The High Sierra Trail - Day 4

Nancy and I have backpacked together many times and already had a good routine.  In the morning, we start stirring around 6:30am, sometimes she is up earlier than me.  We make coffee first, of course!  Then breakfast.   We take about an hour to do that, get dressed, and slowly start moving around.  Then we start packing up gear.  We are usually ready to start walking right around 8:30am. 

On this day, since none of my laundry was dry, I wore my running shorts and strapped on the wet bra.  Brrrrr!  We both had our laundry hanging off our packs to dry, hobo style.

We had 8 miles to go to get to Moraine Lake with a 500 foot climb out of the junction, through thick, shady forest.  What an enchanting walk!  We made it to the top and began a pleasant descent. 

Moraine Lake is not on the High Sierra Trail.  We took a little side loop that would take us past the lake and then the next day would hook us back into the HST.

We got to Moraine Lake right around 3pm with plenty of time to take a dip in the lake and relax on its sandy beach.  For the first time, I was really able to relish the serenity of the wilderness.  I enjoyed the sunshine and the breeze and said prayers of gratitude.  It felt like we were in paradise.  I dunked down to my neck in the lake to rinse off and it was pretty cold.  It felt like bliss to my poor little toes.  This was one of my favorite days of the whole trip.

We had a nice leisurely dinner sitting on our z-pads and resting our backs against a log.  Cinnamon whiskey and honey bourbon flowed.  Mainly with the prime purpose of lightening our pack loads.  My favorite part of the day was being able to sit down on my z-pad and sip on a cup of hot chocolate as the sun set.  Ahhhhhhh!

We had another bear box available this 4th night.  A bear box is a metal container that you can put your items in that won't fit into your bear can.  We thought we would only have access to one of these the first three nights so it was a nice surprise when we saw one available at Moraine Lake.  It would turn out we would have bear box access all nights except for the last two.  In hindsight, we could have totally used our small bear cans instead of the large.  Nancy said "We'll know for next time."  I went into peals of laughter at that one.  "Nancy has jokes," I replied back. 

We slept at 9290 feet.

















Mole skin over the blisters, covered in duct tape.  Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' bout!