1000 Miles

At Mile: 1017

We didn't know it at the time, but our stop in Mammoth Lakes marked the end of the most extreme portion of the Sierras. We only hiked for two days out of Mammoth before reaching Tuolomne Meadows and a paved road. It was the first road we had crossed in 250 miles and it was filled with tourists, so we hitched a ride down the hill and into the tiny town of Lee Vining. It was a nice little town, and it turns out we were still tired from all those mountain passes, so we stayed a couple nights.

Mammoth Lakes

Since then, the trail has mellowed out a bit as we crossed into the glacier carved landscapes of Yosemite National Park. There are still passes to cross over (Donohue, Benson, Seavey, Dorothy Lake, Sonora) but they are more moderate and largely free of snow. The trail has spent more time weaving haphazardly around boulder piles, pine forests, and meadow valleys and less time trudging strictly up and down.

Our real battle lately has been with mosquitos. Swarms often keep us from relaxing, even with head nets and DEET. When we get to a tentsite in the evening, we have to set up our tent as fast as possible, throw everything inside and climb in after it. Then we have to spend 10 minutes killing all the mosquitos that followed us in. We end up frustrated and trapped inside the tent with dozens of mosquito carcasses. We are both really hoping that it won't get any worse.

The 1000 mile mark was on the trail yesterday. David and I are excited to have made it this far, but it is discouraging to realize how far we still are from the halfway point and farther still, the end of California.

Thank goodness for switchbacks

Marmot friend

Mule train!

Looking gnarly

Checking the nutritional value of cool ranch Doritos

Capturing the back sweat