June 17th, 2022 by Jon
We woke to a somewhat windy morning, although it didn’t feel as cold as it could have been. The wind gusted pretty hard every hour or so, and while it wasn’t that bad, it was enough to wake me up pretty regularly throughout the night. As a result, I felt very tired this morning, and it was difficult to make myself get out of my sleeping bag. Eventually, I pulled myself together, Singsong and I got ready, and we were on the trail by 6:30.
We hiked along a ridge, walking along the boundary between rock and meadow, with a valley down on our left and a ridge up to our right. We would walk through little clumps of trees in between long, exposed areas. The wind began to get more constant as we climbed, and the clouds looked ominous as they floated lazily across the valley towards us. They weren’t super dark, but certainly dark enough to cause a bit of concern. We hiked for many miles along this ledge, slowly making our way up in elevation as we walked along the side of the mountain. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but all of a sudden, I noticed I was getting colder and colder. The weather was really starting to turn. The wind was picking up, and it just felt like a cold front was coming in that sucked all the heat from our bodies.
We took a break in a clump of trees to eat some food, and I changed into pants. Singsong and I both got out our rain jackets as well to keep on the outside of our packs for easy access in case we needed them. As we began packing up, we noticed small white specks falling from the sky. It was snowing! Only barely, but still, it made sense with how cold we felt. As we continued walking the snow came in small flurries, we walked across many small streams and groves of birch trees. We climbed a steep set of stone stairs and ran into a couple leading a pack of three llamas loaded with backpacking gear. We chatted with them for a while. I was jealous they were able to walk without a pack on.
We got to the top of the stairs, walked through a very thin path through thick trees, and came out next to the bottom of Thousand Island Lake, where we found Biscuit and Missile hanging out, taking a break, and eating some food. Many backpackers passed by and told us the snow was coming sideways and the wind was really gusting on top of the pass we were about to start climbing. Thankfully, Missile told us that the weather message he received on his satellite beacon said the snow should stop within the next two hours and that the wind would die down by tonight. We added more layers and then set off together. We hiked along Thousand Island Lake for a while, then climbed over huge mounds of rocks to begin ascending a creek-flooded plateau that looked down at the lake. We worked our way through it, dodging puddles and doing our best to keep our feet dry. The weather would not be on our side today to help dry our feet out if they got too wet.
There were marmots running all over the place today, more than anywhere else on trail. I think I saw close to 25 of them today. There were lots on this little plateau and then more as we reached the rocky base of the pass. We climbed stairs made of rock, walked across patches of ice, and scrambled over loose rock as we worked our way towards the top. The last mile before the pass is always the toughest, and this one proves to be no exception. When I got to the top, I found Missile, and we celebrated finishing Donahue Pass. It was one of the last larger passes and also marked the southern boundary of Yosemite National Park! We were entering the park here and looking forward to some excellent views. Singsong arrived shortly afterward, and apparently, Biscuit had already gone down. We would find out later that she had waited for a little bit, but got too cold, so she left.
Just as we were about to leave, a backcountry ranger came by and checked our permits. It was the second time on trail so far, and both times have been in the Sierra. He was super friendly, and after a brief chat and a look at our permits, we continued down the trail. We crossed a few snowy patches, but this pass was definitely less snowy than most of the previous ones. We worked our way down, hiking south into a bowl and crossing the outlet of a lake before hiking back up the bowl on the other side and continuing north again, now going downhill. We walked past small waterfalls and creeks, crossed a few larger streams, and carefully navigated loose rock down a steep hill for about 3.5 miles.
When we got to the bottom, we found Biscuit sitting with Gumby and Veto, who were waiting for the other part of their group, with whom we camped last night. Unfortunately, we hadn’t seen them today. We sat there for a while before pushing the last 3ish miles to camp. The trail took us along the Tuolumne River and Meadow, and it was flatter than it had been in hundreds of miles. We could go so fast! We crossed a massive creek by climbing onto some logs and crossing them. There were tons of tents over the next quarter mile, some PCT hikers and some not. Everyone kinda bottlenecks because you can’t camp within 4 miles of the road up ahead on either side. We found a small hill to camp on with trees that covered us, and we have an easy 6.5 miles to the road tomorrow where we can get a few extra snacks to stock up for the next section. From our campsite we have 80 miles to Northern Kennedy Meadows which will be our next stop after that. The temperature is low, I’m not sure how low, but low enough that we all got in our tent by 6:30. Tomorrow, we plan to sleep in an extra hour so that we can avoid the super cold morning we’re expecting. We also know the store doesn’t open until 9:00, so there isn’t a huge reason to rush there in the morning. It will be nice to have a slower morning.
