Day 65, June 21: Mile 881 to 902, Over Silver Pass

• Start: Mile 880.6

• End: Mile 901.5

• Miles: 20.9

• Ascent: 5186 | Descent: 4310

I woke up feeling slow and creaky, and took the first mile or two easy. I hiked an ascent up along Mono Creek, which was beautiful. When I got to the top of Silver Pass, Liz and Tikka were hanging out there and the others soon caught up for a breakfast break. Silver Pass marks our 7th high elevation pass in the past week (Kearsarge, Glen, Pinchot, Mather, Muir, Selden and Silver - not including Mt. Whitney and Forester Pass before that). The Sierras have not disappointed with their beauty and difficulty thus far.

At breakfast, the group agreed on the spot where lunch would be. I descended from the pass in a few small snow fields with Liz and Tikka, but fell behind after a bit. I wanted to finish my audiobook in this stretch, so I listened to it for most of the day. As I listened and hiked, I walked past more beautiful alpine lakes, more streams, more trees and vistas and meadows. All wonderful, apart from the incessant mosquitos.

I made it to the lunch spot and we all hung out, chatted and laughed while we ate. It was actually hot in the sun, a (mostly) welcome feeling after a cold week in the mountains.

After lunch, I kept hiking and listening to my audiobook. There were more great vistas with snow capped mountains, and I passed a junction that led to Duck Lake and Duck Pass, the latter of which I’ve done as a day hike out of Mammoth before. It was cool to see something familiar.

After a bit, I saw Cathole taking a break on the side of the trail. I joined him for a bit before we both hiked on. Soon after we reached the 900 mile marker, woohoo!

Shortly after I made it to camp. We had another fun family dinner, and the excitement and anticipation of town tomorrow was clearly on everyone’s minds. I also had cell service at camp so I was able to veg out a bit in my tent, watching YouTube videos before falling asleep.