Day 15 - Going to see Muir’s hut

Starry Night

Wanda Lake to Big Pete Meadow 9271ft elevation. 

We summit Muir Pass 11975ft  

Today we traveled: 8.5miles. 600ft elevation gain 2000ft elevation loss. 

JMT mile marker: 134mile.

Tired, sick and happy at 11850ft high

Last night at Wanda lake was windy. We were warm in the tent in our sleeping bags but the wind and the elevation made it a sleepless night. Around midnight Bob decided he is going to take pictures of the stars and Milky Way. I’m not sure how good the pictures are but the sky was insane. With so many stars it was bright out. It’s one of the best things about camping, the night sky. 

We continued to toss and turn getting an hour of sleep here and there. 

In the morning, with it being windy and cold we decided to postpone coffee and breakfast till we got to a better and less windy place. We packed out and hiked with our rain gear as wind shield. After about a mile or so the weather improved and we were able to take a break and make coffee. 

We climbed for about a mile and boy was that a struggle. Bob wasn’t feeling well and we realized hiking above 11,500ft is hard. We were barely going and it felt like we tried running up hill. It’s just makes you sluggish and exhausted. We could have hiked that mile 3 times fasted at 9000ft let alone at sea level.  The view made up for all that work. It was spectacular ! Everywhere you looked was just wow. I have no words.  Reaching to Muir pass just shy of 12000ft and seeing the shelter hut was special.  It was one thing reading about it but being there felt like part of a special club we now belong to. 

Bob wasn’t feeling any better, in fact he was getting worse. Down we went. It was hard to breathe without being stuffed up and he was blowing his nose every third step. We saw our first Pika next but it was too fast to take a photo. The climb down was as beautiful as the last two days. Lake after lake of clear water, blue as can be and mountains around it. 

The sun was beating us down and most of the day was above the tree line. Once we dropped in elevation we stopped for lunch at the first sight of trees and shade. It was next to Star Lake and ate Super Ramen. After hiking for about 8.5 intense miles Bob still feeling exhausted we decide to make camp and rest up. 

Our options are to hike out to a town and get Bob better before returning to the trail OR keep going at a slower pace hoping he can recover. It’s scary being so remote that even if we want to get off trail we still need to hike out about 2 days and it will be a moderate to difficult hike. 

Tomorrow we will hike to the ranger station and consult with them. See what they think. 

Bishop is the closest town and we could rest up there. Yifat