Monday October 5, 0mi/0km

Lone Pine (CA) 

I decided that life would be easier with a car, and the only place to rent one was Bishop, about 60 miles north of Lone Pine. So, we hitched to Bishop, and I picked up an Enterprise car. Bishop is a bigger town, so we took advantage of the amenities.

We made a trip to the big grocery store, a couple of the outdoor stores, and we went to the movie theater to see “Everest”. I bought down wash and tennis balls to clean my sleeping bag, and a special tent wash too. Back at the hostel, we took turns washing our gear. That poor bathtub will never be the same!

Tuesday October 6, 0mi/0km

It was a nice day of rest, eating, and more eating. I realized I was down to 125lb/57kg, so I kept getting milkshakes and pies. Life is good! I dropped off three other PCT hikers at the Cottonwood Pass trailhead that we departed two days ago. Tiger, Mr. E, and Pluto were fun to talk to, and I enjoyed re-paying the trail favors I had received this year. It was a little snowy at the trailhead, but not too bad.

There was maybe only 4 inches/10cm of snow, and it was melting fast in the strong sunlight.

On the way back downhill, I stopped at a scenic overlook. The plaque says “Walts Point” and it’s a popular hanggliding launch point, since it lies 5000ft/1500m above the valley floor.

It was a relaxing couple of days, but tomorrow I will drop off my friends at the trail, and start making my way home.

Sunday October 4, 14.1mi/22.7km

Rock Creek Camp (760.6/9537ft) to Cottonwood Pass (750.3/11,132ft) + 3.8mi side trail to trailhead (CA) 

It was another cold night, though I think the loss of insulation in my sleeping bag (and my body) is also affecting my perception of the temperature. We packed up quickly, and had a brisk pace all morning. Our packs were light, and we were motivated by the predicted 4-12 inches (10-30cm) of snow that was predicted! The first 4 miles went by quickly, but by 9am we could see the storm coming towards us.

An hour later, we were enveloped in clouds and blowing snow.

We tried to keep a good pace, but got stuck behind some slow pack mules, and the guy didn’t let us pass for a long time. To make matters worse, the animals were destroying the trail surface, and it was like walking through loose beach sand. Yuck. Finally after 2 miles, he let us pass by, and we were flying through the blizzard!

As we approached the trailhead, we started to see a few other hikers, which was a relief. It can be difficult to hitch a ride from this remote trailhead, and especially so in bad weather.

We arrived to the trailhead parking just before 1pm, and there were very few cars there. So, we were very proactive in getting a ride, and directly asked several people for a hitch. A nice Columbian couple, who had just dropped OFF their son to hike into the storm, agreed to take the three of us down into town. Excellent!

Except, their snow-driving skills were non-existent, and I had the most terrifying ride of my life. A winding mountain road, with no railings and a two thousand foot cliff, is no place to learn those skills. Once we skidded off the road, but thankfully into the uphill side and into a small pullout. I repeatedly offered to drive, but that was probably lost in translation. Eventually, we made it down into Lone Pine. It was fun to watch the storm rage from the warmth of a car interior.

We got a room at the hostel in Lone Pine, took nice warm showers, and got dinner. After looking at the weather, Bonus Miles and Cheshire Cat decided they wanted to have a double-zero (two rest days) to wait for the snow to melt. I was done with my JMT hike, but I decided to stick around for a couple days and spend time with my friends.

Saturday October 3, 30.6mi/49.2km

Tyndall Creek campsite (774.9/10974ft) to Rock Creek Camp (760.6/9537ft) + 16.3mi side trail to Mt. Whitney (CA) 

It was so cold last night! My little zipper thermometer showed 25F/-4C this morning at camp. I was feeling a little sore and tired after two consecutive days of hiking two passes per day. But, onward to Mt. Whitney! We left camp just after 7am, and the sunlight was already intense.

We kept a steady pace all morning, and pretty quickly we arrived to the junction with the side trail to Mt. Whitney. It isn’t on the PCT, but most PCT hikers will take the 16-mile detour to climb the highest peak in the continental US (14,505ft/4421m). It’s also the southern terminus of the JMT. The side trail to Mt. Whitney is out-and-back, so we setup our tents at this junction, as we planned on camping here tonight. The rest of our stuff we stored in a bear box, and then headed up the trail. We passed a ranger along the way, and he checked our permits – this is the first time that’s happened to me. He also mentioned a possible winter storm arriving tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps the next day. After a few miles, we were up above the valley, and had an amazing view of the Hitchcock Lakes far below.

Looking west, Mt. Hitchcock is behind the lakes.

The last 2 miles of the trail to the summit is carved into the side of the mountain.

The trail traveled along the west side of the ridge, and every one in awhile, there would be a view to the east, down into the Owens Valley and beyond to Death Valley.

We made it to the summit pretty quickly at 3pm, and spent awhile on top talking to other hikers. Considering the elevation, it was really warm, about 60F/16C.

The summit has a stone shelter, which is good protection from the wind and intense sun. But it would be a terrible place in a lightning storm!

