Day 62. Devils Postpile

21 miles
901 to 922
6/10/14

Arizona and I got up early to make it to Reds Meadows for breakfast. We were happy to find Tortuga and Glimmer already there, and Bambam arrived shortly after. As we were leaving, we saw Princess and Mr. Sandels too-- so nice seeing everyone.

At the store at Reds Meadows, I picked up some sports tape which I used to wrap my foot, which still has been hurting. Wrapping the foot really helped tremendously. Rest would probably be even better, but for now, I'm hoping this will continue to allow me to hike.

We took a short alternate route off the PCT so we could visit Devils Postpile National Monument. The postpiles are actually huge columns of basalt that cooled and cracked, and then got exposed by glaciers. They were really neat and totally worth the detour. It was fun strolling around all the tourists. We greeted everyone as we always do on the PCT- with a friendly hello and how are you doing. Most people gave us strange looks and steered clear of us. We sure were dressed different than the tourists and we were the only ones with full packs. Or maybe it was the smell, though I don't think we even smelled all that bad, having taken showers just a few days ago. But a few people did talk to us and that was fun.

This evening we climbed up out of a valley to set up for another pass tomorrow.  The scenery here is stunning and quite different.  We had incredible views of an alpine lake with a waterfall cascading down from it across the valley.

As we gained elevation, the sky darkened and clouds were thick. Thunder sounded in the distance. We got a few minutes of hail before it turned to rain.

This is only the fourth time I've had to set up my tarp on the PCT. There wasn't too much rain, but it made for a spectacular sunset.