John Muir Trail - Day Six

We woke up to the sound of a truck pulling into our campsite. It was Kristen’s dad bringing us an epic breakfast spread! Side note: this is a great opportunity for friends or family who may want to meet up with you since Red’s Meadow is accessible by road. If you want to drive down rather than taking the shuttle you must arrive before 7AM.

He brought us a full spread of fruit, coffee, bagels, cookies, and even an omelet station! What a great way to start the next leg of our JMT adventure. We hung around a bit longer than usual, eating and organizing our first re-supply. We bought a few things at the store and set off.

This was a good day to be well-fueled because nearly the entire hike was uphill. This is pretty standard for re-supply and exit opportunities on the JMT because they tend to be at the lowest elevations, which is an unfortunate combination since you are re-supplying your pack. We started through the Red’s Meadow area affected by the Rainbow Fire in 1992. There were some small trees and foliage growing back but it was hard to imagine what the forest was like.

The next area was Red Cones and Crater Meadow [62.0 mi, 8650’], another alien looking landscape. The cones are a pair of red volcano shaped formations that straddle the trail. We took a short break at Deer Creek [65.0 mi, 9100’] where we enjoyed an entire cantaloupe snack provided by Kristen’s dad (and carried by Mike)! We spent a little too long in that spot so we decided to meet up again at Duck Pass Junction about 5.5 miles away. This is a long waterless stretch (well labeled on the map and in the guide book) so we made sure to fill up at the creek.

The first section was a fairly steep uphill with kind of monotonous scenery, mostly dry sandy forest. We came to a large overlook and spent the rest of the afternoon on a very gradual incline with a nice view of the adjacent mountain range.

We had a quick 2nd lunch at the Duck Pass creek crossing [70.5 mi, 10160’] around 3:30 and continued to our goal campsite at Purple Lake [72.7 mi, 9940’] which was not much further. The lake is nestled between colorful volcanic mountains and small forests. It was a little difficult to choose a campsite due to a storm back in 2011 wiping out a majority of sites near the trail junction. We found an established site near the outlet of the lake. We washed off a bit before it got too cold, then I sat with Jason on the shore enjoying some of the more luxurious items from our re-supply – wine and Snickers!