The remaining climb to Donahue was a piece of cake. The trail was clear except for a few large patches of snow. Water was everywhere: small freshets that were jumpable to raging torrents that were bridged plus extra water running down the trail.

Both sides of the pass are distinctively beautiful. Trailwork is exceptional with rock bog bridges, shallow steps, rock (hop) bridges and built-up rock trail.

Before we were over Donohue Pass we had 3 PCT hiker pass us. We counted 61 hikers before we got to Tuolumne Campground. Near the CG we met a ranger with a group of teenagers going out to look at trail conditions. The teens were wanting to meet a PCT hiker and ask questions. We all had fun.

We spent over an hour waiting for the postal clerk to take a break then lunch. Finally got our boxes, shopping, eating, and outgoing mail sent. Happily we got new tent poles, socks, and photon batteries from our bounce box.

We reached Glen Aulin just before dark. As Marcia set up camp Ken went for water. Several men in camp recognized him as a thru-hiker and peppered him with questions.

Glen Aulin was a great place to camp. We were offered dinner and breakfast at the High Sierra Camp but we wanted to eat our food instead of carrying it 100 miles. We had heard that a bear got a hiker's backpack a few days earlier but had a quiet night in the very large backpackers camp.

Wow, we had a hard day of ups and downs. The trail that is paved with rocks turns out to be hard on feet.

Benson Pass is a sneaky pass. I worked hard when I saw the pass but several times there was more to climb. Eventually we reached the windy, bare sand pass. Our descent was steep and fast down a rocky slot.

We called it a day at Smedberg Lake even though it had high humidity and mosquitoes. Campers near us hung their food and cooking utensils, we tucked ours between the foot of our sleeping bags and slept well.

We can't help comparing our water crossings this year to when we hiked it in 2000. In 2000 the creeks were overflowing and roaring. This year the water level is very low.

This was our second elevator day in a row with more, bigger ups and downs. Sixteen hundred feet is like climbing the stairs in a 160 story building! We had a couple climbs that added up to very tall buildings.

We had email from our friend Patrick who is a ranger at Eleanor Lake in the northwest corner of Yosemite. He wanted to hike 15 miles east to the PCT to meet us, then hike back. All day I pictured him hiking towards us with his backpack carrying his hammock and sleeping bag. Patrick is a great cook so later in the day I thought of all the excellent dishes he makes and thought of the three of us cooking together. Unfortunately, because of our slow up and down day we were late getting to our agreed upon junction without a sign of Patrick (who needed to trade work days so maybe that didn't work out).

Wildflowers are beginning to to bloom abundantly. We saw a favorite, Mariposa Lily, right in the trail.

We met new-to-us PCT hikers Clara and Patrick. I had started to read their Trail Journal before I started to hike. We also talked to a father and son pair section hiking the PCT southbound.

We made a campsite on a sandy area sheltered by rocks above a meadow and stream. The sand and rocks were sun-warmed.

A hard freeze caught us off guard last night. When we woke up, Ken scraped frost off the inside of the tent and tossed it out hoping that we would not get wet. Our shoes were frozen again and Ken dumped frost into the shoes. I had to walk with untied shoes for a half hour until the shoelaces thawed enough to tie.

Mosquitoes drove us mad in the meadows today. We wore long pants, windbreakers and two hats as long as we could stand the warmth. Then we slathered ourselves with DEET.

We found our campsite in the last trees at tree line at 5:30 today. If we had hiked farther we would have been on the exposed crest. We'll hike the 10 exposed ridge miles to Sonora Pass tomorrow.

Wow, hiking was spectacular today. Sonora Pass is a beautiful combination of rocks, forest and water. We climbed up from our high campsite in the last white pines and stayed high, rolling gently up and down. Vistas were to all compass points and down to lakes and meadows.

After very circuitous trail that led us to every possible viewpoint we trekked down to Sonora Pass.

One of the problems of hiking more slowly is that we need more days' food. We are not carrying enough to get to Echo Lake. The solution was to go to Bridgeport for lunch and more food.

We went to the Stockman's Inn where we each had two meals. The waitress says she had never seen people do that before. We told her that many hikers would be in to do the same.

Chigger saw us through the window and talked to us as we ate. She has the same fatigue and nausea symptoms that I had and is going to the Bridgeport Clinic.

We hear about the Angora Fire so we went to the library to see if the PCT is impacted. It is close but not burning in the Echo Lake Basin (thanks for the heads up, Ron).

The rides back to Sonora Pass took hours. When we got to the picnic area we found that Geoff from Manteca had hot dogs, salad, fruit and drinks for the hikers. We spent the few remaining hours of daylight talking with Geoff, Jen, Troll, Oblivious, Eddy and Meaghan while we enjoyed the trail magic. Thanks, Geoff! That means the next few days we