We didn't seem to be very far from Glen Pass when we got up. Each pass is different with its own personality and Glen is the tricky pass.

The trail toward the pass was nice to walk. We were surprised to see a hiker breaking camp part way up. He introduced himself as JMT hiker Tristan and said that two bearded hikers were less than a hour ahead of us. So five of us were on our way over!

We were the last at the top so we could follow footsteps. The north side had heavy snow punctuated by rocks. We glissaded to the rocks and made our way slowly over the boulders to continue on the snow. Ken fell forward off a boulder scraping a knee and an elbow. We were glad that he didn't have other injuries. Bandages and lunch interrupted our slow progress downward.

We had a wild logs-over-rushing water crossing. Then we were at the beautiful Rae Lakes area. The ranger isn't in residence yet. A coyote ambled across the trail in front of us. We took time to just sit in the sun and enjoy the view while we ate Snickers. The trail down to Woods Creek suspension bridge seemed to take forever, especially as clouds started to gather and the wind picked up. We talked to a section hiker who had just come in from Cedar Grove and asked for the weather forecast. He said clear all week.

We chose to hike on knowing that a flat campsite would be hard to find on the other side of the bridge as we followed the creek steeply up. Just before dark we found a great site but it had fox or coyote scat on surrounding rocks. Too bad...it was our site for the night. Ken went to get water and found Tristan about 40 feet away from us.

What a day! The morning was cold and gray with the wind still blowing hard. We walked past Tristan's tent without seeing him.

This was to be a two pass day so that we would reach our resupply in 10 days.

Pinchot Pass, at 12,130', is a nice scenic up and down and faces a direction so the snow melts early in the season. However, the air was so cold that we were walking on ice. As we climbed my lungs hurt from gasping cold air through my mouth. We didn't linger for pictures at the top because we crossed from cold gusty wind to howling freezing wind. We dashed down the switchbacks. We were surprised to meet two young women hiking the John Muir Trail. I was the first woman they had seen in 17 days. We exchanged trail info and dashed on.

We watched the sky, expecting it to clear but storm clouds flew past. We hiked down, forded several streams and headed for our second pass, Mather. The girls said that it had good tracks through the snow patches and only a few "sweaty palm" moments. A few drops of hail or hard snow pelted us. We decided to go for the pass while watching the clouds. We topped out just after 5 pm just as snow began to fly seriously. We put on ponchos, sat on the first snow patch and glissaded to the rocks, dashed to trail. It took us two hours to get past Lower Palisades Lake at 10,600' where trees started growing. We wanted to camp lower to be warmer but were done for the day.

We slept in until the sun hit our tent. We checked the snow level, about 2 inches, then Ken started scraping frost off the inside of the tent to try to keep gear dry.

Our shoes were too frozen to get on so we had to ease in bit by bit. We didn't start hiking until almost 9 am. We went down steep switchbacks called the Golden Staircase which were the last part of the John Muir Trail to be completed. We were very surprised to meet a JMT hiker, an Australian named Nick, coming up the Staircase! The first thing he said was I was the first woman he'd seen on the trail. He said weather was supposed to clear today. He had talked to 2 bearded PCT hikers a half hour earlier.

We plugged away at our miles, wanting to make up for our late start. We had lovely meadows when we went up LeConte Canyon but all the ferns and flowers were droopy from the snow. Two does seemed unafraid of us and grazed only 20 feet away.

We looked up from rock hopping another stream and Muir Pass was behind clouds. Oh no! It was snowing again on our pass for the day. Another JMT hiker was coming down from the pass and said it was miserable. So at 4 pm we found a site at 10,000 feet and put up the tent. We are squeezed among four trees for shelter. When Ken filtered water he could no longer see either end of the canyon. Snow was really coming down. Brrr.

Today is the first time that this leg of ten days is not going according to plan. We did not hike over a pass. We will have to adjust miles and food in order to reach Vermillion Valley Resort before we run out of food.

There was more snow everywhere this morning. We both scraped the frost off the inside of the tent (frozen condensation) then tried to pack up icy gear. We would be carrying extra weight from ice.

We started quite late. Within minutes there were two other hikers with us! We introduced ourselves to Steel Eye and Tree Whisperer. They both had trekking poles and dashed ahead along the icy trail.

We came to a creek of icy water rushing across the trail. Oh no! While we looked for a rock hop across Steel Eye held up his poles then tossed them across to Ken. It was easy to cross with the poles. Tree Whisperer was carrying both an ice ax and poles. He offered me his poles to follow him over Muir Pass.

Muir Pass has a very long approach and descent and this more level pass collects snow for miles. Tree Whisperer was very quick both with route finding and traveling on snow. It took hard work all morning to get to the pass for lunch. The round stone Muir hut sits on the broad pass. We sat there for lunch in the sun and watched the habituated marmots try to sneak past us into the hut. Only snow and gray rock was visible but the views made lunch feel like a celebration. We followed T W down past the lakes then down more into the meadows. At the end of the day I offered his poles back but he said I could keep them for another day. What kindness!

We camped farther down LeConte Canyon past T W and Steel Eye. We were just short of the infamous Evolution Creek crossing and we could feel the excitement.

Both Tree Whisperer and Steel Eye walked by and said good morning as we packed up. We saw them again as they stopped for their breakfast.

Our crossing of Evolution Creek turned out to be less daunting than we expected. The creek was 50 feet wide and filled knee deep with snow melt. We waded across and hurried down the switchbacks to reheat our bodies.

This is one of the areas that we remember clearly from our previous hikes. The forest is quintessential Sierra forest, beautiful enough to lift spirits.

Seldon Pass has a gentle character. It could also be an example of the progression of bare mountain to lake to meadow. All those areas are along the trail and so interesting to see.

We watched clouds form again. The pass had patches of snow and as we negotiated over and around them heavy wet snowflakes began to fall. We immediately put on ponchos to keep packs and selves dry and then the snow stopped. Great!

We looked at mileage and are in good position to make the morning ferry to Vermillion tomorrow. Whew!

We missed our 5 am alarm but woke a few minutes later and packed up fast. The backwoods resort with a restaurant was our destination. First we had to climb 1000 feet then hike down 2200 feet to Lake Edison and finish with 2 miles off the PCT to catch the ferry to the resort by 9:45. We had to run at the end when the ferry blew its whistle to leave 15 minutes early. The three other PCT hikers on the ferry with us were Steel Eye, Duke and Ironman. There was also another backpacker. We now have faces to go with the names and footprints that we have been following. Another PCT hiker, Tree Whisperer, walked in from the trail.

We learned later that the ferry boat had only been launched yesterday. If we had arrived a day earlier we would have ridden across the lake in a small fishing boat. Imagine 6 hikers with backpacks and the driver in a very small boat. We would surely have swamped it.

VVR is off the grid, generating its electricity and using a satellite phone. I couldn't get PocketMail to run, shopping for food was slim (aspirin by the pair), gear replacement nonexistent and none of the few rooms was available. I read the registers and am uncertain that there are any PCT hikers ahead of us except for the three guys that left Donna Saufley's house in early March(?).

We paid for showers and laundry, ate several meals, unpacked dinners, got camera cards and battery from Linda (woohoo!! great job, Linda) and made the 4 pm ferry back to the trail.

We felt the miles we walked after our return boat ride were a bonus. We walked another 2 off trail miles and 3 uphill miles before stopping to attend to a series of minor medical problems (scrapes, etc). Then we ate a cold ham & cheese sandwich (one of the best tent meals ever) and lay down to sleep before dark. A good day with needed calories.