Everything shines
I’m so close to the end. I feel... disoriented and already nostalgic and... a little sad, I guess. The last few weeks have been so beautiful and so so hard.
Ritter and Banner peaks on the way down toward Agnew Meadows. (Appreciated this day especially because I had company on trail, company that carried my pack!)
I haven’t slept much recently, kept awake by tent-threatening winds and/or freezing temps. In the latest storm I was awake for hours, knocking snow off the tent and brushing spindrift off my sleeping bag where it blew in through the tent doors.
Topping out on Muir Pass around 9 am in blowing hail
It’s been so cold in the mornings and evenings that I’ve been hiking in every stitch of clothing I’m carrying. Down jacket, wool mittens, the works.
Climbing Mather Pass on a crystal clear morning after a snowstorm
In the low moments, trudging through the last miles of the day, dusk rapidly encroaching, feet aching, I’ve been reminding myself that it will all be over soon. And now I’m realizing that it will all be over soon.
Evening descent from Pinchot Pass
I’m trying to make the memories sticky, stack them up for the inevitable tough transition and other hard life things ahead.
Sunrise near Evolution Valley
Climbing Selden Pass, I stopped a half mile before the top, sitting on a perfectly placed granite boulder, watching the play of early evening light on the mountains all around. It was so quiet in that moment, I could hear fish rise in the lake beside me and the swish of wings as a Clark’s nutcracker landed in a tree nearby.
Marie Lake, just north of Selden Pass
In the beginning, I remember looking out over the desert early in the morning and thinking, “there is no place I’d rather be.” I’ve been waiting for that feeling to return and, here, in one of the most spectacular places on earth, it has.
Sparkling, magical Rae Lakes
I have just a few more nights left on trail and then it will be the end. I don’t know what to expect exactly as I go back to an urban and work-focused life. Before I left, a friend said to me, “this will change you.” Is it true? Am I different? I’m not sure. I guess we’ll see.
Photo credit: George of George & Dana, the dynamic duo that’s kept me going these last hundreds of miles.
*The title of this note, John Muir: “… the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit…”