Day 42: Muir Pass

Man, I was feeeeeeling goooooood this morning. I got in a groove early and knocked out the 10 mile ascent to Muir Pass by 10am and what a climb it was. The climb to Muir Pass was unique compared to the others because it was long and gradual, which meant long snow fields. The last 3 miles of the approach was done almost entirely through snow fields (much different than the corn fields in Indiana). 

I’d been looking forward to this pass since atop sits Muir Shelter, a stone hut built in the 1930s in memory of John Muir and to safely house hikers during bad weather. 

It is such a cool structure and was a perfect place to dry out my sleeping bag and make coffee while I awaited the rest of the crew to arrive. 

The descent was about 3 miles of snow fields. I was thankful it was still relatively early in the day because we didn’t post hole much. I think I had a touch of altitude sickness because I lost my appetite for a bit (a first since starting this trek) and felt completely exhausted. Fortunately, I felt better as we reached lower elevation. We had our first long creek crossing and we took our shoes off to cross since it was later in the day and didn’t want to wake up with wet shoes. 

In the final 3 miles to camp, dark clouds began to roll in. The next two days are calling for rain/snow/storms so we’ll need to be alert as we hike in the higher elevation.

Miles: 30

Total Miles: 1,075