I think, for me, the best of the Sierras was this next section. Muir Pass was my favorite so far, even though it had the most snow of any before. We’d camped within a couple miles of the summit and gotten up early enough so that the snow was hard and so much easier to walk on. At the top was Muir hut, one of the few shelters on the PCT. The sky was so blue and the snow so clean and white.

Climbing down that snow was also easy, it still being hard. I didn’t posthole one time! It wasn’t steep either, so we made it down in good time and even took a break for a second coffee and pushup competition (I won, but admittedly, my pushups probably weren’t the best form). We stopped at another lake and skipped rocks and generally dawdled.

That day, we saw our first bear! It was maybe 30 feet off the trail, tranquilly scratching itself and ignoring the humans gawking at it. I was a little surprised, because I’d heard that bears were generally very shy and most sightings were of the backs of them as they ran away.

We had another ford that day and then walked along a river in a canyon until our campsite. We made it 20 miles that day, which, for us, is pretty good mileage for the Sierras.

The next day, we were caught by our other hiker friends! They were all in a big group together, Queso, Husk, Sea Bass, Jinx, Twinkletoes, Helen, Kristie, John, and DHS. We all had lunch together and Jinx and I impressed/annoyed the others with our complete knowledge of Veggietales songs. Selden Pass was right after and very easy, only enough snow to make it unresistable to wage a snowball fight. We had quite a few more crossings yet that day and the mosquitoes were terrible. However, I’d taken some advice and treated my clothes with permethrin, a mosquito repellent. It seemed to work and gave me a belligerent and gloating satisfaction against the little demons.

I

t was another exciting day after that. We left early to catch a ferry to Vermillion Valley Resort, or VVR, an oasis of pancakes, soda, and beer in the middle of the wilderness. We took a ferry to get there and it was strange to be going so fast after purely foot powered motion for a week, especially over water. I ordered the largest breakfast on the menu. It was the best breakfast I’d had on trail, and not just because I had a free beer with it. Outside, I met a few more hikers and we realized that there were 5 nurses there. We talked shop for a bit and I found out that one of them was Cactus! When I introduce myself to new people, many say, “Oh, I just met another Cactus!” And then I have to say, “No, I’m CactASS,” so I’d been wondering who this Cactus was. Apparently she’s also a nurse and also works in neuro! Spooky.

We hung out with our larger group of friends, swam, ate more, drank more, and pet dogs. That made it very tempting to stay, but we got back on the ferry and to the trail once again. That night, we danced around the fire in honor of the summer solstice, as it was June 21st.

A couple days later, we were rolling into Mammoth Lakes after passing 900. As soon as we got into town, we bought a bunch of candy and went to the movie theater to see Incredibles 2. It was fun to do a normal human thing while being possibly the smelliest I’ve ever been. Adding to our disreputable image, Tinkle had put chocolate in her shirt, which melted and covered her in brown stains. Nice. We did wash ourselves and our clothes after that, to the relief of the general populace. To cap the day off, we downed a pitcher of margaritas and a whole lot of Mexican food. Perfection.