Twig Adventures

Day 93: Into the desert

October 6th, 2018Walker Pass mm 652 to mm 620Distance: 32 miles0730 – 1830 After packing the calories and having a great visit with Josh and his family, it was time to get back on the trail. I had some trepidation about this section, since it was the driest and I was unarmed with the croud-sourced commentary from guthooks. I looked into buying the desert section of the app but the way things were divided, I would also have to buy the Sierra section to cover just the trail from Walker Pass to Tehachapi. I just downloaded the old-fashioned water report instead. It’s a pdf that someone maintains weekly/monthly based off reports from other hikers. They write in to say if[…]

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Day 92: Ridgecrest Zero & PCT Party

October 5th, 2018Zero dayDistance: NONE! Josh drove me around all day and it was awesome. I felt a bit guilty about taking another zero after just taking one in Bishop, but I could justify it when I needed the calories. I weighed myself when I got in and I was at 121 lbs. A day later, the scale was saying I picked up 3 lbs! It doesn’t surprise me, since I stuffed my face all day. Josh was very kind to drive me around for all my errands. I went to Walgreens, Dollar General, a barber, the post office, and the grocery store. We stopped to have lunch at a AYCE Chinese buffet. He had to wait for me while[…]

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Day 91: Walker Pass and Ridgecrest

October 4th, 2018Mm 673 to Walker Pass mm 652Distance: 21 miles0620 – 1830 I woke up in a fog, not speaking figuratively but literally. It didn’t rained overnight but everything was damp and the peaks were all enshrouded by clouds. I rolled up my tent along with half the desert that was stuck to the bottom of it. I love carrying around extra weight in the form of detritus. I quickly hiked below the cloud line and enjoyed views of the sun hitting the peaks in the distance. The mist that was clinging to the nearby peaks reminded me of a scene from the cloud forests of Monte Verde, Costa Rica, not Southern California. But in general, these hills had[…]

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Day 90: 700 miles to go

October 3rd, 2018Road walk from Kennedy Meadows general store, then mm 702 to mm 673Distance: 29 miles plus 1 mile from the store0720 – 1830 My rooster alarm went off at 5:40 am but I was already awake and eating breakfast. What a cheeky little guy. He wanted to get his revenge on me but didn’t realize just how early I get up. Nice try! I left with Bella and Kuba. It was nice to walk with them and I was surprised to learn that they were using their real names, not trail names. They are actually nicknames, short for Isabella and Jacob. Everybody assumed they were trail names and so hadn’t made the effort to come up with actual[…]

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Day 89: Kennedy Meadows South

October 2nd, 2018Mm 728 to mm 702 and then road walk to Kennedy Meadows general storeDistance: 26 miles plus 1 mile to the store0620 – 1500 The 3 month stretch of no rain was finally broken. It rained pretty hard around 4 am. I had to put my tent flaps down. At least the rain stopped before we had to pack up. Later, it was like it hadn’t even rained. It had been so dry that all the plants and ground soaked up every drop. There were no puddles, mud or running water anywhere. With the clouds and rain came a very fresh scent. I daresay I enjoyed it all, staying warm and dry in my tent. The outside temperature[…]

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Day 88: The final push through the Sierra

October 1st, 2018Mm 759.5 to mm 728Distance: 31.5 miles0630 – 1830 It was incredible how easy 30 miles felt when not having to climb steep, high passes this day. After about 2.5 weeks, I began the descent from the high Sierra. The day started off very cold and it took until about noon to really warm up. I was watching the clouds building all day. Ever since last Thursday, I’d been hearing about a weather system (remnants of a hurricane) that was supposed to come in, bringing rain and snow. I couldn’t believe my luck in just getting beyond the last high pass and also climbing Whitney. I had the most perfect weather throughout the Sierra. The rule of thumb[…]

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Day 87: Mt Whitney

September 30th, 2018Crabtree Meadow to mm 759.5Distance: 7 PCT miles plus 16 miles on Whitney Spur Trail0300 – 1630 Today was the big day: to climb the highest mountain in the the contiguous US at nearly 14,500′. The summer before, I summited the second tallest mountain, Mt Elbert, from the Colorado Trail. It’s only about 50 feet shy of Mt. Whitney, but who’s counting? I was awake and making coffee by 2:30 am. I was on the trail by 3:25 but got a little delayed in trying to find a bear box in the dark. I needed to leave some of my stuff in there. The trail was easy to follow; in fact, I barely used my headlamp the whole[…]

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Day 86: PCT Highpoint – Forester Pass

September 29th, 2018Kearsarge Lakes to Crabtree MeadowDistance: 21.5 PCT miles plus 2 miles on Kearsarge Pass trail and 1 mile on Whitney Spur Trail0645 – 1630 This was the day I reached the official highpoint of the PCT at the top of Forester Pass. I only had to do this one and final big pass today… 13,200′ no sweat. I had to stop a few times on the way up, as I was feeling pretty low energy. It was probably the weight of my pack dragging me down. The pass wasn’t any harder than the others, just a bit higher. That’s me struggling up all the switchbacks. NOBOs are able to just glisade down the snow fields in the early[…]

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Day 84 & 85: Bishop Zero and Nero

September 27th & 28th, 2018Independence to Bishop, then back, then up to Onion Valley Trailhead and over Kearsarge Pass.Distance: 6 miles, plus a whole lot of cycling and walking around town I’m combining these two days for simplicity. I spent most of the time in Bishop. My one goal for this town time was to eat as much as possible to regain my strength, and I did a pretty good job. I started the first day with a big breakfast at the hotel, followed by a pizza for lunch and sushi rolls for dinner. I had really been dreaming of sushi and hot sake for some reason and the town just happened to have a Japanese restaurant. I know sushi[…]

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Day 83: Three Passes

September 26th, 2018Lake Marjorie mm 809 to mm 789 and then out on a spur trail to Onion Valley TrailheadDistance: 20 miles plus 7.6 miles on Kearsarge Pass trail.0615 – 1830 Since I barely had any food left, I joked that I would have to eat passes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But they about ate me! First up over Pinchot Pass was pretty easy, as I only had about 1000′ of climbing and was feeling fresh in the morning. The early sunlight on the red belt of mountains was fantastic, especially with the full moon over one of the peaks. There have been so many of these dramatic views. I stopped to take some fun pictures. The trail continued[…]

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