Day 65: Fish Creek - Mammoth/Reds Meadow (mi 889 - 907)

It was indeed freezing in the Fish Creek drainage last night, as evidenced by the icicles on the grasses next to a gushing rivulet. 

The dawn glow on Mt. Izaak Watson as viewed from the PCT leaving Fish Creek.  

  Mt. Izaak Watson (right) and Red & White Mountain (left) from the upper reaches of the PCT leaving Fish Creek. 

Lake Virginia was smooth as glass at dawn. 

A parting shot of the southern Sierras as we descended towards Reds Meadow.

Nine hundred miles!

Almost to Mammoth!

We did it - on track for Mammoth in a few miles! 

As with most days we head into town, we had an early wakeup and departure. The hike started with a long climb out of Fish Creek, and also with us wearing every stitch of clothing we owned. We passed a flowing creeklet near the side of the trail with icicles hanging from rushes alongside, which provided confirmation that it was indeed freezing. The shin splints were still present, and made themselves known with each step. At the top of the climb, we met Lint, a dedicated thru-hiker who started this year's PCT on May 8th after completing the 800-mile Arizona Trail. We chatted with him for about 3/4 of a mile, until he decided that it was time to wake up and put it into high gear and leave us in the dust. We cruised through the large, scenic and still-as-glass Virginia Lake before starting an up-and-down section that preceded a long, torturous downhill to Reds Meadow. We passed mile 900 on the long descent  - hard to believe that we were about to pull off the ambitious high Sierra leg after 11 days and 200 miles, with daily elevation accumulations of 5-7,000 vertical feet. However, we paid a price. Smiles was pretty sure she couldn't do any more uphill and was mentally exhausted. My shin splints were relentless, despite all my attempts at fixing them, and I had to walk last 2/3 miles into Reds Meadow backwards. Dazed and confused, I had a beer in Reds Meadow when Smiles and Tortuga walked in. We were offered a ride to the ski resort from a nice family from Louisiana, who talked to us about hiking and just a little bit of politics. After various buses and the like, we retrieved our items from the post office and Motel 6, bought a lot of food at Vons, then checked into the mansion on the side of the ski hill. It had a hot tub, and I gorged on microwave pizzas. Storytime and tortuga came over later before our friends arrived for the wedding. Somehow we managed to stay up until 3 or 4 AM, despite the early rise and our weary hiker bodies.