John Muir Trail Day 27: The Frigid Beauty of Cathedral Lakes and Wild Country of Lil Yosemite Valley
There is no way I am getting out. I was wearing every single piece of clothing I had brought with me for over 230 miles, some of which I had not worn until the night before when I was desperate for warmth. Welcome to Fall, I thought from the warm cocoon of my sleeping quilt on the morning of Day 27 on the John Muir Trail.
We had arrived the evening before to Lower Cathedral Lake, knowing we were in for a cool night. We rushed to set up camp in the soft dirt of a dry pond bed nestled among thick stands of pine trees. We dug out our jackets and hustled to the shoreline of the gorgeous alpine lake to watch the spectacular show of the sun putting itself to bed behind the jagged peaks of the nearby mountains.
Once the sun set, the temperature plummeted in a way that was alarming. Up until this night, our entire thru-hike consisted of perfect weather. But at an elevation of 9,200’ combined with it now being Fall in Yosemite, we had no clue just how cold it could get until temperatures went from chilly to dangerously frigid.
We ran back to our campsite, attempting to generate body heat until we could dig out more layers of clothing, sitting unused at the bottom of our pack until this moment. By the time I had wrestled on every last clothing layer I had in my possession, my teeth were chattering. We rushed through the process of cooking a hot dinner and ate it from the warmth of our sleeping quilts inside the tent.
By the time we went to sleep, the night became painfully cold and I was eternally thankful for the effective insulation ratings of our sleeping quilts and pads as we snuggled down with our water filter to keep it from being damaged by the cold.
When morning arrived, the temperature was well below freezing and it took all the mental toughness I possessed to pry myself from the perfectly warm cocoon of my sleeping quilt, out of the tent and into the frigid morning. I peeled off most of my warm layers, shoving them into my backpack and quickly broke down camp. We made hot coffee, ate frozen breakfast bars, shoved our water bottles of solid ice into our pack pockets and hit the trail and a near run.
Our hiking pace was purposely fast to generate heat and within minutes we were sweating under the layers we still wore. We made a quick stop to shed more clothing before the trail took us past Upper Cathedral Lake and up and over the last pass on the JMT. We celebrated at the top of Cathedral Pass, feeling stunned that we had completed the 13 named summits and passes (and many more that weren’t named) on this legendary trail.
The trail led us through beautiful sections of Yosemite wilderness and we enjoyed getting to see sections of the national park backcountry, accessible only for those persistent enough to seek it out.
Along the way, we passed the Sunrise Campground which had since been taken over by the High Sierra Camp concept. We stopped there in search of water and found the spigot to be locked down by the management when they were preparing to close the camp for the season. They graciously unlocked it so we could refill all our bottles and we left the campgrounds thankful but also wondering again how public lands had fallen into private hands.
Hiking on, the JMT dropped us into a forest where we stopped to watch a deer with her twin fawns grazing in the dappled sunshine. The trail led on as we moved out of the shelter of the trees and into a massive wildfire burn scar. We saw hopeful evidence of the landscape bouncing back from the ecological trauma and stopped for water among wildflowers taking advantage of the full sun. As we walked past Cloud’s Rest and the turn towards Half Dome, we regretted not being able to add a side trip to visit both, but feeling like the JMT adventure was enough…for now.
When we arrived at Little Yosemite Valley that evening, we had a decision to make. We’d already hiked 13.7 miles that day and only had five more miles to go before completing the full JMT. Five miles until we were done.
I knew we could knock out those last few miles that same evening but…why rush it? We weren’t in a hurry and didn’t need to end our adventure that night. The sun was setting as we mulled over the decision and we realized we would miss the last epically scenic miles because we would be hiking in the dark. That meant we wouldn’t be able to see Half Dome or the astoundingly beautiful waterfalls along the way. We smiled at the thought of getting to experience the last of these miles at first light tomorrow morning and decided to sleep one more night in the dirt.
We ambled into the Little Yosemite Valley Campgrounds finding it surprisingly full of humans but equally abundant in tent sites. We grew picky as we tried to locate a campsite away from the masses but resigned ourselves to the simple fact that our backcountry days were over.
We made dinner and watched the endless human interactions happening all around us like a reality TV show. The human chaos threatened our thru-hiker high and I wondered out loud if we should have just hiked on. I looked up sadly at the moon, catching a dark form swooping above our heads. As I continued to watch, a bat streaked by in the dusky late evening…and then another. Soon, the area was filled with the dance of bats hunting for bugs throughout the campgrounds. The sight made us happy and I settled back into my hiker haze, thankful that our adventure wasn’t over yet.
Once night blanketed the campgrounds and we could no longer entertain ourselves with bat acrobatics, we climbed into our tent for one last night of sleep. At some point, I drifted off to sleep only to come fully awake and alert to the violent sound of…my god, is that a bear tearing into a nearby metal locker? Holy shit.
Stats for the Hiker Nerds (Like You and I)
Day 27- September 12, 2024
Lower Cathedral Lake to Little Yosemite Valley
Mountain Pass/Summit: Cathedral Pass (Elevation 9,703’)
Elevation Gain:1,078’
Elevation Loss: 4,119’
Mileage: 13.7 miles
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