John Muir Trail Day 5: Those Hiking Highs Giving Way to the Lowest Lows

After experiencing the epic high of climbing Mount Whitney the day before, the last thing I expected was to wake up on Day Five of the John Muir Trail feeling horribly low. Low energy, low mood and my muscles felt like they had packed up to take their own vacation elsewhere far, far away.

(Want to see the people, places and all-around mayhem mentioned in this post? Here’s the Instagram Reel I might regret posting…)

Dealing With the Lows as a Thru-Hiker

I recognized this feeling from a shakedown hike on the Pacific Crest Trail the month before: the dreaded combination of multiple nights of bad sleep, not enough calories and fatigued muscles. Cue the downward spiral of comparing feeling like a Mount Whitney superstar to this morning when I engaged in a full on brawl with gravity just to climb out of our damn tent. I straightened from a crouch and caught myself as I staggered. Ugh.

At least this will be an easy day of lesser elevation gains from our camp at Crabtree Meadows, over Big Horn Plateau with a final destination of (or as close as we could get) to the foot of Forrester Pass. 

The thought of summiting Forrester Pass made me queasy with nerves and I had to mentally step in to shut down that line of thought immediately. I’ll worry about that when I get there.

I reached back into the tent for my little Nalgene of coffee my hiking partner/husband, Cliff, had made for me and set about trying to consume as many calories as I could before we slung on our packs and started hiking for the day.

My breakfast consisted of muesli with crushed dehydrated strawberries and, unfortunately, green vitamin powder. I peered into the bag of green sludgy gruel and inwardly groaned at the bad decision I made a month ago, from the comfort of my kitchen, to try to get my vitamins and minerals in by way of the now inedible breakfast. My stomach had turned into a picky five year old and once the nausea kicked in, my appetite exited the premises in a see-you-never kind of way.

I have to eat this. There is no choice, I thought, and got to work on choking down the green, chunky sludge.  By the last bite, I turned to my husband and said, “I cannot eat this breakfast anymore.” I meant, initially, the breakfast baggie of toxic waste dump in my hand, but also, the other twenty Oscar the Grouch used WAG bag breakfasts waiting for me in ALL of our resupply buckets.

Struggling to Do Even the Basic Things

We packed up camp, with me lagging behind as I tried to string together fractured thoughts that made up the usually orderly process of breaking down our camp. With every mental fumble, I grew more and more frustrated at myself. 

After feeling so capable and successful the day before, I found myself now a remedial backpacker who kept forgetting to buckle a strap here or left behind a piece of gear there. By the time we left camp to head out, I was fuming at myself as I moved into full bully mode while extending zero grace towards a body and brain that just needed a damn minute. 

Being In Denial that Everyday Won’t Be Perfect

I stomped up the trail thinking, I don’t want to have a body and brain that needs a minute. I want to feel that spectacular Mount Whitney high every damn day. I stopped us at a whopping 0.01 miles into our hike, barking out to Cliff that I needed a second. 

I rooted around in my external pack pockets and pulled out caffeinated energy gel and took an extra large shot. Next up, electrolytes for my water and a salt tab that I chewed on the spot. I yanked my pack back on and grouched out that I was ready to go, leaving my trekking poles still leaning against the trail sign. Cliff patiently waited, saying nothing as I marched back and snatched them up. I huffed out an angry breath, no words adequate enough to express my dumpster fire of a mood at my own self, making it all worse in the process. 

I trudged along for a while in silence, until movement, multiple energy products and calories kicked in and sweet perspective was finally found. I looked around me. We are actually on the John Muir Trail, holy hell. So, of course the next constructive thing to do was to start shaming myself about the wasted time I had lost, the scenery I would probably never see again, actually never saw in the first place. I was too busy feeling awful and beating myself up.

This Is All a Part of the Thru-Hike Experience

ENOUGH, I told myself. I suddenly realized that this was all part of a thru hike – the lack of sleep, wonky appetite, half-assed recovery (at best) and, above all, the ceaseless requirement to keep moving if I wanted to finish the JMT. It was all part of this specific experience that never, not once, promised that we would get to do so at our absolute best. No, it was my fault in not realizing that the adventure was completing the thru hike in spite of all the suffering and the real achievement? Finding gratitude in the face of it all.

We followed the trail all the way up to Bighorn Plateau where it leveled off and we marveled at the rare moment of flat hiking and the breathtaking panorama of mountains around us. Wildfire smoke crept across the western horizon as the path started its long descent towards our campsite for the evening.

Finding a Beautiful Camp for the Night

Our goal was to camp as close to the foot of Forrester Pass as we could to minimize the mileage we would need to hike before hitting the official start of the climb to the summit. By late afternoon our energy was flagging and the campsites located next to the lovely Tyndall Creek were way too enticing to pass up.

We grabbed a campsite at the mostly empty campgrounds and set up camp in record time with only one goal in mind: soak in the slickrock, low-profile waterfall nearby. 

Much later, we reluctantly climbed out of the water and made our way back to our campsite. With single minded determination, we set about eating an obscene amount of food to prepare for the 13,160-foot mountain waiting nearby.

Tomorrow, we would be climbing the highest mountain pass on the John Muir Trail. Forrester Pass, I thought as I looked northward, I’ll be ready for you…

Stats for us hiker nerds

Day 5- August 21, 2024

Crabtree Meadows through Bighorn Plateau to Tindall Creek

Mileage: 8.9

Want to see all the people, places and all-around mayhem mentioned in this post?  Head on over to my TikTok and Instagram accounts! 

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