Day 6: One Shall Pass (mile 43/211)

I’m not enjoying trail food, just stoically forcing myself to eat the heaviest things first. I get up and out and start the climb up Donohue Pass. The opening-credits scenery is incredible – alpine orchids and glacial pools and jumbly Toblerone peaks. I don’t typically adore uphills, but this one is a joy. Every step the highest I have ever been on foot. I meet another Aussie and we spot each other over river crossings and the first bit of thin trail that has a waterfall running perpendicular across it and over the cliff edge.

Up through dry horse poop and the unending dust. A flying-saucer cloud dissolves to a zeppelin then a turd. I chat to an enthusiastic Canadian with a physics PhD. She says I’ll make it – I have “good legs”.

I ascend. The top of the pass is a pool and boulders and overseeing peaks. I zombie-trudge down into the next valley, a big Sierra sunset splashing as I pitch up next to two American dudes. KitKats for dinner again. This is not a foodie blog, okay.

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Aug 27th : Jane Boxall

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Day 6: One Shall Pass (mile 43/211)

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