This photograph is a stitched 360º panoramic (notice the same mountain in the background on the far left and right sides), please click the picture to view larger.
Editor's Note: The following is pulled from the journal that I kept while hiking the John Muir Trail this past month. I'll post each entry, each day, for the next few weeks. If you are just tuning in, you can go to the first day of the journal here.
July 27th, a Tuesday, our 9th day on trail. Short day from Purple Lake to Silver Pass Lake, roughly 10 miles. Still got me all sorts of tired, still took till 5 pm, though we did have a late start, almost 2 hours later than normal, or more. Most everyone we camped with last night is past us today; we sit on the edge of about 7 miles of downhill to Edison Lake. We will try to bust that out tomorrow, before 9 am perhaps, to catch the ferry to Vermillion Resort, where thru-hikers get a free beer!
New pain in right foot got bad out of nowhere today, about 3 miles in. Wasn't really feeling it till I stopped for a sec to talk to a northbound PCT hiker, then it got worse and worse. Was swollen when I took off boots to soak feet in Fish Creek. Had a long soak, some leg stretches with Bri, then another soak, and some Vitamin I, and it felt fine for the next 5 miles, which I took very slowly, both because I was tired, and because it was a big climb up to Silver Pass (10895 ft), even hiked through our first snow and ice. Soaking the foot again as I write in the lake, which isn't too cold, in fact I could stand a dip, if the air itself wasn't so cold and windy.
Scenery today incredible, from the woods to above treeline; shot a lot of panos. Switched to JPEG for most of the day, will save some space for later. Hate doing that, but I guess we did it for years with lesser cameras, and there's still some good photographs from back then.
PS- Took a dip anyway. Shortest one yet. C-O-L-D.
-llg