Day 45 | mile 774.1 - 799.7

Woke up to the smell of cigarette smoke. One guy at this campsite decided to smoke a 5:30 am cigarette right from his sleeping bag. Cool.

Oatmeal. Packed up, hiking at 6. First major creek crossing. (Reading this now makes me laugh. This wasn't a major creek crossing by my standards now.) My feet got a bit wet, but not too bad. All thanks to this woman who pointed out a good route for me. Saw Little Bites and Sunny and that whole crew at that creek crossing.

Crossed meadows of frozen crunchy mud. Ice is everywhere on the approach to Forester Pass. Put on my microspikes once I got to the headwall.  So nervous! There was kind of a giddy energy as everyone stopped to get their ice gear ready.

It was strenuous but not as scary as I thought it would be. It’s all kind of hazy in my mind. Maybe because it was overcast? The view from the top was spectacular. Sierra really looks serrated.

Took some pictures on top and started going down. Going down was tricker. A lot more snow on the north side. Got to glissade a little bit. My pack is so heavy that I was going much faster than the giant guys going before me. (Most people are resupplying today in Bishop, but I have enough food for the next 6 days.)

I took so many pictures. It is gorgeous here.

It wanted to knock out 2 passes today. Next up was Glen Pass. And I wanted to do it sooner rather than later so that the snow wouldn’t be too soft.

Even though I didn’t take a lunch break, I still only made it up there by 3. It was tough today. The second pass especially. I ran out of gas 2/3 of the way up. Kept stopping every switchback. Met Potable and Patient Zero today while hiking up to Glen Pass. They were coming from town (Bishop), so they were fresh.

On the way down from Glen Pass, I stopped to take a picture of Rae Lake and one of my poles fell down a minor cliff. I hiked down and took it as a sign to take a break by the lake. I took off my socks and shoes and dried them.

45 minutes later, 0.1 miles from where I dried everything out, there was a deep creek crossing. No way to keep my feet dry. Just had to wade through. Great.

Put on MBMBAM to crank out the last 7 miles to camp. Then I see Potable running toward me. “What happened?” He was horribly out of breath. He said he saw 2 bear cubs and the mom in the water. The cubs climbed a tree and the mom charged him. He ran back. I didn’t want to stop here and I kind of thought he might be making shit up. So, I went on. He trailed behind me. Sure enough, there was a bear cub lounging in the sun by the tree. No sign of the other cub or the mom. Portable was about to run back. I suggested we just run through this area. The mom was probably back in the direction he originally ran. We ran without an incident.

Got to the campsite at the base of another pass. Word has it there was a bear here just recently. And we saw it come back twice while we were eating dinner. Definitely not sleeping with my food tonight. Not all of my food fits in my bear canister. Thankfully there is a bear box at this campsite.

Tomorrow is another 2 pass day, hopefully.