Day 3 : Rosalie Lake

Tuesday July 1, 2014
16.7 Miles Today
66.7 Total Miles

Donahue Pass looks fairly flat on a map. Obviously there are little brown lines indicating mountains, but compared to the other passes it doesn't. That's somewhat ominous to me in that I found myself huffing and puffing to get to the top. I got up early this morning and beat the bugs. They were flying about but is was too cold for them to figure out how to bite. There were quite a few campers at the bridge and I past at least three additional parties as I climbed to the pass. The idea of doing a solo hike is just an idea, the reality is that I am hiking with lots of people. I just don't know all of their names. 

I know a few, like Eric, a fellow JMT hiker that started at Mt Whitney and is hiking north bound. He is going to complete the  whole trail in nine days! That is so cool, not only that but his shoes failed him and he is hiking in what appeared to me to be gardening clogs. Eric is hard-core! His website is http://www.calikota.com.

I met a whole bunch of other hikers today and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and were so much fun to talk with. I met a PCT hiker with a tie-dye headband and long red hair and beard. He was hiking with his dad. His dad had met him at Kennedy Meadows and was hiking to Touloumne meadows with him. I met his dad about a quarter mile back. "Did you picture hiking with your son would be like this," I asked him. "He's so fast!" Dad replied. 

Today it struck me that I am actually hiking the JMT. I have eleven more days of this. I know that's weird, it takes you three days to figure out what you are doing? It's hard to explain, but perhaps it was the crossing of the first pass. Until then it could simply have been I weekend trip. There is no going back now! I kind of like that part of thru-hiking, you're just passing through. So is everyone else, no one really lives here. We are all just sojourners. I suppose that you could say the same thing about life. Enjoy life with the people God brings across your path.

One thing that I have discovered on this trip so far is there is no such thing as a typical thru-hiker. Or even backpacker for that matter. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are filthy and unkept, others are clean and well groomed, well 'well' might be a stretch. They don't all look like homeless people without shopping carts. Some do, but even those, I think in some cases it is the persona they are trying to portray.

I met three lovely young ladies on the trail today. By their appearance they might have been out for a jog after work. No, they are out backpacking together and having that girl-time type fun that I see my wife and daughters having when they're out shopping. They each had fifty pound packs! I asked them if they had ever heard the term BMW? "No," they replied. I said, "Any woman that can come out here and haul around a fifty pound pack is a BMW - Burly Mountain Woman." 

I met up with my friends Felix, Kevin, and Tommy from Yosemite Valley today. We are camping in the same vincinty at the outlet of Rosalie Lake. It's pretty cool how we ended camping at the same spot. We hung out by the fire till pretty late, hiker midnight is nine pm.