Day 67 – Benson & Seavey Passes

Miles: 957.3 to 975.8

Trail Miles: 18.5

Even without an alarm, I woke up around 0500. I didn’t get on the trail until 0840, so it was a leisurely morning – I cooked a hot breakfast and worked on yesterday’s blog. Scooch emerged from her tent as I was putting my pack on to leave. She joked that today didn’t feel like a 25 miler.

About 6 other hikers had already been by our campsite, trying to find rocks or logs to cross the creek we’d camped next to. I wound up fording it in my flip flops. I’d be fording several more today, but I was worried about the chunk of skin missing on the bottom of my left foot. I didn’t want it in a wet shoe all day.

Between my foot and the fall I’d taken the night before, I was moving slower than normal.

Yosemite

Waterfalls Yosemite NP

The trail passed several beautiful lakes today, Miller and Smedburg, among them. At Smedburg I ran into two hikers fishing. They’d caught some nice sized rainbow trout and offered me one. I declined. I had too much food as it was, and I could only imagine how it would smell in my Bear canister.

Llama & Steamboat – Smedburg Lake

I’d hoped to do 23 miles today – the mileage I needed to average in order to get to Canada by my desired end date. What I didn’t factor into my calculation was that the Sierras and the trail still got a vote. Being north of Tuolumne I was out of the high Sierra – the elevations would not go above 11,000 ft again – but the terrain was still rugged and challenging. It was also steeper than it had been, as I would learn today.

Three times today, the trail descended to 8000 ft or lower, and then climb back up to 10,000 ft. It doesn’t sound hard spread over so many miles, but it’s the gradient that gets you.

Benson Pass – much easier than previous passes

I figured Scooch would eventually pass me, but I never saw her today. I leap frogged with Momento and Waterfall several times. Towards the end of the day, when I realized there was no way to make my mileage goal, I fell into pace and hiked the last two hours with them.

The three of us camped on Seavey Pass next to a small pond. The mosquitos were relentless, as they’d been all day. We tried to find a spot away from water in order to escape the pests, but it made no difference. I cooked dinner wearing a bug net over my head.

I know the word Yosemite is Native American. I believe loosely translates to “land of swarming and maddening mosquitoes.”

View from my tent on Seavey Pass