Wanda Lake to Palisade Creek

Day 27, Friday 10/2/2015: Wanda Lake PCT mile 840 to Palisade Creek 824, distance 16 miles

This night at Wanda lake was my coldest so far. Wanda lake is at about 11500ft elevation. With the clear sky after the storm the temperature dropped to 21F inside the tent. I wore about everything I had inside the sleeping bag, woke up a few times at night to heat a water bottle and eat. There was ice inside and outside the tent. 

It would have been much more comfortable if my second sleeping bag would have had arrived in Mammoth on time - dang. The zpacks down bag I have is rated for 20F, definitely the lower limit for this bag (*). And I was lucky because there was little wind. 

(*) Note added later: After my hike I sent an email to zpacks and let them know that the 20F rating is a little optimistic in my view, maybe 25F would be better. Matt Favero replied promptly and offered to exchange it to a 10F version. I declined and kept the 20F version which is still my favorite bag as long as the temps are not too cold.

Once the sun came out things looked up and temperatures rose slowly as I was on  my way to Muir Pass. 

Muir hut on top of the pass is quite unique, I should have taken shelter from the storm there, it would have been warmer. 

I was surprised to find some flowers up here at this time of year. 

View down LeConte valley 

A stop at the JMT Rock Monster 

As I came down into LeConte valley I met another hiker who told me that bears are are frequent there. I had seen bears in the Sierras before, but none on this trip so far. Just an hour later I came around a corner and saw a beautiful black bear on the trail just 25m away. He had seen me at the same time as I did and dashed off across the creek. Too fast to take a picture but I saw a lot of footprints later. 

I stopped at Palisade creek and shortly afterwards Super Classy, a PCT hiker, stopped at the same camp and it was nice to chat with her a bit. She was finishing the Sierra section which she had  skipped earlier due to snow. She had a very light pack, carrying not even a stove or cup. Not for me, at least not in the cold Sierras. Maybe it would be different after almost six month on the trail. 

Trailhead