Smiles, Tourist, and I had another successful day today. We kicked off the morning with a tour of Devil's Postpile National Monument. We had a great time wandering around the monument and seeing the basalt columns which are somewhat similar to the columns at Vantage or Tieton. According to Tourist, our professional ecologist, the columns were formed when 400 feet deep lava flows filled the valley and then cooled slowly causing cracks to form in hexagonal shapes. I'll probably forget most of these details, but I'll definitely remember the fun Smiles and I had posing for Tourist's photos.
After making our way back to the PCT/JMT, we meandered up toward Agnew Meadow where I stopped for a snack before continuing on toward Thousand Island Lake. The terrain was fairly gentle but trended uphill while traversing huge open slopes. It was beautiful. I could see parts of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and had more great views of the Minaret Mountains. I was so sad I couldn't take pictures, not that they would do the scenery justice. I mostly walked alone but eventually came across Maya and Tal, two Israelies I met recently, and stopped to eat and siesta with them. After lunch, we hiked together for a bit, and they picked some wild green onion which was delicous!
I took another break and soaked my legs at Thousand Island Lake with Tourist, Smiles and others before pushing on to Island Pass. The plan was to camp about four miles beyond the lake. About 3 miles later, we came across the junction with the Rush Creek Trail. I was walking with Smiles and we debated stopping for dinner but decided to push on to camp since it is only another mile. About .5 mile later, I realized I was starving and needed to eat ASAP, so I stopped at the first water I found. Smiles had dropped back, but she was so relieved to see me sitting in the trail ready to eat. She was definitely in the same boat as me. It always feels funny stopping less than a mile short of camp but I think we've all learned that you just have to eat when you're hungry out here. We both felt way stronger after dinner.
I'm now camped on top of a slabby granite boulder with Tourist and Smiles. We are in a large open basin filled with granite, meadows and tarns, and we are surrounded by mountains. It's pretty awesome and fortunately not too buggy.
We'll hit Donohue Pass first thing in the morning, and then it'll be a downhill/flat coast into Tuolumne. Yosemite, here we come!
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