All good things must come to an end...and so has our stay at MTR. I cannot express how perfect this respite was for us. Once again, I forgot to take my camera to breakfast to photograph the incredible food, but the fixings were delicious yet again. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was the best french toast I have ever had--a cinnamon brioche bread of some sort, not too eggy, not too dry, with two different fruit compotes of course. The waffles, fruit, sausage, and cereal were just icing on the cake for me, to be honest. The chefs, most of whom worked at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Riley, is the food this good at school?), knocked it out of the park.
After breakfast, it was another brief run to the Japanese style bath house. Unreal. It felt even more awesome in the morning. A quick run to the clothes line and we were soon packing away furiously to check out by 10. It was at this point, I realized I was missing a liner sock. Not a big deal, but my first gear casualty of the trip. Finally, we made sandwiches with last night's leftover chicken for lunch later that day.
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| My "holy shit, is this real life?" Expression |
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| Another shot of the 2 day old horse |
We were super bummed to leave, not only because of how luxurious our stay felt, but also because this was the heaviest our packs would be for the entire trip. All that food!!! I'm ashamed to say that food alone drove my pack weight up from about 30 to 45 pounds. No more grumbling though, it just feels great to get back out here! Besides, the solution to this predicament is a joy to execute: EAT!
With heavy hearts (and packs) we made our 1.5 mile way back to the JMT, where we trudged along until we arrived at the boundary to Kings Canyon National Park. No more than 2 miles in, and we devoured our sandwhiches for some extra fuel (as if 7 pieces of French toast, two bowls of cereals, half a waffle, a sausage link, and honeydew melon weren't enough). The landscape actually looked markedly different entering Kings Canyon from the first half of our journey, with more sparsely scattered trees along the dark grey canyon walls. It was also at the boundary that the ominous clouds that earlier we had both heard about and seen in the distance started to rain on us. I would have predicted, with our new weight and Maddie's Achilles issue, that we would have hunkered down and miserably waited out the storm. Having dealt with rain and lightning earlier in our trip, however, we were ready for it. Actually, the inclement weather boosted our spirits and propelled us faster, if anything. We cruised up the canyon, alongside the San Juaquin River, with wonderful views and the exhilarating sounds of thunder and rushing rapids resounding about us.
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| Getting back on the JMT |
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| Ominous clouds have returned... |
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| I tried to get a weird angle panorama of the transition from clear to dark skies |
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| The first of three bridges today |
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| Kings Canyon is awesome! |
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| Rain |
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| Looking back down the river |
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| Is that sunshine??? |
The pace was good, and soon enough, just before our big climb for the day, the rain let up. We made our slow ascent up switchbacks made of those ridiculous steps suited for giants, and finally entered Evolution Valley, which was farther than I expected us to get today.
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| Bridge number two |
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| Our third and final bridge for the day |
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| A view of where we came from today |
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| Evolution "creek" |
Soon enough, meandering along Evolution Creek, the bugs and fatigue started to get to us, and we decided to look for a good spot to camp. Maddie found a solid spot perched above Evolution Meadow, and I set up our tent just in time for a late afternoon drizzle. We waited it out, and finally I was able to make us a boatload of ramen for dinner. I managed to eat just enough throughout the day to get the rest of my food into my bear can....but it was a tight squeeze. After dinner I cleaned up and then joined Maddie in our tent, where we reside at this very moment.
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| My view before bed |
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| Her (less awesome) view before bed |
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| The view out of her side |
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| The view out of my side of the tent |
Perhaps this reflects poorly on the level of sophistication of the conversations we engage in, but Maddie and I talked today about how much easier backpacking would be if we lived in Harry Potter's world. We could apparate to a private bathroom anytime, our tent would basically be a house (which means it would have Netflix streaming capabilities, let's be honest), and there would definitely be an enchanted object (think magic carpet) lugging our stuff around behind us. Come to think of it, we wouldn't even need to walk if we had brooms...but I think that much time spent with a broom between your legs invites a whole host of chaffing issues to the table. But where's the fun in that?! There's a constant level of discomfort we feel in this hobby with which everyone who has backpacked can sympathize. And yet the process is so overwhelmingly rewarding that the discomfort sort of just fades away. We are very excited to be over the hump and on to day 14 tomorrow! So far, we're right on schedule (Matt and John), and hopefully I'll get these posts up over Muir Pass on Tuesday. Thanks for reading!
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| Today's elevation, nothing too crazy |
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| #SelfieSunday has been temporarily coopted by #SandwichSelfie |
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