There were probably 20 other hikers on the summit on this beautiful day.

The summit shelter building also had a hiker register, I could see that most people up here are California locals, and dayhikers that had summited from the east side.

We departed the summit at 3:30pm, and returned the way we came. Bonus Miles and I were both able to get a phone signal, and confirmed that the snowstorm was arriving tomorrow morning. We arrived back to our planned campsite at 6:30pm and made dinner while we discussed our options. We had 16 more miles on the PCT to get to our exit point from the mountains, and the snow was expected to start at 11am or noon tomorrow. We decided to hike further tonight, to hopefully be done hiking by noon tomorrow. So, we packed up camp, drank some caffeinated beverages, switched on our headlamps, and headed out into the night. Everyone was really energetic, I think from both the caffeine and the accomplishments of the last two days. We hiked another 6 miles, stopping after 10pm at an established campsite. With a bear box, of course. Tomorrow we will have “only” 10 miles/4 hours of hiking to do, so hopefully we are out before the storm!

 

Friday October 2, 25.0mi/40.2km

Woods Creek Swingbridge (799.9/8547ft) to Tyndall Creek campsite (774.9/10974ft) (CA)

The big day! Today is another two-pass day, as we will hike over both Glen Pass (11,950ft) and Forester Pass (13,200ft), which is also the highest point on the PCT. Cheshire Cat and I left camp at 6:45am, just before sunrise. The tops of the mountains were alpenglow pink!

Bonus Miles had left camp probably an hour before we did, but we could still see her handprints on the frosty fridge. Bridge pushups leave behind evidence, haha!

The Rae Lakes are always a spectacular scene.

Looking down on one of the Rae Lakes, with Glen Pass in the right background.

The camera didn’t quite capture the intensity of the blue color in this small tarn.

I caught Bonus Miles just before the top of Glen Pass, and we hiked it to the top and waited for our third. Cheshire Cat showed up and we had a small feast of junk food, as several JMT hikers watched us devour thousands of calories in less than 10 minutes. They were fun to talk to, but we had many miles to go!

The 11 miles from Glen Pass to Forester Pass are fairly easy, and we walked and talked together in the warm day. The little thermometer on my backpack said it was 70F/21C.  The trail followed Bubbs Creek upstream, and by early afternoon a swim sounded like a wonderful idea. The water was extremely “refreshing” though, so it only lasted a couple of minutes.

Bonus Miles didn’t stop to swim, so we made it a game to try and catch her before the top of Forester Pass. We came close, just one switchback ahead!

The top of Forester Pass (13,200ft), and the highest point on the PCT!

I was shocked to see no snow on the other side of Forester Pass. When I came through here in June, this entire hillside was white!

Someone did a ton of work blasting this trail into the side of the mountain. It was easy walking, but we were still careful to avoid the edge.

From the pass it was only 5 downhill miles to camp, and we had a relaxed hike into the Tyndall Creek valley. There were plenty of rock fields along the way, so I kept on the lookout for marmots, and I actually saw one!

It’s hard to see, but the marmot is in the exact center of this photo.

We hiked until sunset, which is about 6:30pm nowadays. We setup camp at an established spot with a bear box, after a 25 mile day! We’ve managed to camp at bear box campsites the last three nights, I think with some better planning it would be possible to hit one every day, eliminating the need for a bear canister. Tomorrow, Mt. Whitney!

Thursday October 1, 23.2mi/37.3km

Campsite next to Palisade Creek (823.1/9029ft) to Woods Creek Swingbridge (799.9/8547ft) (CA)

The first day of October! I left camp with Cheshire Cat shortly after 7am, and Bonus Miles was long gone. We had planned a big day today, covering over 23 miles and climbing over two 12,000ft passes! So she was smart to get an early start. We hiked by the Palisade Lakes, which are were strangely calm on this windless morning.

Near the second Palisade Lake, I suddenly caught Bonus Miles, who was helping Tiger look for his lost Garmin device. We all helped him search the trail for where he might have dropped it. Eventually, he found it inside it’s stuff sack near some rocks, whew!

Shortly after, we crested Mather Pass, 12,093ft. What a view!

We descended the south side of the pass, and about 30 minutes later, the sky turned very dark and cloudy. Uhoh.

It snowed on us! Just a litte bit, but enough for Bonus Miles to use her umbrella. I’m totally buying one of those for my next hike. The wintry weather lasted only 30 minutes, and then became warm-ish and sunny, and we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to stop and eat lunch. Or gummy bears, defining meals is tricky.

After a nice relaxed lunch, we packed up our now-dried gear, and started up towards Pinchot Pass. The weather was acting very undecided, so we moved pretty quickly.

 

At least it was warm again, perhaps even short sleeve weather…

Just before the top of Pinchot Pass, the clouds decided to snow again. This time, the snow was sticking to the ground a bit. This photo doesn’t come close to capturing the joy at getting to the top of the pass. Or perhaps, it was celebrating the most summit pushups we’ve done so far.

