Day 9: The Golden Staircase

August 30th 2017

Wednesday

Le Conte Canyon to Upper Palisades Lake

No Pass, the GOLDEN, Grand Staircase 🙂

Mileage: 11.5

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
― John Muir

Today’s “Lisa Head” Radio brings us Dave Matthews Band, from days of riding to swim meets in a van full of teenagers to Austin, Baton Rouge, Dallas, and all over the giant state of Texas. The one CD all the boys and girls could agree on.

Wet morning as it had been raining all night. The camp site has been infiltrated by the same mama deer numerous times. She’s a baller and doesn’t give two flips about us smelly humans but just struts around with her orange tracker collar on.

The trail brings me lots of pines this AM, Jeffery Pines I believe and lots of green in the canyon, accented by dark rain clouds. Smelled like Christmas, and made me smile even though I was getting rained. Met some nice old British men who laughed that they left the UK to escape all the rain, and here they are right back in the thick of it, They were in good spirits though and said they come over to the US every year to hike someplace beautiful.

The rain stopped just as I started to climb out of the valley onto the Staircase. Why is it called the Golden Staircase? First of all, it’s a steep series of switchbacks that will take you up, up and UP in a very short distance. A last minute engineering feat added to the trail to make the Mt. Whitney end game that much closer.

Some call it Mother Nature’s StairMaster. Second, if you catch it toward the golden hour before sunset, the light reflects off cascading Palisade Creek giving it a golden glow. I dig it. And I dig the burn in my legs climbing up. I feel stronger and enjoy the challenges the trail gives me daily. Its the best feeling.

Starting to appreciate my snickers bar, something I initially laughed at myself about since I couldn’t believe I packed so many. They are going like hot cakes. Enjoyed one at the top of the stairs to reset the leg burn. Talked to a nice family from Alaska for a bit. Kept an eye out for BlueJay who was creeping up behind me and peed off a ledge with no shame.

Not too be too crude, but I find at altitude and with all the attempts at staying hydrated, I pee everyyywwwhhheeerrreee. And when I got to go, I got to go. FAST. Must be nice to be a gent on this level. Just on a side note. 🙂 I’m a peeing machine.

At the top of the Stairs the trail opened up to Upper Palisades Lakes. Absolutely gorgeous. Mather Pass creeping up in the distance, alpine blue lake hues, and some great waterfalls. Not many camping spots to go around so people were getting crafty with there tent set-ups. Decided to push on past the “crowd” a bit farther up the trail and found a secluded campsite all to myself. Nestled in rocks, overlooking the waterfalls and creeks emptying into Palisades Lake, and with a great view of Mather Pass.

I felt a little strange camping solo for awhile in the beginning, but I found I really enjoyed the solitude on the flip side. Solitude led to shameless selfies on the mountain when I was intrigued by my crunchy blonde dreads too. Sorry I’m not sorry.

Walked back towards the populace, grabbed water, and looked around before I settled in for the evening. Didn’t see BlueJay but realized that I’d received messages from her on my lovingly named, Jean Claude Van Garmin GPS (Thanks again Mom). She had set up camp down the way somewhere and since she hadn’t seen me on the trail for awhile, she wanted to check in. Made my heart smile. I was still concerned about her too and her bronchitis, probably PNA. Good to hear she was okay, stubborn as ever, and happily camping down the way.

Went to bed super early… camper’s midnight is at 19:59PM tonight. Only a tiny bit creeped out that I was in the middle of nowhere by myself. So I figured that was a win.

Sweet Dreams, L