Jammin' with Jameson

26 miles. Once I lost everyone, I decided to sleep in and have a me/solo day of hiking. I realized that I camped basically 3 feet from the trail at an intersection as everyone passed by as I was sleeping and commented on my huge tent. I continued the climb up Muir Pass for what I thought would be a short 5 miles. Muir Pass ended up being the most confusing, snow covered, and winding trail so far. The snow was melting right under my feet as I was walking on rocks with water flowing through them and we had to go over a snow bridge. I took a break at a beautiful lake still covered in a slow layer of ice and JD joined. We had to do tons of route finding through the rest of the snowy trail to the top as any clear path was not obvious at all. I checked out the hut built in honor to Muir and ate snacks with JD and Stealth, who had been telling me about how embarrassed she was at peeing right in front of someone earlier. We eventually found out that she was talking about me and my tent so I was able to calm her by reassuring her I didn’t notice her peeing at all. I was worried as I saw a massive wave of clouds rolling in really fast so I headed out. I estimated it was about 7 miles to the tree line as I started off walking along a beautiful flat and high elevation trail and right alongside a gorgeous lake. I was worried about all the people I saw coming up the other way as I knew it would be a long ways down to the other side of the pass and I was sure that this storm was going to turn quickly. I got to the final lake as the sky turned really grey and it started hailing on me. A ranger for Kings Canyon passed by who had hiked the PCT in 2017 and assured me that thunderstorms in the sierras looked way darker than this which j found crazy as it was already very very dark. It was hailing massive pieces of hail as I hustled the downhill and then stopped for the rest of the day once I got to the valley. I found a nice place with a view of the opening sky for lunch and enjoyed more meadows. I took the alternate meadow around Evolution Creek which is supposed to be one of the most dangerous river crossings of the PCT in a high snow year but had heard it was just waist high today. The alternate had a few deer sipping at the creek and stayed around as I passed by. I wasn’t sure if I’d have to cross it again so I wore my flip flops for another mile which was a terrible decision as they had no support and constantly slipped underneath my feet. I finally put them on and had to get moving to cover as much distance today to make getting to the VVR shuttle tomorrow possible. I passed out of Kings Canyon NP entering John Muir Wilderness and met my first night of annoying ass mosquitos. Even when I was hiking at full speed, they were constantly nipping at my legs and arms being met with my constantly spinning hiker poles. I didn’t want to stop to put on mosquito spray which was my idiocy. I ran into Swell, Rogue Wave, Melon Man, and Threads having a bonfire after they decided to stop early and try to scavenge the resupply box at Muir Trail Ranch the next day. I hung out for 30 minutes until 7 but wanted to keep going as our plan was for alchemist and Anna to meet us at VVR the next day. I made it a half mile before my stretch goal and found a really nice flat spot that forced my hand to stop at 8:40 and eat a miserable dinner surrounded by mosquitos.