PCT SECTION HIKE | DAY 17 Marie Lakes to Piute Creek Bridge via MTR
Miles Hiked: 10.5 miles
Elevation: 1160 ft ascent | 3644 ft descent
Seldon Pass—the easiest pass on the trail. It takes you from Marie Lakes to Sallie Keys, and then down down down to Muir Trail Ranch (MTR). Yet again, I'm glad I'm not northbound with a full resupply climbing up that. I picked up my resupply—six days of food to get me to Onion Valley. Unfortunately, my resupply was one of the ones that had been “baptized” and gotten water inside. Fortunately, all my dinners were intact and I only lost a few items (snack bags for passes). MTR replaced them with a bag of Jolly Ranchers/Snickers/Reese’s/etc.
It started sprinkling soon after leaving MTR and was raining fairly heavily by the time I got to camp, with the occasional lightning and thunder. The rest of the group showed up about 30-45 minutes later, just as the rain was ending.
About 20 minutes later, there was a big boom (apparently I have selective hearing because I completely missed it); a huge tree fell across the trail about a quarter-mile back—the same trail we had just crossed. Devin and Karl (an older gentleman that reminds me of my own father, Karl) went to explore the boom and found d the tree, over 5.5 feet in diameter! It started raining again around 1930, very windy.
Early night tonight.