JMT Day 19: Rae Lakes, Glenn Pass, and Forester Pass

Tuesday, August 09, 2011 Destination: Forester Pass                                        Today's Miles: 16.10 Starting Location: Arrowhead Lake                        Trip Miles: 197.7 Today we did two passes and finished with a nice campsite above/on Forester Pass.This was the craziest day yet! We started pretty late and then went up Glen Pass after passing the beautiful Rae Lakes. Painted Lady It was actually more challenging than anticipated but the view was spectacular! Looking up to Glenn Pass View from Glenn Pass We then descended but not as much as yesterday and climbed up a little. In Vidette Meadow we saw our only two bears on the trail, a mother and cub. Another hiker going the other direction alerted us about them or we might have walked right past unaware. Somewhere we saw a sign that said Forester Pass was 7 miles away. We were going pretty fast so we decided to see if we could make it. After stopping for dinner, we made our way toward Forester Pass by the moonlight and also our headlamps. Somewhere we lost the trail. We decided to travel directly across a nice, icy snowfield that was little steep going straight toward the pass according to the GPS. We traversed big ridges in the snow that we had to step across. Going was slow but we eventually made it to the pass. We ended up just a hundred or so feet above the pass in a campsite that could fit our tent perfectly. We hadn't planned what to do when we got there, but this was the perfect spot to stay for the night! If I come back, I'll definitely stay there again!