Early to rise, early to Glen Pass. We had a few lake and stream detours, but were walking strong by 9:00am; early for us. My camera went kaput and needs a charge, and my phone is nearly dead, so we have no pictures for you guys, but picture this:
To your right, mountains upon mountains; overlapping one another and drawing an orange zigzag peaked horizon. Below are enormous white and red boulders that look as if they were precariously piled by a giant child..and IN the middle of the piles are clear, shiny, turquoise puddles that look like swimming pools for Greek gods. To the left are more mountains, one puddle and a faint outline of sierra peaks to come. This is what we saw at the top of Glen Pass.
Glen Pass sucked. It was harder than Mather (we all agreed) and it combined the drawn out elements of some earlier passes, with an absurdly steep last mile up. Slippery sand, jumbly rocks, and a teeny top with little room to "wahoo!" and eat lunch. Hard. But the view, was tough to beat.
We meandered down an equally steep downhill, and yearned for the camp site we could see from so high up. Teasing and luring us, as we criss crossed toward and away from our hopeful site, the trail soon became called the "stupid JMT."
Nate was a superstar today, and Max continued to lead our pack up and down these monster wonders. We ended up at Charlotte Lake at dusk, just as my back and feet decided to give up, and we were soon cozy in tent-bed.
Tomorrow we head toward Independence. Yum. Wish us luck...