JMT 6. 8. 2019 – Bullfrog Lake Trail junction over Glen Pass to Rae Lakes – 5.2 miles

(all images are clickable for a larger version)

I slept well and long. When I woke up I heard someone whistling the German national anthem. It was a German southbound hiker from around Berlin who has seen the flag on my tent; we talked for 20 minutes until he continued to Forester Pass. I had a late breakfast and then packed up for the day.

Every day another pass – this would be the motto for a faster hiker now. There are 4 passes, each around 12.000 ft, in a sequence: Glen Pass, Pinchot Pass, Mather Pass and Muir Pass. For me this was not 4 but 6 days.

Today Glen Pass (11.900 ft) was just 2 miles and 1.400 ft away from my current tent site. But with my late start after 9:30 am I reached it only a tad after noon. I still felt the day before, and walked slow and with many breaks.

There was not much snow left, only one field directly after the pass on the north side, and some short patches here and there. Quite easy compared to Forester Pass.

In the afternoon, 3 miles after the pass I approached Rae Lakes. I decided to set up camp a bit earlier today and use the lake to wash myself and my clothes. So this was the shortest stretch of my hike.

The Garmin InReach I had found 2 days before on the north side of Forester Pass now had been recharged, so I coupled it to my smartphone app and accessed the stored messages. It seemed it had been lost just a few days before I passed by, and I selected a mail address and sent a message that I had found the InReach. It was the father of the owner who was happy to hear about. I proposed to sent it out from VVR in about a week, and got the address. It’s a bit sad that I never got a response from the owner, and e-mails sent later to the father remained unanswered.