20 Mile Day Up and Over Forester Pass - Mile 786.1 - 6/28

Waking up after climbing Whitney, I still had the mental rush from doing something so spectacular and was ready to go hike to the highest point on the PCT. After a short hike on the John Muir Trail I was back on the PCT and coasted over two uphills. The last uphill was a vast valley which was pretty barren except for a cluster of pine trees. On the way up I was passed by two guys heading south who told me to take time to smell the flowers. I thought yeah man sweet metaphor that's pretty much how I hike but he was like, No seriously there are a bunch of wonderfully smelling flowers growing on the mountains by the pass. I bet they were waiting for someone heading north to say a literal metaphor I had a good laugh out of it. I thought Forester Pass was directly ahead but while going up I took a sharp left over the ridge to the next chain of mountains. Heading up towards the pass the snow-fed lakes were extremely low due to the lack of a winter but their colors were still just as vivid. I took a break to eat and drink before the uphill of the pass started. The switchbacks went from long to short and steep and when I reached the chute (which actually had some snow on it) I thought I was there but the trail wound to the other side and went up one more round of small steep switchbacks. When I reached the top I was greeted with a massive canyon valley with cerulean blue lakes, rushing streams connecting them and the treeline of pine forest far off in the distance. Then it hit me, this strong floral aromatic intoxicant. I looked up to my left and the mountain was covered in these purple lavender-like scented flowers. Their name I later found out is Sky Pilot. I climbed up there and was immersed in their scent and looked over into the valley, it was so surreal. Heading down the pass was just as beautiful, passing the bluest lakes I have ever seen, crossing cold and crisp snowmelt water, and seeing for miles in this fishbowl-esc canyon. The streams connected and grew larger as you continued down until it was a raging river covered in boulders and downed trees from a massive windstorm late last year. When I got down to treeline (10,000 ft) I smelt campfire and I knew I was close to home for the night. At the fire was a JMT hiker from Germany who was quite nice and good company but that guy was not terribly prepared for the cold nights of the Sierras. His 45 degree sleeping bag did not cut it so he made a fire to keep "warm" at night. Heavy and Cheers, a couple I've hiked around for a few hundred miles showed up later. At the end if the night it was over 20 miles hiked with a 13,200 foot pass completed, ahhh the perks of no snow in the Sierras otherwise just going up and over Forester would have taken a whole day itself!