John Muir Trail, Day Three

Despite the deer and coyotes interrupting our sleep, on Day Three we really felt our bodies had finally adjusted to the higher altitudes and the muscle aches of Day One were behind us. This was really good, as in many ways, Day Three promised to be one of the tougher days, hiking up to Donahue Pass, an elevation gain of one thousand feed, peaking at eleven thousand feet at the pass itself, before a long hike down into the Lyell Valley.

The landscape was getting increasingly rocky as we passed the tree line, but it still remained really pretty with lots of little streams and vistas of the high sierras

But no surprise, the hike up was pretty hard, the air was thinner and there was absolutely no shade. Here’s a picture of Ken taking a much needed breather!

But Donahue Pass didn’t disappoint, once we got to the top, the views of the surrounding valleys were absolutely stunning!

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But before descending the long steep hike down the valley, we stopped to enjoy a rest, take in the views, and drink from the lovely little pond, filled with hundreds of little tadpoles we found right at the top of the Donahue Pass!

For those of you wondering, despite the water being crystal clear, you still have to filter it to get rid of bacteria that can cause really bad upset stomachs. The good news is that filters now are so simple, all you have to do is fill you container, screw in a little 6 inch plastic device and turn it upside down, and gravity causes the clean water to flow out the other side. It was a good job it was so easy, as between the hiking and the altitude I was drinking about 6 liters of water a day!

The other thing we were starting to notice, is how many women hikers there were. It had been over ten years since either myself and Ken had thru-hiked, and back then it seemed like it was an overwhelmingly male activity, with the occasional very accommodating wife along for the hike! Now it felt like at least half the hikers were women; groups of friends, mother/daughters, even a lot of solo female hikers. I think Reese Witherspoon really inspired a lot of women with her 2007 “Into the Wild” movie about a young woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada, that includes the John Muir Trail as well.

We met one young woman at the top of Donahue Pass who was solo hiking the entire John Muir Trail, a three week undertaking. We’d been pretty exhausted hiking up the southern approach to the Donahue Pass, so we asked her how she felt after hiking up the far steeper northern approach to the pass. “Oh this is just a warm up, I’ll be hiking up to the 14k pass at Mount Whitney in a few days.” The fact that she said this, while also looking liked she hadn’t even broken a sweat climbing up the pass, really put us in our place!

Hiking down hill, you entered a landscape that really looked like it was out of Lord of the Rings, rocky valleys underneath towering mountains, it really felt like we’d could me on a different planet!

But just as dramatically, the landscape transformed once we caught sight of and entered the valley floor of Lyell Valley, filled with lush pastures, and the winding Lyell river.

We met one national forest ranger, who after checking we had the right permits to hike the trail, recommended we wade to the other side of the river if we wanted to “avoid the crowds” and get a good campsite. The fact that we hadn’t seen anyone else in over two hours, made it clear to me that he was not using a Chicago-definition of “crowded”! However, his camping suggestion did mean we ended up putting up our tents just on the banks of the river, enabling us to get a little fishing in at the end of the day, and Ken caught a fish big enough for dinner!

After three days of eating nothing trail bars or rehydrated food mixed with hot water, frying up a fresh river trout was a real delight, as as you can see, there was nothing left but the bones by the time we were done with it! A really satisfying end to a great day!