Day 53

19.6 miles – Mather Pass

We had camped in a grove of trees just before tree line around 10,600 feet. The body doesn’t recover from exercise as much when sleeping and hiking at altitude. So we are usually always hungry or tired. Even still, Mather pass wasn’t too bad of a climb. We saw a couple of people we had ridden to the southern terminus with over a month ago and hadn’t seen since! It was neat to learn their trail names and hopefully we will see them again soon.

After summiting the pass, we began a long descent into the Palisade lakes area following the drainage of Palisade creek. This section of trail is easily in the top five most beautiful trails I have ever hiked. After some rock scrambling and avoiding the snowfields up top, we watched the creek weave through boulders and rocks until it spilled into the lakes. We then walked along the shore of multiple lakes with deep blue green clear water on one side of us and purple and yellow flowered hillsides on the other. Towering above us the whole time were jagged peaks striped with red iron, ore, and shale.

Kevin and I sat on a boulder near the water just to soak in the beauty. I have been reading a book that describes life’s existence as a search for beautiful things. Both in what we see, hear, taste, feel, and in the connections and communications we have with others. It is easy to be distracted from the beauty in the world or have traumatic experiences take away the ability to see anything but harm in the world. But when healing has taken place, beauty can be found again. I felt a connection to this idea while observing the amazing beauty around me today.

Then the trail dropped down a steep cliff and had seemingly a million switchbacks between the cascading waterfall and the canyon wall. The rushing water could be felt deep in my chest when I went to gather water. We sat with our friends on a rock overlooking the valley for a long while. This trail is one of the most popular trail and has a long waiting list for permits. Then we pushed on through the valley and up another six miles to camp. The last half mile was a steep punishing climb especially since we had thought we would camp before this climb but missed the campsite. So we pushed on to the next flat spots for camping which were right at 10,000 feet. It was chilly when we went to bed but the rushing water lulled me to sleep quickly.