Category: Pacific Crest Trail

October 3rd, 2018 Road walk from Kennedy Meadows general store, then mm 702 to mm 673 Distance: 29 miles plus 1 mile from the store 0720 – 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! Poor Stellar was still waiting on his resupply box to arrive, so I had to bid him farewell. I will probably see him later since I planned to take some time off in Ridgecrest. I left with Bella and Kuba. It was nice to walk with them and I was surprised to[…]

October 2nd, 2018 Mm 728 to mm 702 and then road walk to Kennedy Meadows general store Distance: 26 miles plus 1 mile to the store 0620 – 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 was no mud, puddles, 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.[…]

October 1st, 2018 Mm 759.5 to mm 728 Distance: 31.5 miles 0630 – 1830 It was incredible how easy 30 miles felt when not having to climb steep, high passes today. 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, we had been hearing about a weather system (remnants of a hurricane) that was supposed to come in today, 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.[…]

September 29th, 2018 Kearsarge Lakes to Crabtree Meadow Distance: 21.5 PCT miles plus 2 miles on Kearsarge Pass trail and 1 mile on Whitney Spur Trail 0645 – 1630 I got a later start than Stellar and finally caught up to him at the top of Forester Pass. We only had to do this one and final big pass today, the highest point on the PCT at 13,200′. 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. Stellar took this picture of me struggling up all the switchbacks.[…]

September 27th & 28th, 2018 Independence 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[…]

September 26th, 2018 Lake Marjorie mm 809 to mm 789 and then out on a spur trail to Onion Valley Trailhead Distance: 20 miles plus 7.6 miles on Kearsarge Pass trail. 0615 – 1830 Since we barely had any food left, I joked that we would have to eat passes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But they about ate me! First up over Pinchot Pass was pretty easy, as we only had about 1000′ of climbing and were 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. We stopped to take some fun pictures.[…]

September 25th, 2018 Muir Pass mm 838.5 to Lake Marjorie mm 809 Distance: 29.5 miles 0550 – 1900 Today I only did one pass, but it was the most difficult thus far. I was really feeling the drain from big miles and not enough to eat. Since I came up a bit short in miles the day before, we would need to do at least 30 today and 27 the next in order to get out to the trailhead and hitch into town. I didn’t have much of a choice, as I was running really low on food. I had divided my remaining supplies into two piles and it was depressing. There was nothing to spare for even a 3rd[…]

September 24th, 2018 Sallie Keyes Lakes mm 864 to Muir Pass mm 838.5 Distance: 25.5 miles 0645 – 1830 Today was so-so until the end, and then it was one of the best days EVER. More Mountain Magic. To start, I got rolling downhill for a short 4 miles to the turnoff for Muir Trail Ranch. It’s another resort along the way and has a legendary hiker box. Hikers ship resupplies there for a $50 flat fee because it all has to be packed in by mules. That fee gets you one bucket, so might as well fill it. Hence, there ends up being a lot of extra stuff…as in Mountain Houses, Alcohol, etc. I was in need of some[…]

September 23rd, 2018 Purple Lake mm 894 to Sallie Keyes Lakes mm 864 Distance: 30 miles 0630 – 1830 Today I tackled 2 passes, Silver and Selden, both at 11,000′. There’s an antidote that JMT hikers do one pass a day and PCT’ers do 2. So I set out try and ended up with a massive day of over 6500′ elevation gain and loss (pretty close to what I’ve been doing on other days). I guess I was most impressed that I could still pull a 30 mile day in the Sierra. It came at the cost of having only one break all day, though. I was surprised to find no condensation on my tent in the early morning. I[…]