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Then my mind slowly drifted away

JMT DAY 13 - MILKY WAY OVER SALLIE KEYS LAKES

Milky Way over Sallie Keys Lakes

Once the moon was set over the ridge, the Milky Way was...
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JMT DAY 13 - MILKY WAY OVER SALLIE KEYS LAKES

Milky Way over Sallie Keys Lakes

Once the moon was set over the ridge, the Milky Way was clearly visible although the sky near the horizon was still quite illuminated by the sunken moon. And Mars, still relatively close to Earth (closest to Earth was 44 million miles away a couple of months ago), looked brighter.

Or I was being tricked by my eyes.

The ridge backlit by the moon slowly got darkened as the illumination of the sky faded. More stars started coming out, and soon the heavenly body was strewn with thousands of them.

The wind was persistent throughout the night, but when it died down momentarily, it felt like as if everything stood still. The lake was so calm that I was able to make out almost every star scattered across the water.

Then my mind slowly drifted away.

Since we started, we had climbed over 4 passes, and now 5 more passes (Muir, Mather, Pinchot, Glen and Forester) to go before Trail Crest. Oh, and extra 2 more passes (Bishop and Kearsarge) to climb over to pick up resupplies.

But, what I didn’t know then was that, except for Glen Pass, which I had climbed before, the 4 of them (Island, Donohue, Silver and Selden) had been relatively easy, compared to what was ahead of us.

Sallie Keys Lakes, Sierra National Forest, CA
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