MapSource
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Google Maps Terrain
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Up at 7:00 am
I slept in this morning! Hiking by 8:30. What a glorious, sunny day!!
It was 32 degrees for a low last night.
This was a 'many lakes' day. Starting at Emerald, I passed Ruby Lake,
Garnet Lake, Shawdow Lake, Rosalie Lake, Gladys Lake, and finally
Trinity Lakes. Garnet Lake was my favorite. The trail takes you along
the shore of Garnet for quite a ways, and it seemed that there were no
end of great spots to get amazing photos. This was one of my favorite
days on the trail. The scenery was spectacular.
Emerald Lake |
Ruby Lake |
Garnet Lake in the distance
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As
you cross the bridge at the outlet to Garnet Lake the trail has a
junction. To the left is the Altha Lake trail. Unfortunately this trail
junction is not marked. I didn't see that the JMT veered to the right
and curved around Garnet Lake and so I headed left. About .25 miles
later I realized that the trail I was on was not correct. There was no
way stock could navigate the trail I was on, and it was poorly marked.
After you have been on the JMT for a while, you get the feel for it, and this didn't feel right. I
headed back to Garnet Lake and found the JMT again. It did allow me to
capture a nice photo of Garnet Lake and the bridge, so it was not a
complete waste of time!
Garnet Lake
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Garnet Lake and bridge from the Altha Lake trail detour
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I
spent most of the day today thinking about my daughters wedding in a
few weeks. So many conflicting thoughts and feelings... Hope, fear,
loss, gain, excitement... I sat at a waterfall near the Ediza Lake
junction and wrote down what I had been thinking about all day. It
helped bring some closure for me. What a wonderful day to be reflective
and think deep thoughts
I took a short detour at the Shadow Lake junction to search for (and
find!) a geoacache that had been placed by Shadow Lake. In it were
those hand warmers in packets!! Yay! I grabbed them and will make good
use of them. I made camp on a small hill above Trinity Lakes. Nice
large site, and off the trail enough to be secluded. There were a lot
of short ascents and descents to get through all the lakes today, but
no serious climbs. I went for a swim in the lake, and it was nice to rinse off the trail dust, but Trinity is a marshy
pond sort of lake and not my favorite.
Geocache near Shadow Lake
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This is wny I switched back to boots for this trail
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Marmot near Garnet Lake
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Tomorrow I will have only 7 miles to go, and all downhill. I am really
looking forward to the shower at Reds Meadow! I expect to have most of
the day tomorrow to rest and recharge. Today was another day of not
eating much. Hopefully the cusine at Reds is tempting enough to get my
appetite going again so I can recharge. I'm starting to worry that I
will hit a physical 'wall' if I don't start consuming more calories.
Climbing above Garnet Lake
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Trinity Lake
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Day 6 campsite above Trinity Lake
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Once again, I am the only person in sight or sound. Since I knew this
trail was so popular, I didn't know if I would really get any moments
alone, especially at camp each night. In my day to day life, moments
alone are rare, and time to reflect and be still, even more rare. If I
did manage to find myself alone for several nights, I was wondering how
I would respond to the total solitude. Some folks just are not
comfortable being TOTALLY alone. I am finding it more than just
refreshing. It is almost a healing process.
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