just past the Rose Lakes junction – just pass the Piute Creek junction
10,035 – 8,050 (+ 855/ – 2,840) – 11.7 miles *Selden Pass
Free Maps Online – Day 14 – Map 10 and 9
Photos Open to the Public on Facebook
SilkE left out first in the AM and we followed after a while. The rest of the climb really began to cement the bond between us three boys. SilkE may in fact be a slow climber, but nobody can take a break or fifty like Jake and Joe and Nick! She beat us to the top of Selden and waited for about an hour! Part of our delay was the scenery! The whole trail is amazing, but hitting Marie Lake and the other lakes and tarns on the way up to the pass was breathtaking. It is hard to assign value judgements to the views, but I liked the scenery from VVR to Mt Whitney even more than from Yosemite Valley to VVR, and this was a small dose of what was in store for the rest of the trip.
SilkE left us at the top of Selden. She had a short timetable and decided to try for Mt Whitney instead of lollygagging with us and just going out Kearsarge. By this time though, Joe was with us and we were with Joe. We lost SilkE, but we were still Fox Force Five! Fox, because we had a foxy chick. Force, because we are a force to be reckoned with. And Five because there are one, two, three of us!
From Selden Pass, we could see down into the next valley and a little bit of the next ascent. The climb down was OK, but it felt rather l o n g. What we did not know was that the next climb would take us TWO DAYS. I stayed ahead of the guys most of the day and we kept tabs on one another with our now world famous “Whoop”s. I may have to find a way to get you some access to audio samples of whooping…
Near the end of my day’s tank of gas, not surprisingly – right about 6:00 PM, I waited for the guys at a bridge and the border with the John Muir Wilderness and King’s Canyon National Park. Before we left the bridge we met a hiker and discovered he was not walking the PCT or the JMT, he was walking home. He lives a few miles up the canyon from that bridge! Cool and a little random…
More mosquitoes at camp tonight, but we had a nice meal and hit the hay.
Stay Tuned: Tomorrow we meet our first large group of PCT hikers and the greatest Trail Crew Lady of All Time!
I’m all caught up. Can’t wait to see your face!