Sept 29: Glen Pass

We are camped up high tonight, tucked away early in our bags, preparing for a good night of sleep before a long day tomorrow. Center Peak is reflecting the last orange rays of the sunken sun, its crown looming above the lodgepole and foxtail pines surrounding our secluded, cold campsite. We are above 10,000 ft and thus, have no campfire this evening. We've been getting used to having them as a matter of course out here -- a whole new backpacking style for us -- but at this altitude in Kings Canyon they are prohibited due to the fact that fires use up the wood at a much higher rate than it can be regenerated. We cooked early and did all our camp chores in daylight, so that now we could be cozy inside the tent as the sun disappeared.

The hiking was great today -- exhausting yet envigorating all at once. We broke camp leisurely at Woods Creek, taking time to boil up some hot apple cider and coffee and warm ourselves over the rekindled flames of the fire we had had last night. Our main goal for the day was to get over Glen Pass and push on to get into good position for tackling Forester early tomorrow. Forester is the highest point on the entire PCT at 13,180 and we'd like to break the climb up as well as we can between two days.

Glen Pass was a hard, but beautiful climb. After crossing the isthmus between the Rae Lakes we started climbng in earnest, soon following a nice set of big-booted footsteps through the well packed, melting snow. Looking up from the glaciated bowl at the foot of the final ascent the pass looked utterly inconquerable. There was no way we were climbing up that sheer, snowy face. One foot in front of the other, though, and soon we were topping out at the craggy pass, just behind our friendly big-booted footprint maker. We sat, the three of us under the sunny, clear sky admiring silently the vast open views on either side. To the south, the mountains were snow covered up high, but immediately before us the trail was much smoother than the stretch we had just ascended and completely dried of ice and snow. Soon enough we were bouncing down the trail, happy to have one more pass behind us, breathing easy in the fast thickening air.