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Water, Mosquitoes & Fire (D-47 924.5 - 948.3 & D-48 948.3 - 972.9)

Getting up and over Donahue Pass was relatively painless except for a few times I lost the trail among the intermittent snow fields on the way up and had to take help of the FarOut app to way-find. Essentially, I can follow the footsteps of previous hikers in the snow but as the snow is melting, some of these shoe prints go away and the trail is not always obvious. It is just a bit of inconvenience since your hands & fingers are cold in the morning and removing gloves, using the phone and then putting back the gloves is a pain. Quite a few recent mornings when I have camped at high elevation near snow, my thumbs and little finger are so cold and unfeeling in the morning after packing up the tent etc. that they are essentially useless and take time to thaw out 😏.

   Snow field leading up to Donahue Pass

At Donahue Pass (surprisingly none of the passes have any sign at the top with the name or details of the pass)

A very well marked trail on top of a rock....a very rare sight. Large flat rocks are another place where one loses the trail 'cos everything looks the same.

After Donahue Pass, it was a mostly flat trail going through the miles long Lyell Canyon before coming to Tolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.

Lyell Fork stream slowly flows through the Lyell Canyon

And now the mosquitoes started! Even if I stopped for a minute in Lyell Canyon, dozens of big mosquitoes would swarm all over. Lots of water and lots of stagnant water - both on and off the trail. The trail itself is a muddy bog in many places.

Finally, reached Tolumne Falls later in the evening and it was an impressive sight.

   (see the rainbow created by the mist) 

Another massive waterfall near the Glen Aulin campsite where I set up tent for the night.

Perhaps the most important part (that's how much hikers crave company) of the day was I met another hiker - Sofie - who was going at a somewhat similar pace and distance as I was, with long food carries in between resupply stops. She had started her hike close to when I had started too. That was great! We talked and figured we could at least meet up at the end of the day and maybe pass each other during the day to give ourselves some company. Yaaaaaay!

Today started out with going thru frost-covered grass meadows
followed by high alpine Miller Lake
and after a small sketchy snow-covered steep-ish descent, I saw a bear calmly strolling on the trail below 😀. It just walked on and went into the woods.

Then it was yet another slog through the snow fields to Dorothy Pass & beyond. The big part was the water crossings today which were innumerable and enough of them that my shoes, socks and feet stayed wet for most of the day.

However, the campsite we ended up at had a fire ring and for the first time on the trail, I had a fire to dry things and keep warm during dinner. And as importantly, keep away the annoying mosquitoes.

Of course, the fire was completely shut down and all embers doused in water from a nearby stream to ensure no accidents.

Data:
D-47
D-48

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