Last night the skies opened up and it rained hard and it rained most of the night. My tent did its job and I was mostly dry. One of the other campers had a miserable night as all he had was a tarp and when the rain started coming sideways because of the wind he got soaked. He was basically up all night in his rain gear and in the morning he was walking around trying to get dried off a bit. He was in remarkably good spirits however. He made the best of the situation and said he thinks he figured out how to set up his tarp for the next time so he would stay dry. Away from the other 3, he liked to talk. His name was Patrick and did not have a trail name yet. If I had any imagination, I could have given him one. I told him about my “I will never be dry again” experience in the snow and rain and how I learned from that it is critical to have the tent set up properly no matter how cold it is at the time. We both laughed at our “learning” experiences. I would see this group off and on for the next two days and then they would disappear into the sunset.
I was feeling good this morning and started hiking about 7:30. As it turns out, I think all the hikers this day were blessed by the rain. It was incredible hiking towards Muir Pass. There was water EVERYWHERE. There were waterfalls all over that were not there the day before. I met a JMT hiker coming from the North and he told me I was going to have to dodge a few waterfalls along the way down. It was just amazing. Here are some pictures of the waterfalls and the flooded PCT trail…
There is no point in trying to keep feet dry today. It is just an amazing scene everywhere I look. Here are some more pictures and a close up of the waterfall mentioned above
There is a steep decline from Mather Pass to the bottom of the valley before you start the climb towards Muir Pass. Combine the steep decline and the rain from the night before and you have a raging river. You go from 12000 feet to 8000 feet. Most of this decline happens very rapidly and is called the golden staircase. I had heard about this golden staircase from hikers earlier in the trail. Wait till you get to the golden staircase!!! It is impressive for sure, but it was not any harder (going down) than it was coming down from any of the passes. Going the other direction and going UP the golden staircase would be a different story but I found going down it not all that taxing.
Here are some raging river pictures
Some pictures associated with the golden staircase
Some pictures descending the golden staircase and looking back up once reaching the bottom
When I got basically to the bottom where I stopped to dry things (picture above) may JMT’ers came by and looked up at the golden staircase and paused a bit. I could imagine their thoughts as they looked at the mountain in front of them and 3000 feet of elevation gain they had to make in a short distance. So happy I was going down!!!
Still some down to go and still have the raging river beside me. Wondering if I am going to have to cross this bad boy at some time.
Mostly down from Mather by now and walking in the forest and at times what appears to be a rain forest.
And some pretty flowers at the end of the day…
Stopped by a stream and washed out some clothes and hung them out to dry. Hoping there would be enough sun left in the day to do the job. There was not. Here is my camp and you can see where I have dung a little channel for the water to run. There is suppose to be another storm tonight. I am 7 miles from Muir Pass.
Lenora’s Note:
This is the day I have chores scheduled and my goal is to get things done early so I start at the car dealer at 7:30. I make it to mass at 8:30 and my Thursday group is down to two of us this week but we don’t let it keep us from sharing or praying together. Tonight is my big night out, work-out followed by dinner and drinks. These girls (Linda and Jenn) have a killer routine, at least killer for me and I push to keep up. I’d love to do this every week, maybe I would learn to keep up. Bev is at dinner and she looks great. What with travel I haven’t seen her since her hip went south and we enjoy talking surgery recovery and getting caught on the welfare of other friends. I miss seeing these folks regularly.
After a late evening I sit down to watch a little tv before bed and it suddenly strikes me. I have to get ready for the closet people. I’m tired and nothing works better than putting off a big job until tomorrow so to bed I go.