Goals for the day: Get over Selden Pass (10,898 feet) and get to Muir Trail Ranch

On paper this day didn’t look that bad. The 1,600 foot ascent to Sheldon Pass would take time, but nothing about the route looked troublesome. The 3,200 foot descent to Muir Trail Ranch (MTR) would be harder. And would be a big test of my repaired trekking pole’s strength and ability to keep me from a major injury.

In reality, it would be a long day. If not for trying to reach MTR, I could have easily planned to stop and camp anywhere before the trail to the ranch.

I got some light from the sunrise but because of the angles there wasn’t too much to get excited over.

The trail to Selden Pass wound through some very nice meadows as I climbed. Views of the surrounding mountains peaked through the trees as they thinned out as I had climbed higher and higher above the tree line (roughly 10,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains).

Marie Lakes came into view, signaling that I was getting close to the pass. A beautiful area and I took a quick break to soak in the beauty.

At first the pass looked like it was a lot higher, but as I got closer the correct pass and trail became obvious. The few switchbacks just before the pass were a non-issue and I easily made it to the top of Selden Pass!

The switchbacks going down to MTR on the other hand seemed endless. Whoever said going down was easier never hiked the JMT. 🙂

But before heading down, I enjoyed having the pass to myself. Taking my usual series of pictures and panoramas as I took an early lunch break.

I started descending and passed Heart Lake (which looked like a heart from above) in short order. Sallie Keyes Lakes were next and allowed me another brief rest.

After that were the switchbacks. They weren’t really that bad, but with 3-4 miles of them at the end of the day, they sure seemed rough.

Blayney Meadows came into view and before long I identified some of the buildings that made up the Muir Trail Ranch.

There is a cutoff trail that goes directly down to the ranch, but it bypasses almost 2 miles of the JMT. Since it was getting late in the afternoon and the ranch closes the resupply building at 5pm, I decided to take care of that in the morning. AND since I needed to hike the entire length of the JMT to honestly say I hiked the whole thing, I took care of hiking that section of the JMT that afternoon.

At the junction to the other trail going back toward MTR that I would use, I took a brief moment to realize that I had now passed the halfway point of the John Muir Trail! Actually, I had passed that point just before the cutoff trail but it didn’t really register in my mind at the time.

Just doing over a hundred miles in a single trek was a major accomplishment for me and I was still a little amazed at how well I was doing physically (besides being sore all over, legs needing a break every evening, and general tiredness at the end of each day). And except for my trekking pole, my equipment was holding up just as well and servicing me well.

The area I had pinpointed for camping was a flat area along the San Joaquin River and it came into sight as I hiked down the trail towards MTR.

Unfortunately, there were already a lot of people camping there. With COVID-19 there were limited spots where I would feel comfortable setting up my tent. I could continue down the trail to search for other sites, but my body didn’t want to carry my gear up a hill that looked bigger than it was (at least to my tired body).

Reluctantly, I setup camp at the very last spot in the area that was far enough from the other campers. It wasn’t far enough (100 feet is the rule) from the trail or the river, but then half the other campers were also too close to one or the other. Or other campers.

Regardless, I setup my tent and had my very last dinner that I had brought with me from Reds Meadow. We had a short rain shower pass over us, but it wasn’t much at all and I just had to wait it out in my tent. For the second time in a row, I had gotten my tent up shortly before the shower.

The next day, I was probably going to take a zero day to relax and recuperate. Plus resupply and soak in the hot springs.

While the last 108 miles were hard, the next 7 days on the trail would take me over not one, not two, not three, but FOUR passes that were all around 12,000 feet in height. And two of them required descents of around 4,000 feet and then re-climbs of 4,000 feet between them.

So, I’ll need a VERY well rested body and a full bear canister of food to make it over those 4 passes.

Muir Pass (11,975 feet), Mather Pass (12,100 feet), Pinchot Pass (12,050 feet), and Glen Pass (11,925 feet).

The past 12 days and 108 miles on the JMT was just a warmup…

12.5 miles hiked, 9:15 hours, 1,600 feet climbed
108 total miles hiked on the JMT
HALFWAY POINT!!

Highlights:
• Selden Pass – 10,898 feet (Pass #5 Conquered)
• Reaching Halfway Point on JMT
• Reaching Muir Trail Ranch
• Both Daily Goals Completed!