My son and I completed our quest to complete the JMT. At one point on our trip I informed Tim he had hiked every inch of the trail. At about nine in the morning of our last day we had completed the entire trail together. It had taken eighteen years to do so, but that just make it that much sweeter.
I never found the bridge I was searching for. I was alert and would have known if we had crossed it. My current guess is that is on the climb to Dusy basin. I may never validate that, but I am content that I indeed did find what I was really searching for.
The drive from Los Angeles was like dusting off an old photo album. There were a lot of memories, a few surprises and more than one blank stare. This was a drive I had made dozens and dozens of times in my youth yet it was mostly unfamiliar. My nostalgic memories greatly exceeded the reality. It was dryer and more desolate than I recalled. It was the kind of place where if your car broke down you would consider curling up in a ball and just waiting to die.
We passed a few trailers and deserted buildings. Climate change has made some of these places a living hell.
I wanted to bridge my past recollections with my current life. The silver granite and deep blue sky above the tree line still take my breath away. There are more people, but there is still plenty of trail and plenty of wilderness such that it would be wrong to call it crowded. Compared to thirty or forty years ago it is crowded. If you compared how it was forty years ago to how it was forty years before that, you would come to the same conclusion.
It appears the age demographic is also changed. Back in the day, everyone was under thirty and today there were plenty of AARP candidates. It would seem that starting with my generation, everyone who wanted to continue has done so. We saw hikers in their thirties, forties, fifties and dare I say, sixties on the trail. I’m not saying they were all moving fast, but they were moving. If there is one thing I have learned as an aging athlete, it is that slow and steady wins in the long run. One other things I’ve learned is that “The long run” is all that matters.
It took us a few days to adapt to the elevation, but adapt we did. It just got easier and we got faster. This coincided with our packs getting lighter as we ate our food and burned our fuel so our day to day improvement was noticeable.
After Tim declared Mather his favorite pass, I thought about it for a while and decided it was also my favorite. Mather pass is at least three days from anywhere, so if you are there, you’re on a serious adventure.
Birthday cake at 10,650'
Our route started at North Lake and went over Piute Pass into Humphrey’s Basin and then down a long and winding trail to Kings Canyon National Park. Up to Evolution Valley which was less crowded than I recalled. From there we went up and over Muir Pass and down to LeConte Canyon. Then we climbed to Palisades Basin and Palisades Lakes via The Golden Staircase.
From there we climbed Mather and then Pinchot pass in one long day before descending Woods Creek. Finally we climbed up to Rae Lakes and spent a relaxing, albeit crowded Friday afternoon.
Then we climbed Glen Pass and finally turned off the JMT and exited over Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley. Over seven days of hiking we had a total of about ninety-eight miles and were quite ready for cheeseburgers.
