Day 15

Day 15 July 17 (Alexandra) FREEZING cold last night! The temps dropped to low 30’s and my sleeping bag was struggling to keep me warm. I woke up with huge swollen ankels  A present from Mather Pass. We are now in the last section of the trail where we hit a pass everyday, each one higher and higher until we hit Mt Whitney. Today was Pinchot Pass which people promised me would be nothing like Mather. We got a late start because it was so cold outside! At the bottom of the valley we met a bunch of guys who were herding some lost donkeys (?) When crossing Kings river , a rock that I stepped on fell over and my ankle tweaked ( plus I got a shoe full of water). So it was all day in Chacos for me. We had lunch at Marjorie Lake, which I of course, stuck my feet in for the duration of lunch. Then it was up, up, up! On the way we met a young couple who were reverse hiking the JMT and had just gotten engaged on Forrester Pass. They informed us of a forest fire on the other side of Pinchot pass and that it was contained but the walking was very smoky and to be careful. Funny! Because for the past three days I have been smelling smoke and each time I mentioned it to Jasin he said I was imagining it. HA! Once at the top of Pinchot Pass we met a few hikers who were taking a breather before descending. The hike down from Pinchot was long! 6 miles down to our ideal campsite! All was not lost, as we benefited from trail magic (or someone made a mistake), Jasin found an unopened saltines package! When we finally found a campsite, we pulled out the soupy small dinner and at the whole sleeve of saltine crackers with dinner! Unfortunately these people had left un salted saltines, which is just a mean tease. We ate them all the same. Love, Almost There!

** The camera battery died! *** We started using the Iphone camera after this day.