Morning came and I started the climb up to Moraine Ridge after breakfast. Still feeling down due to the decision to abort, I had a couple momentary longings to turn around and head north again, but there was definitely no way I’d have enough food to make it to Sonora Pass now.

I crested the ridge and then started the long downhill hike to Hetch Hetchy. Pleasant enough hike, but the air was pretty thick with smoke in the lower areas.

When I hit the trail to Lake Vernon, the terrain was mostly meadows with some sparse trees. I had hiked to Lake Vernon through this area (called Beehive Meadows) once before during my first attempt to reach Tilden Lake.

I saw a lot of the blue, white and spotted orange butterflies I had seen throughout the trek.

As I neared Hetch Hetchy, I had to descend a nasty series of switchbacks. At least they were nasty when I had to climb them. Going down wasn’t that bad, just was eager to get back to civilization at that point. The smoke was very think around Hetch Hetchy.

As I reached the dam and walked across it, my great trek came to an end. Sigh.

It was a disappointment to cut the trip short, but reaching Tilden Lake meant I had actually accomplished quite a hike in those 9 days.

77 miles in 9 days (8 nights) was the longest I’ve ever hiked without a resupply. In comparison, the longest stretch of the John Muir trail between resupplies was from the Muir Trail Ranch to Charlotte Lake. 71 miles in 7 nights. So there was some feeling of accomplishment with what I was able to do.

12.5 miles
9.75 hours on trail

77 miles total for entire trek (46 miles on the PCT)