Another cozy night but freezing morning on the trail. 4 degrees Celsius at 6am – at least that kept the mosquitoes away until the sun broke over the mountain and the warmth brought them out in droves. Misty forewent breakfast in order to expedite our departure but it was still 8:15 by the time we headed out.

Jo wasn’t feeling on top of her game  (altitude?) so I carried her bear can/food and tent for the day so we could all keep a nice slow and steady pace. The scenery was so stunning however that I think we spent as much time snapping photos as hiking!

We started off on well-graded switchbacks guarded by tall pines until we exited the treeline and came out onto a meadow surrounding a beautiful tarn and our first stream crossing of the day.

This was the approach to the approach of Donahue Pass. More stone cut stairs and switchbacks took us higher to a 2nd tarn and the final push through a rocky moonscape to the top. 

There were lots of hikers congregating at the top, hands to ears as this was one of the few places with cell reception on the trail! We all hurriedly dragged out our phones to connect to the outside world,  then generally just hung out talking to others, enjoying the fact that we were leaving Yosemite and entered the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Misty & Jo continued on while I spent an hour trying to post the blog(!), then followed after. The 270° view down the south side of the pass was sincerely breathtaking. It took three full frames of my camera to capture it so I know I can’t post just one that will do it justice. Jagged peaks extended alongside me to my left and right, all descending steeply to a humongous valley of boulders, streams, and shrubs, extending to a long view of distant snow-capped mountains including not only passes we’ll traverse in a few days time but also some ski runs at Mammoth. Misty and Jo were far ahead of me waiting for lunch so I made my way over the edge over and I carefully picked my way down into the wonder.

We met tons of PCT-ers again today and all were happy to exchange at least a small greeting, if not tips on the trail ahead and some stories of their trip so far. One solo hiker even stopped us to tell us some jokes! Because of all our dilly-dallying the day crept along until we realized we were running out of time to cover a 2nd mountain pass and still make a good camp site. So we called it done at Rush Creek, making it a 6.6 mile day. At the end everyone felt great but a little tired; we’ve plans for an earlier start tomorrow with our sights set on Rosalie Lake.