, is SO gorgeous. Mountains, sparkling lakes (this morning Squaw Lake had >40 fish biting every moment! I want to tell my dad!), streams and rivers and cascades, wild flowers of practically every color imaginable, butterflies (so many butterflies!), gorgeous meadows and valleys, so many trees, birds singing all day….

It really does feel like paradise.

And sometimes a bit like hell, too. 🙂