8/14/14 Thursday. 11,000 feet at Sonora Pass. 8/15/14 Friday. Yosemite Park

8/14/14. 11 miles

After having breakfast at the lodge Peggy, Critter, Candice ( who hitched into Kennedy Meadows North about an hour after we did Tuesday) and I met at the front so we could get a ride up to the trail head with Frank, an employee of the Pack Station.  He takes clients into the wilderness with his pack train of horses and mules.  

Thank you for the ride, Frank !  That narrow, winding road would have been an impossible walk!

Peggy, Critter & Candice

The 4 of us took off hiking within minutes of each other to chug up the next 1,000 feet in 2.5 miles.  I was awestruck at the barren beauty. 

See the trail that runs across the rocky mountainside?

Low growing ground plants hug the soil.

The wind was whipping around us, nothing in sight to stop it, we occasionally found a bush or rock to rest beside. A sign said we'd entered the Emigrant Wilderness Area in the Stanislaus National Forest.

The wind was whipping across the surface of this lake, we saw a doe and fawn ahead of us on the PCT silhouetted against the sky.

The trail rounded this bowl and went over the pass into another basin. We hiked for 6 miles at 10 and 11,000 feet. 

Peggy & I took a break here in the rocks, the trail continued over the edge of the mountain and we wondered where on earth it was going next.

This was my view when I looked to my right.  A river down below and more barren mountains with granite peeking through.

The trail actually goes over the flat saddle to the right and dropped down into a forested valley with a stream.  We saw the granite range of the High Sierras stretched out to the horizon in front of us. Very daunting to me, but Peggy felt like she'd arrived home.  The Sierras are her favorite hiking place. 

There are the High Sierras. 

We switchbacked down the bare hills into the forest and found our campsite.  Shortly after we set up Critter and then Candice came in and set up camp.  We were fixing dinner when Stefan, from Germany, came in.  He'd not seen anyone for 3 days and was anxious to chat.  As we ate dinner together he began dipping into his food with a V shaped tent stake.  Seems he'd lost his spoon and this was working for him!  Critter had a plastic spoon she'd been carrying as an extra so she gave it to him!

Our campsite.  

Peggy and Stefan talked until after dark,  thinking the 3 days without people had been hard on him,  she encouraged him to take a zero day at Kennedy Meadows Pack Station to rest up.

 

8/15/14  13 miles.

One of the changes Peggy and I have made on this section is to take it slower, we've added 1 more day to the schedule and lowered the mileage from 15-18 to 11-13 miles per day.  The granite made it harder to do the planned mileage and we were feeling exhausted.  This morning we began by descending then going over a pass which opened into granite landscape.  

We came to Lake Harriett and took a break at the shore.  

We passed through granite basins and pretty lakes tucked into them.

Then we saw the Yosemite National Park Boundary marker.  

We planned on a nice lunch break at Dorothy Lake.  It was a big lake with beautiful granite backdrops but pretty windy. We waded in the water and read by the shore.  At 3:30 we left to hike 4 more miles to camp near water by a meadow.  Walking through a long meadow we met a Ranger with a dozen pack animals.  He checked our permits, bear canisters, asked us questions about the " leave no trace" policy and left with a comment about his animals bring set loose in the meadow that night and we may hear bells that he'll have on his horses.  We didn't think anything about it. 

The sun went down behind the ridge and our camp became dark and chilled.

Critter and Candice decided to camp near us.  Critter in her tent and Candice "cowboy camping" with no tent.

Later the ranger came by and made Candice move further from the trail and reminded us of the Wilderness Act which states you must be 100 ft from water and the trail to camp. Candice moved up into the tree line.   About midnight we were all awakened by bells clanging and hooves  tromping through our camp.  Those dozen mules and horses, let loose in the meadow, chose to come visit.  The mules actually bedded down all around Candice and wandered past Critter's tent.  I heard them both talking to the animals,  "get out of here!",  "Go away!"  Then I head Candice say things like "Lie down".  From the sound of the bells the horses went away for awhile then came back and led the mules away down the trail. We later found out the mules lay down all around Candice, munching grass by her head and happy to be near people!  They stayed by her about an hour when the horses came clanging back, gathered the mules and took off.  The Ranger never came looking for them and we have wondered if he ever got them back! Candice & Critter had quite the night, the animals never entered our camp which was separated from theirs by a large rock.