Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about my attempt, with brother-in-law Glenn Petersen, to hike 75 miles on California’s John Muir Trail from the Duck Pass Trailhead just south of Mammoth Lakes to the Happy Isles Trailhead at Yosemite National Park. For the most part, the JMT replicates the Pacific Crest Trail in this section, our six-day plan taking us from the eastern flank of the High Sierra to the west.
DONOHUE PASS, Calif. — Thirty-three miles down. Forty-two miles to go. As day four of six broke for the Oregon Boys — Sunday, July 26 — we plunged forward into the darkness, headlamps on.
Initially, we didn’t get far. Within two minutes of our departure, the trail dissolved into nothingness
“It must cross this creek,” I said to Glenn above the rush of the water.
He checked his online app and agreed. It was a dicey crossing, especially in the dark, the kind where a slip might not only get you wet but hurt. My heart jolted when Glenn, following behind me, got the tip of a trekking pole stuck between rocks. But he didn’t panic, backed off his pole pressure in the same way a fly fisher does when a fly is snagged, and freed the tip.
Onward.
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