Thousand Island Lake – Devil’s Postpile
I love my ZPack Duplex to bits. However, single-walled tents are a condensation nightmare. You can set the alarm at 05.30 all you want (and you will be rewarded with a stunning sunrise), but drying out all that gear takes forever.
Sunrise at Thousand Island Lake. A thru-hiker’s dream in the making.
Leaving great camps is always bittersweet, but we were in high spirits as we marched along in the cold morning air. The sun crept upward as we passed Ruby lake, Emerald lake and Garnet lake.
A heavy climb took us up over a ridge where we munched lunch and discovered our obsession with cookies n’ cream pop tarts. Descending towards Shadow lake, we smelled a distant wildfire, and the air got hazy with smoke at the bottom of the basin.
Where do you normally have lunch?
By this time, we had already gained and lost hundreds of altitude meters. On the switchbacks leading up to Rosalie lake, Gladys lake and Trinity lakes, we fantasised about daypacks. Those sexy little 30L things, with room for a water bottle and a sweater. Heaven! And we are so gonna start The Association for Hikers Against Uphill Walking. The hot afternoon sun scorched the back of my legs, and I ferociously applied 50SPF sun screen stick, which ended up attracting every dirt particle within a three-foot radius. Black dirt and white sunscreen on a red background? Rawr.
Rosalie Lake
Adding to the glory was the constant altitude-induced exhaustion. You can forget making big miles during the first days. However, the highlight of the day was meeting Kate from San Francisco. An unlikely midwife (“I’m not so big on kids, but I am an adrenaline junkie!”), she settled down for camp with us in the forest.
I was still convinced a bear would come crashing into camp and demand us facing down 300kgs of beast with banging cooking pots and shouting “Bloody opportunist!”. Kate swore to protect me (while I swore we still smelled like our lasagne dinner) – and I gazed out at the pitch black woods praying for a mammal-free night.
Shout out to Kate for giving me my trail name. The white sun screen stick marks on my legs reminded her of the white markers on the Appalachian Trail. Thus, on my second day on the JMT, I was awarded my trail name to carry forever: White Blaze.
