After a leisurely breakfast at the eponymously named Breakfast Club, I loaded up on tortillas and ramen at Grocery Outlet and we caught the bus back to Red’s Meadow. A slight detour led us through Devil’s Postpile National Monument, a large jumble of hexagonal basalt columns jutting out of the landscape akin to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Feeling slightly out of place with our big backpacks amidst the crowd of car tourists, we didn’t linger long and quickly crossed another swollen creek back into the wilderness.
Since Mount Whitney, the PCT had traced the same route through the High Sierra as the shorter (but no less famous) John Muir Trail. Just north of the Postpile, however, the two trails split for about 14 miles with the PCT following a higher ridgeline and the JMT plunging along a lower route next to a series of lakes. As Meredith had a JMT permit and the lake route appeared to offer more interesting scenery, we chose to take it and were rewarded with a beautiful campsite atop a rocky bluff overlooking Rosalie Lake. It was the perfect place to watch the sunlight fade over the granite dome across the way, fish leaping into the air for an insect dinner below.
Russell on the Road 