This morning, I woke up around my usual time and got packed up. I had just shy of 6 miles to go to get to the top of Pinchot pass. Which meant I definitely wouldn’t be getting up there in time to watch the sunrise. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch the sunrise on any of the passes this time around. Because I’m doing bigger mileage every day I tend not to make it as far up the ascent of the third pass each day. I’m able to do about two passes every day and the majority of the climbing up the third, but the mileage just hasn’t been working out to go much further than that.
Once I was packed up, I got moving and was feeling really good. The mornings have been delightful because they’re so nice and cool. I’m enjoying them very much, especially knowing that the afternoons have been incredibly uncomfortable and hot. As I continued along the trail, I went past a ton of different people set up at camp. It’s understandable because I’m typically walking sometime between 5–5:40AM. But it’s interesting that even as it gets closer to 8 AM or 9 AM, I still wind up going past a lot of people who are still in their tents. Obviously everyone’s on a different schedule and can do anything they’d like. But those cool morning miles are the most comfortable of the entire day. It’s hard to imagine passing those up.
This morning, the climb up Pinchot pass began by following along this gushing waterway.
The first couple miles of the day were fairly steep, and then eventually the grade leveled out a bit. I continued listening to North by Scott Jurek, which is such a good book. He tore a muscle in his quad within the first week of his FKT attempt. He was in excruciating pain and going pretty slow for that first week. There were many times when he thought he couldn’t continue on and was going to lose any headway that he had already gained. And yet he still continued and was able to eventually break the FKT by merely a matter of hours.
A sign for the John Muir Trail.
After climbing for a while, I headed through a meadow. Then eventually got closer to the base of the pass and began weaving my way up. This passed definitely felt a lot easier than Glenn pass last night. I can never tell if it’s the trail conditions or if it’s more mental than anything. I went by a couple more hikers as I made my way up to the top. And then crested over the pass nice and early in the morning.
After climbing for a while, the trail leveled out briefly. Then I continued to make my way up Pinchot pass.
I was pleasantly surprised that the descent was a lot more smooth than the ones yesterday. Which just meant I could go a bit faster and didn’t have to watch my step as much. I made great time going down the pass and was even able to eat some snacks as I made my way down. Eventually I would get to the bottom and then would slowly but surely begin to climb up Mather pass, my second pass of the day. I remember this pass being one of my favorites and feeling very strong doing it in 2022. So I’m curious to see whether that was mental or if it has to do with the way that the climb is graded. Though I was also going southbound last time, so I’ll be climbing up from the opposite direction.
A large snow field that I had to navigate around. At most there have been one or two patches of snow up on the mountain passes.
When I got further down the descent, I eventually had to get my feet wet in a river crossing. It seems like an unavoidable daily occurrence at this point. Most of the rivers are low enough that you can rock across them. And all of them are shallow enough that they’re incredibly safe. But every now and then I’ll still have to get my feet wet. Luckily, it’s so hot in the afternoons that as long as I get them wet early enough, I know that my socks and shoes will be completely dry by camp.
The final bit of climbing up Pinchot pass.
The climb up Mather pass was incredibly gradual for the first few miles. The trail was basically just walking through pine forest and then eventually up through a valley and meadow type area. You were going uphill, but it wasn’t very steep. I was able to just keep going continuously and feel very strong. When I was about 2–3 miles away from the top I finished my audiobook. That was such an incredible story and I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy hearing about FKT attempts or endurance sports. Scott Jurek is probably one of the best male ultramarathon athletes of all time. At the height of his career all he really did was win. He came in first place at Western states, a very challenging ultramarathon, seven years in a row at one point.
Views of a beautiful lake down below the pass.
As I got closer and closer to the top of the pass, I kept expecting for the grade to pick up. But I was pleasantly surprised that it remained gradual basically the entire way. I went past the campsite that I had stayed at in 2017. And reminisced on the incredibly deep snow that we encountered going up this pass. The route that we took up the mountain is crazy to think about when you actually look at the mountain itself. The PCT takes you up a bunch of switchback and is very nice and gradual. We basically just cut straight up to the pass because you couldn’t see where any of the switchbacks were under the snow. I often wonder how I survived 2017.
I remember crying tears of joy as I climbed Pinchot pass in 2022. It was just so beautiful.
For this last bit of climbing, I decided to put on another audiobook. I turned on Thirty Below, which is the story of the first all women mountaineering team to make its way up Denali. It was recommended to me on audible and sounded like an interesting story. And it certainly was. It’s pretty crazy to think about the perspective of men when it came to women in sports and other things many years ago. Most of the women who are highlighted in the book were mountaineering around the 60s or 70s. A time when it was believed that women were completely incapable of running, athletics of any kind, and especially mountaineering. It was actually commonly said that a route was ruined and would no longer be challenging to a man if a woman completed it at all. Regardless of how difficult it was.
My second claim of the day was the best overall. Mather is a beautiful climb, and it was also quite easy.
I listened to that book for the next couple of hours, and it was super interesting. And also incredibly frustrating and hilarious. Some of the personal experiences of the women on the team were hard to imagine. It’s funny being in the endurance sports community now and seeing the difference in perspective. I think a lot of men nowadays view women as often stronger when it comes to endurance. I’ve had many men tell me in the last few years that they think women perform better in ultramarathons and other endurance sports. And it has been shown through research that the longer the endeavor or race, the more likely it is that the majority of women who enter will finish. Women do a lot better in endurance sports than they would in something like sprinting or running a mile.
