June 8: The Sound of Water

Today was the first time we really began to see day hikers. This was probably related to crossing into our first national park, Sequoia National Park. We continued to be surprised how little snow there seemed to be, but again this was all in perspective of our 2005 hike in this area. Having good trail allowed us to keep a pretty normal pace even though we were gaining and loosing elevation. We expected our mileage to drop a bit more than it has.

It has been really great to have so much water around us. I never have to carry more than 1 liter, with a little planning. The sound of running water is so exhilerating to have in the mountains. In the desert we had forgotten just how sweet it is. We have also begun crossing creeks quite a bit today. So far we have not had to get our feet wet; there have been rocks and logs that you can acrobatically use to get across. We know our feet won't stay dry forever as their will be much bigger and raging waters ahead. All the melting snow has to go somewhere.

We have beem debating wether to do the side hike up Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. We climbed this in 2005, finishing the John Muir Trail. It seemed other hikers who had done it in the past were not doing it again. It takes a full day to do the side trip and bonus 4,000 ft elevation. We had the time and the food, so in the end we decided we would do it again. We ended up camping at a trail junction near Crabtree Meadows.

Total Miles: 767.1
Today's milage: 23.1
Camp 42: JMT reconnect

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