It's All Happenin': Mammoth Lakes, Mile 903ish, Day 53

Made it to Mammoth Lakes!

Over the past 6 days, we've hiked over 125 Sierra miles, 7 passes, forded a few creeks, and climbed thousands of feet to finally eat a delicious 'Country Benedict' this morning. During this stretch, I've been hiking comfortable 20mi days with Stride (Georgia), the 3 Caballeros (Colorado), Ant Eater (Florida), Free Bird (Illinois), Calf (Germany), Rubylocks (New Zealand) and Gerelict (Ohio). We've continued to enjoy what the Sierras have to offer: High mountain passes (some >13,000ft), cool air, clean tasty water, gorgeous views, and good company. The mosquitoes have become a little problem, but DEET combined with a head-net helps a bunch.

In higher elevations >10,000ft, we see Marmots, Pikas, little rodents, etc. I have yet to see any bears, but apparently I missed the opportunity yesterday climbing over Silver Pass.

One particular day was when climbing over Muir Pass. After a long hike up, passing small snow fields and many false summits, we arrived to a medium sized alpine lake. The sun was out, and a light, cool breeze was constant. The lake was still half-covered with ice and while walking behind Dionysus, I see him veer off trail to the right and walk right into the lake. At first it was a crazy sight and I thought he was mental. His clothes soaked, he came out with a big smile. As the 2 other caballeros hiked through, they automatically saw what Dionysus had done, stripped down, and jumped in the lake as well. Ant Eater and I had but no choice to do the same. Diving into an ice-cold lake above 11,000ft sounds like a stupid idea, and perhaps it was, but to me it was liberating! After drying off, we finished climbing the pass, ate a little lunch on top and jumped into another lake on the way down.

Here's some links to video I've taken during this last stretch:

Lake Swim Session
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/74583578/VID_20120615_102508.3gp

Silver Pass
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/74583578/VID_20120617_105034.3gp