Views as I began to descend Mather pass.
As I made my way up the climb, I could see hikers off in the distance. And the grade stayed absolutely perfect the whole way up. I felt amazing by the time I crested over the top of the mountain pass. There were three hikers sitting at the top who I chatted with. Two of them were doing the PCT and actually recognized me for my videos. I talked to them for a little while and it was nice to be able to calm some of their nerves about their pace. They’ve become anxious the last week that they might not be able to finish the trail on time. But I was reassuring them that just because they’re slowing down right now to make their way through the Sierra, doesn’t mean that would be the case for the entire rest of the year. I think the difficulty of performing at high altitude and doing all of the elevation gain in the Sierra can get at a lot of hikers confidence. But northern California and Oregon are significantly easier than what we’re doing right now.
The descent off of the pass went on for miles. Dropping me down by a beautiful lake, then down some steep steps and switchback, before eventually getting back to tree line.
I never wound up sitting down, and after I finished chatting with them, I started making my way down the pass. Which was also incredibly gradual and very nice and easy. It had been around noon when I made my way up to the top, which was great. The descent off Mather is particularly long and was really steep at times. Which is funny because I remember thinking that the southbound climb wasn’t that bad. There are a lot of steps cut into the stone. I think some people really don’t like stone steps on trail. And other people do pretty well with them.
The flowers in the Sierra have been so incredibly vibrant.
Within a couple miles of descending, I ran into Cara from yesterday. She had gone a few more miles last night and had probably started around the same time as me today. It was nice to see her again and we wound up hiking by each other for the next couple miles. But she likes to do a bit of running throughout the day. Her pack has a running vest style chest straps, and is super light. Definitely lighter than mine at this point. So after a little while she wound up running on ahead and I could see her making her way down the mountain off in the distance. I took my time on the steep descent so as not too absolutely destroy my knees.
One of my favorite parts of the day was this section. The trail walked along this bright blue lake for quite some time.
After a mile or so of steep stairs, the trail eventually leveled out a little bit. But just like the previous days, the further down I went to the hotter it got. By the time I was a few miles from the bottom I was incredibly hot and feeling exhausted again. It’s so strange how this happens. I’m definitely grateful to have good weather while I’m here in the Sierra. There haven’t been any afternoon thunderstorms and no weather of any kind. But at the same time, the heat has been exhausting. I would have to guess that it’s been in the high 80s or low 90s every single day.
I was going to end my day the same way that I have the last couple days, by starting the climb up the next pass. So once I got down to the bottom, I decided to stop off briefly and eat something. I’ve been calling this break my “marathon lunch”. Because I typically stop and eat my lunch around 3-4PM after I’ve gone a marathon for the day. Which might not make a lot of sense to everyone, but it’s been working really well for me. I do a fine job snacking throughout the day so I really don’t have to stop off much earlier. But in order to do the final climb of the day I’ve been liking eating something. Plus by the time I’m about a marathon in, I have somewhere between 8–12 miles remaining for the day. So resting briefly and refueling has been very helpful to get me through those final hours.
A gushing waterfall just off the trail.
I sat with Cara for a bit before she continued on. Then once I got moving again, I began to climb up Muir pass. Which was a very long climb, so I certainly wouldn’t be getting up to the top tonight. But my hope was to get within 3–4 miles of the top. After a couple miles, I passed by Cara who was sitting at a trail junction. And she said she was probably going to continue on for another couple of miles. So I might just wind up seeing her again tonight.
The climb up Muir pass follows along yet another gushing waterway.
The climb was really nice and gradual similar to Mather pass. I was feeling great and my marathon lunch had definitely fueled me enough to keep pushing. I also kept listening to my audiobook, which was really good. If you enjoy history and sports, such as mountaineering, you’d probably find the book quite interesting. It was basically just a ragtag group of a handful of women who had all been involved in mountaineering over the course of their lives. All of whom had been turned down from opportunities to climb big mountains, not due to lack of experience, but exclusively because they were women. Then by incredible chance, they all came into each other’s lives and wound up climbing Denali together. It wasn’t necessarily all positive, but it was a successful climb nonetheless.
After 7 PM, I began looking for water sources and potential places to camp for the night. I was a little over 4 miles from the top of the pass and had gone around 33 miles for the day. I definitely could’ve gone further, but I’ve been pretty satisfied with this mileage in the Sierra. I thought I would be doing closer to 26 miles a day through here just because of trail conditions. So being able to go further has been really nice.
I’ve been seeing so many deer recently, and I love it!
I wound up finding a great tent spot just by a river and got set up there for the night. That would leave me with 4.4 miles to go in the morning to get to the top of Muir pass. And also had me set up still to have a short day into reds meadow in a couple days. It’ll be nice to do a short day into town and have the opportunity to catch up on work and also eat a lot of calories. After six full days out, I’m sure that my body is going to be craving just about everything.
I wound up camping not far down the trail from here.
Right when I was basically entirely set up for the night, Cara came by. She wound up tenting right by me, which was really nice. She’s pretty bad ass and is doing bigger mileage than most of the people who are on the PCT, at least who I’ve met.
Once I was completely situated, I made a mountain house meal for dinner. Then ate a bunch of snacks and got my stuff organized. Lately I just haven’t had enough energy at the end of the day to do a lot of video work or writing. Certainly not as much as I should be doing to stay caught up. Most nights I’ve just been doing the bare minimum at best. Then sometime after 9 PM I rolled over and called the night.
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