Day 64 – Donahue Pass

Miles: 923.1 to 942.5

Trail Miles: 19.4

Miles Hiked: 20

It was windy and cold last night, 32 deg inside the tent. I’d camped near other hikers, but it was the first time in awhile that I had camped without my trail family. The wind buffeting the tent had made for a restless night, so around 0500 I put earplugs in. I got another hour of sleep before the sun on the tent woke me for good.

I worked on my blog from yesterday for awhile and then boiled water for oatmeal and tea. It was so nice to have a hot breakfast and leisurely morning; to not wake to an alarm or be on the trail early. Reports were that Donahue Pass was mostly clear of snow. There was no rush. I got on the trail at 0850, extremely late by PCT standards.

It was a 6 mile climb to Donahue Pass, the boundary of Yosemite National Park. From there it would be downhill through Lyell Canyon and into Tuolumne Meadows.

The climb to Donahue went through a beautiful area dotted with ponds, tarns and a raging creek full of snowmelt.

I ran into several southbound JMT hikers. I asked each what the conditions on Donahue Pass were like. All but one said it was fine and passable with minimal post holing. I hoped the one hiker who cautioned it should only be attempted early in the morning was an outlier. I might regret my leisurely morning after all.

I felt a lot better than yesterday, physically and mentally, but it still took three hours to get to Donahue. Even after 900 miles, climbing to 11,000 ft is a workout.

As I approached the top of the pass I saw Fireball waving at me. They had passed me while I dallied that morning. It was good to see her, Cherry Bomb and King Arthur. We ate lunch on the pass, entertained by several marmots who obviously had no fear of humans.

There was one large snowfield to navigate around on the descent. We picked up the trail and enjoyed the beautiful views. Yosemite is always worth the trip.

I was glad I caught up with those guys. it’s always fun to listen to their banter. I’m a generation or two older, but they always make things interesting and humorous.

They were camping 5 miles short of Tuolumne while I was pushing on. HH was driving up from Mammoth to meet me at Tuolumne. It would be our last time together until September.

I’d originally planned on camping together at the campground. I’d had this odd desire to take HH camping, but the more I thought about it, the more ‘a shower and a margarita’ sounded good. Maybe it’d be worth the trip back to Mammoth for the night…..or two…..at the condo

When I got to Tuolumne, Smokebeard and Painter were already there enjoying some of the trail magic HH had brought up from Mammoth. We went to the hiker campground and stored everyone’s resupply food for the next section in bear boxes. It would be there for them when they arrived tomorrow. HH and I then headed back to the condo via Tioga Pass and Lee Vining. It was a beautiful drive back home for one more Zero with HH.