July 9

End: on a tiny snow-free island near Smeburg Lake with about 12 other people
Daily: 20.5
Total: 968.9

First 20 in the Sierra! Crazy, today didn't feel too bad, but there were a ton of ups and downs, a pass, lots of snow, and three or four hard creek crossings. Wow, I didn't realize how awesome we were today until I wrote that down.

We got out of Glen Aulin before the bugs got too insane and without bear incident. Immediately we had to wade to the bridge (the water's so high the bridge only reaches part way across the creek). Then we climbed up into a valley, swatting mosquitos as we went.

Then up and over a 1500 foot canyon wall and down another into Virginia Canyon, where we had to ford one fork of McCabe Creek and two forks of Return Creek. Return Creek has been living up to its name - it's been sending hikers back to Tuolumne because it's been so bad.

It wasn't too bad, really, we just had bad luck. We tried to cross on a big log, but two people fell getting on it and Grenade fell off completely. He caught himself, got back up, and finished crossing. That's brave. He had been smart, and put all his stuff in a trash bag so it didn't get wet.

Then up and over to Matterhorn Canyon, but not before everyone got lost but Chilidog and me. I don't trust boot pack all the time. Often the people in front of me don't know where they're going either, and they end up going the wrong way. Anyway, after everyone found their way back, it was down the canyon wall, down the canyon floor, then up another canyon wall. In this one, we were supposed to cross Wilson Creek three times. We opted for once, since the creek looked at least 6 feet deep at the first crossing and we'd just have to cross back over in 1/2 mile. We instead walked up canyon to the second creek crossing where we found Unload, Quake, Noah, and Honeybuzz. they had tried to cross but the water got up to their chests before they turned back and did the same thing we did. I have no idea why the trail crosses the creek three times. It was easy walking on our side. The last ford had a log.

Then dinner and up and over the pass and to camp. Seriously, this is the only non-snowy spot for at least a mile.