The Reds Meadow to Sonora Pass section of the PCT primarily goes through the Yosemite National Park wilderness area, but does not go through the valley itself. You also briefly go through the Hoover wilderness and the Ansel Adams wilderness.
As you may have guessed by the Clint Eastwood title, there are three main things I want to talk about in this blog post. The first, the good, are the spectacular mountains. The huge exposed granite faces always astound when coming over a pass. The alpine lakes are also excellent, with Benson lake and Dorothy lake being particular standouts. Seeing a big alpine lake ringed by huge, half snow covered peaks is wonderful.
The second thing I want to talk about is the trail itself, and as you probably guessed, this is the bad in the title. Compared to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and the other wilderness areas we’ve passed through in the Sierra, the trail in Yosemite is particularly rocky and steep. Grades of 800 feet per mile are common, and stone steps have been built almost everywhere. They also have installed cobbled roads on some steep sections in order to provide better grip for stock and reduce erosion, but this surface becomes extremely slippery when sand is pushed down onto it from above. Overall, it’s just tough, technical, slow trail – not the kind of trail I’ve come to expect from the PCT.
Finally, let’s talk mosquitoes. These are some of the worst mosquitoes I have ever seen. Stopping for water, I’ll have 5 – 10 mosquitoes on each leg in seconds. Even stopping for a break on a rock outcropping far from water, I’ll only have a few minutes of peace before mosquitoes find me. Wearing full rain gear and applying DEET lotion to my face provides some measure of relief, but the only true safety is in my tent. I even set up the tent for lunch at a particularly bad spot. Not being able to take breaks or hang out in camp without being attacked is tough on morale, and I’m looking forward to getting out of Yosemite and the mosquito horde.
I also had some of the most dynamic weather I’ve had so far on trail. The first night out it got down to 23 degrees, one of my coldest nights. Then, two days before I got into town, I camped at Dorothy Lake and there was a big rain storm overnight. The ground around the lake was already saturated from the snowmelt, and coupled with a suboptimal tent pitch, the rain ended up lightly flooding my tent. All of my stuff got pretty wet, but thankfully the sun came out briefly the next day and I could dry things out. That afternoon, a thunderstorm rolled through and briefly interrupted my plans to hike above tree line, but it moved on and I was able to continue to camp up on the ridge above Sonora Pass.
