We continued with more cross country route finding today, leaving the JMT and travelling around the south and west sides of Garnet Lake. We crossed a pass between Garnet and Thousand Island Lakes then walked past Thousand Island Lake along the southwestern shore. We rejoined the PCT at mile 925. To finish off, we stuck with the PCT for 3.5 miles and made camp 2.6 miles from Donohue Pass.

The first section of route finding was a bit tricky. We had rocky hillsides to navigate with steep sections and some bush whacking along the way. The views over the lake were gorgeous, and knowing that not many would see this angle made it even cooler.

Eventually we made it past the cliffs to a flat area along the south shore, which quickly brought us to the head of the lake. We followed the valley up to the top of a shelf which held a smaller lake. From here we followed the contour around to a gentle saddle and a small climb over the top.

We picked our way down the other side to Thousand Island Lake. There is a land bridge and trail over the south western side of the lake which has great views of the ranges above the lake. We followed this trail and then headed up to the PCT from the other side.

Once we rejoined the PCT, it was very busy on trail again, we saw at least 30 hikers along the next 3.5 mile stretch. After reaching some flat spots around 5 pm, we made camp. We had caught up with two other hikers, Chapless and Fast Molasses, the same hikers we’d met on the bus from Mammoth Lakes. The 4 of us had a great time at camp, even lighting a campfire to sit around and chat. I stayed up late watching the campfire burn down, something which had been missing from my evenings until now.