John Muir Trail Journal Day6

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

 

Day6 Cascade Creek Junction-Silver Pass-Bear Creek Junction

Today's highlight was Silver Pass. 

Usually there is not much vegetation in the mountains at alutitudes above 10,000 feet. The scenery is mostly rocks and lakes. 

It was pretty impressive. Silver Pass Lake was so beautiful. 

I was surprised that the horses could climb up to the lake. It was 10,530 feet.

Sometimes the horses carry food for humans and sometimes they carry humans. 

It is expensive to travel with the groups that have horse and pack animals. It can cost as much as $2000 per day to go deep into the wilderness and camp at a log house with all of the food and camping gear carried by horses. 

My entire 2-week JMT trip costs $5 for a permit. In my opinion, trabeling in the outdoors should be inexpensive.

After I descended from Silver Pass, which was 10,895 feet high, to 7,870 feet, I had to climb up to 10,000 feet again. 

Achieving a 2,000 foot elevation gain in 1.5 miles was hard. The scenery was the same for the whole uphill area. I started ascending around 3 p.m. and finished around 6 p.m. It was very hard both physically and psychologically. It was my first time thinking why I was doing this. The hill was too steep and I got mad at John Muir, although JMT was not made by him.
Also I got multiple blisters for the first time during backpacking, so it made me feel tired. Finally I got to Bear Creek and set up a camp.

Silver Pass