This morning was another cold one. I was camped at 10,000ft-ish and I'm convinced its impossible to have a warm morning at that elevation. I got a relatively early start (for me) because I wanted to do a 20 up and over Forester Pass which is the highest point on the whole PCT and is also suppose to be one of the most difficult. The morning went slowly and I only made it 8 miles before I stopped for an early lunch. Once I began the 5 mile climb up Forester Pass the trees thinned out and there was a 360 view of the entire mountain range including Mt. Whitney! Most years hikers have trouble determining where the trail goes from this point because there is usually snow covering all signs of the trail. This year, however, we experienced NO snow on Forester Pass. NO SNOW! My feet touched no amount of snow on the pass nor did they even get wet at all. It was a rather easy and extremely pleasant climb up.
One mile from the top of the pass there was a beautiful lake that I sat by and ate a snack at to give me a little push up the last and most steep part of the climb. From this point looking up at the pass it looked to be just a giant rock wall that went straight up. I had no idea how I was ever going to get to the top, although it proved to appear more intimidating than it actually was.
Once I got to the top I saw Monkey sitting in a pile of rocks surrounded by patches of purple wildflowers. We sat there and smelled the wildflowers for at least an hour while we looked off into the distant mountains from 13,700 ft high. I made sure to take many pictures because I knew it would be one of the more spectacular views of the trail but it wasn't until I was in my tent that night that I realized that they were all in black and white. I must have accidentaly switched the mode over and because of the sun glare I couldn't tell at the time. I was pretty bummed out.
The decent down Forester was perhaps even more beautiful than standing at the top. There was a series of lakes on the way down that the sun glistened in just perfectly. The bottoms of these lakes (which you could see as clearly as possible) were all just rock scrambles. The one lake was a perfect cerulean blue color. I called this lake the "lake of the mountains Gods" because it truly looked too amazing to be real. I didn't even want to touch the water of this lake because I felt in doing so it would contaminate it's beauty. It took my breath away. I would post the picture of this lake but I don't feel my black and white shots would do it justice.
The camp spot for tonight was in a mosquito infested "bear home" looking pine forest. you know those movies where you see grizzly bears attacking people? Imagine the scenery that always seems to be the same in these movies... green pine forests in a valley surrounded by giant snow capped mountains. There is a giant river flowing through the valley with rocks scattered through it to create tiny waterfalls. The fish are swimming and being swept down the stream as they jump out of the water in play ....and in steps the grizzly. Except there was no grizzly in my picture tonight. The pure look of my surroundings made me feel like at any moment I was going to turn the corner and see a giant brown bear on the edge of the river fishing for dinner.
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