Day Seven: Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Lake of the Devas to the valley, up over Mather Pass (12,100’), to stream above Upper Palisade Lake. 10.5 miles. 1874’ elevation gain. Sleep at 10,777’.

I didn’t sleep well last night, it being too hot here at this balmy 11,000’. Elevation does make a difference! This little lake will be one of my favorite spots of the trip, so full of prana, or essential life force. I have found precious few places such as this on this earth, where I feel the veil between this reality and the next is very thin. The spiritual vibrations here are very strong. I walked back out to the middle of the inlet stream and sat to meditate because I didn’t want to leave it, although I normally hit the trail early and save meditation for mid-day. Funny, too, that others seem immune to it, or choose not to attune to it. There is also a couple camping a few hundred feet away and they have only approached the water once to gather water. Out here in the middle of it I am listening to the aliveness of this place, the bumblebees, the grasshoppers, the mosquitoes, the occasional fish jumping. The water is a deep blue with neat jaggedy rocks all around, and reflects the sky and the mountains. I want to capture the sights, sounds, smells, shades of light, temperature, reflections, and subtle vibrations to keep within me always.

I think of this place being blanketed in snow again in a few months so that the woodland devas may have their heavenly home to themselves. I thank them for sharing it with me. I am in love with the Divine, with Mother Nature, here in the essential Now, inspired and joyful and alive inside. I close my eyes again and reach out with my senses to feel the essence of creation, and I hope that I can keep that inside yet always ready to share it with a smile or a kind word to the few people I will pass on the trail today.

By creek up to Mather Pass

I see so few people out here, from 5-15 people a day, which seems relatively few for being such a main trail as the PCT/JMT. We are far from the entry trails now. The hiker community is a family and would do things for another without the least hesitation. But yet, they surprisingly continue to carry so much of their worldly worries and city vibrations with them. Few leave them behind. I wonder for the 5-month PCT hikers if this psychological backpack of worries, concerns, and ego attachments remain even into Oregon and Washington. Will they ever jettison this backpack full of emotional drain?

The mosquitoes are loving me this morning, even with my headnet on, so I think it is time to begin my day’s walk. The area is very rocky all around, and those big polished granite slabs so common to Yosemite are appearing more and more frequently now, reminding me of the glacial activity to create these steep, dramatic canyons. Stunning beauty is all around.

I began walking and took several water breaks on the steady climb to Mather Pass, as the creeks were splendid and beautiful. My hips began to hurt and I wondered, “why now?”, with having had such success and no pain for so many days. Suddenly I realized that I did not put on my S-I-Joint belt this morning, thinking I was “so strong I don’t need it anymore!” I stopped and put it on again, and an hour later the hip pain left me.

 More beautiful flowers as I hike up to the Pass today.

I wonder if Pillsbury will catch up to me today. When I reached the last little lakelet below the Pass it calls to me to linger. All around is a rolling grassy tuft so that if you sit in the low spot it creates a sort of backrest for you. I found one of these inviting places to recline, and ate lunch. I lay back lazily, and watched the clouds dance in the sky. Up here the winds are stronger, and the clouds have more of a story to tell. I must have lounged for quite a bit, pondering the nature of life, the beauty all around, the endless quiet. Finally it felt time for me to start the last switchback ascent to the top.

Swami Kriyananda wrote a song that has a verse that goes like this, and it went round and round in my head playfully:

Leave home in the sunshine!

Dance through a meadow!

Or sit by a stream and just BE!

The lilt of the water will gather your worries, and carry them down to the sea.

The lilt of the water will gather your worries, and carry them down to the sea!

My dad once had said he was giving me an imaginary bouquet of wildflowers. It struck me, because one does not give a bouquet of wildflowers, as they droop so quickly. As I walked up the south side of Mather Pass there suddenly were the most amazing collection of wildflowers…..they were everywhere! Cheerful, and smiling! My guru had said that God smiles in the flowers. I was so inspired by these cheerful floral faces, they took my breath away. I felt so loved and so blessed. I continued walking, doing an inner puja, giving my attachments and life-hurts up to the wind, allowing my consciousness to be free and to soar.

I passed a couple coming down from the Pass; they were headed South. I began to wonder if perhaps Pillsbury had overtaken me somewhere and I just hadn’t known it. I asked them to look for a young woman with a Pillsbury dough-boy stuffie mascot on the shoulder of her backpack, probably hiking alone, and probably not more than a day behind me. They assured me they would keep a watch out, and simply give her a hello from me should they find her.

 

Can you see the switchback trail coming up the Pass? Looking South.

Me at the top, having donned my fleece top, always a little chilly up there.

Trail as it leaves, headed North

Selfie at the Pass, my backpack resting behind me

When I reached the summit I was in such an inner space from all the many “bouquets of wildflowers”. I sat there for a while writing in my journal. The only sounds were wind and an occasional bird call, and the faint ringing in my own ears. I was alone in this wilderness, free, protected, alive, buzzing with the connection with Nature. It was incredibly beautiful no matter which way you looked. I can see all the way to the lake where I started this morning, and it is so far off in the valley beyond.

 

Down the North side of Mather Pass, ever beautiful!

In the far distance is Mather Pass where I crossed earlier. Below is Upper Palisade Lake, but it is some distance down the slope.

After maybe a half hour of sitting alone, a couple hiking together made it to the top. Then a single man with a dark beard and happy step. Neither did I care to engage with, being in such an inward space. I donned my pack and began down the north slope of the Pass. I arrived at the slope above Upper Palisade Lake and began looking for a campsite. There weren’t many, owing to the trail crossing side-wise on the slope that went dramatically down to the lake below (that the trail never actually visited). I put down my backpack near a group of four who were planning their next day’s adventure together, and went back up-trail to the stream crossing to collect water for the evening. One man in this group near me was extremely loud! I thought it would calm down once their plans were established, but now was time for me to make a decision: Stay here with the noise, or pack up and move on. I craved the quiet, so I repacked all my items strewn about (I was close to pitching my tent, so everything was out of the pack), and headed out again.

Fortunately it wasn't far and I found a place where my tent would fit on the side-slope, which an incredible over-view of Palisade Lake below. I muttered out loud, “PERFECT!” and set my camp. My camping site is actually illegal, in that we are required to camp 100’ from the trail and I am 3’ from the trail, but no one can blame me for this, with so little space anywhere to set a tent. I get to stay here tonight? What a divine place! What a gift and a blessing!

I sat back on the granite and watched the sun cast those fading orange colors on the high mountains, called alpenglow. I meditated, ate dinner overlooking the view, and all was extremely well in my world. Roibos chai with instant milk powder and stevia powder, plus M&M’s were for desert. Oh my, not a care in the world.