The View from Glen Pass at nearly 12,000 feet

Thursday, 25 June, 2015. Rae Lakes, Summiting Glen Pass, Junction Meadow, 10,800 to 11,978 elevation, and back down to 8,400 feet. 8.6 miles. 

We rose late again on Day 3. I woke with a dull headache, which I initially chalked up to sleeping poorly with a badly-stuffed pillow (Zpacks Cuben Fiber stuffsack filled with clothing). Breakfast was the chicken jook that was Danny’s idea  — even reconstituted it was fantastic: chickeny and gingery and topped with bits of sweet-salty pork fluff.

The trail up to Glen Pass would take us around 1,900 feet in elevation gain to a summit of 11,978 all in the space of 2.8 miles. We left Rae Lakes around 9:15am, intending to take it relatively easy, with lots of breaks.

We would play leapfrog with some groups – one, a larger family of about 6 or 7, had 3 young boys (high school?) who always charged ahead on the trail, always passing us if we were in the lead.

The trail up to Glen

We were well above the tree line at this point, and the trail was all granite and rocky.

Can you see the hikers?

There was thankfully, very little snow left, and we did not have to worry about making our way across a snow field. If you squint, or look at the larger photo, you’ll see a couple of people making their way up to the Pass.

Glen Pass Summit

The summit was a bit anticlimactic, to tell you the truth. There appeared to be a ton of people there, including the family with whom we had played leap-frog, and other assorted JMT’ers, PCT’ers and regular Rae Lakes Loopers. We took our lunch break at this point, though it was not quite noon.

Contrary to what you might expect, cell signal is not to be found here.

My headache had been fine as I was climbing. I tried to make sure to keep drinking water, since dehydration might be another culprit. In addition to the Chicken Jook in the morning I ate a good portion of a Bear Valley Coconut Almond Mealpack Pemmican Bar. It was not that tasty to me, I had to eat it gradually, in small bites, over the course of the morning while getting ready. It seems I need to continue to experiment with food for the trail. For lunch I nibbled on an Epic Bar (yes! meaty and delicious!) and some Triscuit-like crackers.

The descent didn’t go so well for me, initially. Now I believe that the headache was likely a bit of altitude sickness, and/ or a combination of the other discomforts I mentioned – bad pillow, dehydration. Whatever the case, it didn’t make for a pleasant descent, especially since Danny (who loves downhills,) was off like a shot, and was soon far ahead of me and Jared. Perhaps my body, having been on alert and adrenalin-pumped for the constant ascent, was also done with its initial focus. The initial switchbacks were fairly steep and I had a little difficulty with how high up we were. I have the kind of fear of heights where I’m fine atop a relatively spacious area like Glen Pass peering over the edge but I am afraid of steep, narrow ledges. I slipped on the loose, gravelly scree number of times and even fell once.

Wildflowers at Junction Meadow

Although the total mileage for the day was only about 8.7 downhill miles, I recall that it was still somewhat difficult, because of the switchbacks and steps. Towards the end of the day, my knees started to ache. I was definitely ready to be done as the afternoon waned.

Our last night’s camp

Danny had gone ahead of us and initially picked a campsite that was closer to East Creek, but Jared persuaded us to look further west for a site that was past a drift fence. It turned out to be a good choice. We were the only ones in the vicinity, close to a rushing, roaring creek, and at a spacious site that featured lots of boulders, stones, and an existing fire pit. Though we could not find the bear box that was purportedly near this site, we didn’t really need it since we had our Bear canisters. There was a little more time this evening for washing up and “laundry,” and we actually built a fire for the first time in order to ward away the mosquitoes. Once again, we could see them, but they did not turn out to be too bad. Dinner that night was a delicious Thai Curry Chicken and Rice dish, recipe courtesy of Thrueat.com.

Rae Lakes Loop Posts

• Day Zero
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Four
• Flickr Album