Day 2: Thousand Island Lake to Shadow Lake Junction

Sleep did not elude me. In fact, I woke myself up a few times snoring! Gannon and Cordlan on the other hand, had a much more eventful night. We were visited by little creatures (probably mice) all night long. They are interested in what we might have left in our packs. I removed everything and left my pockets all unzipped. They can go in all they want, have a look-see, and come on back out. I don’t think either of left their pockets unzipped, so they were constantly hitting the side of the tent where their packs were in the vestibules to make them to go away. Again, I slept right thought it. My comfort level has increased a lot out there and I would suspect that my ½ a Benadryl probably helps too!

There is a little smoke in the air this morning, but nothing that was worrisome.

Gannon and Cordlan spend most of the morning down at the lake trying to get our water filter to work. It is a slow process, but it is working. We pack up and I decide that we need to pray before we leave today. Maybe it will help us all start out on a good note?

Our next destination is Garnet Lake. I actually had no idea that it pretty much looks identical to Thousand Island Lake. We are also now on the JMT (John Muir Trail = a very busy trail) hiking south. There are many people today hiking in both directions; backpackers, day hikers, and JMT thru hikers.

I meet another Lady of the JMT (Soo excited!) and we leap frog with her most of the morning. We all have plans to get to Rosalie Lake for the night. I am also thrilled as I have finally found someone that hikes slower than me and is not 85 years old. In fact, she is younger than me!

There are soo many ascents and descents today. The one thing in hiking that is always a guarantee: if you are going down, you will always have to go back up… and if you are going up, you will always have to come back down. Depending on the day and how many miles I have hiked, I am usually not happy with one or the other.

Cordlan is hiking with us today, so we are talking with him all along the way. We are having a great day and decide that if we find a nice spot by Shadow Lake, we will stay there tonight and exit out the Shadow Lake trail and back out the River Trail tomorrow. I am always saying that you should never pass up a good water source or a campsite!

We actually find a great campsite location at the junction of Shadow Lake trail and the JMT. The river is just beautiful here and it’s an ideal place to stay the night. It is 2:30pm. We have plenty of daylight, but the thought of another big climb to Rosalie Lake is not sounding appealing at all. We choose to have a nice time, chill out, and not worry about making a certain location or mileage. We are out here to enjoy ourselves, and that is what we intend to do!

Camp is all set up and we are puttering around enjoying the rest of our day. Ash starts falling on us from the fires and it makes us sad that so much forest is being lost right now.

Cordlan and I spend a good amount of time at the river with our feet happily submerged in the freezing water. We are rinsing the dirt, sweat, and grim from our faces, taking photos of my Maszkcot, and just talking about life. These are the moments that I treasure. Material things come and go in your life, but experiences will last forever in your heart and memories.

We have our dinner; do our evening chores, and its back into the tent to watch another TV episode that I downloaded on my phone. When the show is over, we have one last bathroom break, take a look at the stars above, and then crawl into our warm sleeping bags and pray for no cramping tonight for Gannon. We fall asleep to the wonderful sound of a rushing river…….