Amazingly, a section hiker came by, hiking north. We hadn’t seen anyone else going north in days! He took our group photo, and then each group ran down their respective side of the pass, as the snow was coming back.

A panoramic photo is more fun with people! It also really captures the low-hanging clouds moving our way.

It started snowing harder, and we were literally alternating between a fast walk and a run down the switchbacks.

The trail stayed high for awhile, but after an hour, we had descended far enough to be free of the clouds. And then the blue sky came back, this weather was so strange!

We hiked until 6pm, and camped at an established campsite with a bear box, near a suspension bridge over Woods Creek. We didn’t see any other hikers, so I got to bed earlier tonight, and rested up for another two-pass day tomorrow!

Wednesday September 30, 24.4mi/39.3km

Campsite next to Evolution Creek (847.5/9724ft) to Campsite next to Palisade Creek (823.1/9029ft) (CA)

Today was the last day of September, and it’s definitely getting colder at night, and sleeping bag isn’t as warm after almost 3000 miles of use. We eventually left our camp by 8am, and I quickly got warm on the uphill hike.

I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for marmots, since there were so many here in June. I didn’t see any marmots today, but plenty of deer ambling around on the rocks!

We passed by so many lakes in the morning – Evolution Lake, Sapphire Lake, Wanda Lake, and tiny Lake McDermand. This was surprising to me, since I didn’t remember seeing that many when I passed thru here in June. After looking back at my journal, I realized I had hiked thru here in a dense fog, and cold rainy weather, so I was only paying attention to the trail under my feet.

Muir hut was a beautiful old stone building, atop 11,900ft Muir Pass. We took an early lunch inside to escape the incessant winds that sweep thru this area.

The interior had a cool circular ceiling, the stonework was impressive.

We ate lunch in the cold, damp (but windless!) building, and I finished my 2nd block of cheese. Tomorrow I’ll start on my last block. We hiked downhill for a couple of hours, and the sun came out and it was much warmer. I even zipped my pants into shorts!

Of course, we had to get photos of the classic “rock monster”. It’s a large boulder with strategically placed small stones to resemble eyes and teeth.

For some reason, I neglected to take any more photos all afternoon. We followed the valley along the Middle Fork Kings River, and it was quite beautiful with many small waterfalls sliding down over polished granite. The last part of the day we slowly climbed up the Palisade Creek valley, it was quite an easy climb of only 1000ft in 4 miles. We setup camp before sunset, which I thought was pretty impressive given our 24+ mile day.

As we were making dinner in the fading sunlight, Bonus Miles saw a headlamp on the mountain ridge to the east. I didn’t see it at first, but as it came closer, we all could see the headlamp coming toward us down the hill. It wasn’t a bear, but a Tiger! A SOBO hiker named Tiger, who is “thru-climbing” the PCT, hitting many high peaks along the trail in Washington, Oregon, and here in the Sierras. We fed him dinner, and then he kept hiking into the night, since he needs to get to the post office in town tomorrow. With the late night in camp tonight, and tomorrow’s planned mileage/elevation, I’m guessing I will be very tired tomorrow night!

Tuesday September 29, 24.6mi/39.6km

Campsite next to Bear Creek (872.1/8970ft) to Campsite next to Evolution Creek (847.5/9724ft) (CA)

We all left camp at the same time, and hiked together all day. I hadn’t done this before, usually I would hike alone all day, meeting up with people at breaks or camp. It’s alot of fun! There was singing, stories of other SOBO hikers, and of course gear talk and food talk. And I started a new game – I snuck the metal spoon (from Mammoth) into Bonus Miles’ backpack, ha!

We reached to top of Selden Pass (10,900ft) at 10am, and could see lakes in all directions! Looking back over Marie Lake:

And looking ahead to Heart Lake:

We descended off the pass, and past Sallie Keyes lakes. I noticed a faint side trail, and decided to explore. After only 100m, I came to a random cabin next to a small unnamed lake (pond).

 

Apparently the cabin is used in winter for snow survey workers. I now had more questions than answers, but my group was getting further ahead, so I quickly made my way back to the JMT/PCT.

We descended three thousand feet, down to the South Fork San Joaquin river. It was noticeably warmer down in the valley. We skipped the side trail to Muir Trail Ranch, for the same reason we skipped the VVR side trip yesterday.

The final part of the day was a re-climb of 800ft up into the Evolution valley. There were many switchbacks, and we kept count of them as part of our new “switchback situp” game.

At the top of the climb, we had to do that many situps! I can’t recall the exact number, but it was tiring. And then our final challenge of the day, crossing Evolution Creek! When I was here in June, it was a crotch-deep crossing, and very cold water. In September, it was the exact opposite!

We hiked on for another three miles, and by the time I got to camp, it was still daylight!

Monday September 28, 23.6mi/38.0km

Duck Pass Trail Jct (895.7/10174ft) to Campsite next to Bear Creek (872.1/8970ft) (CA)

We were slow moving in the cold morning, and eventually got moving down the trail by 7:30am. Today was our first Sierra high pass, 10,800ft Silver Pass. So we made sure to practice for Pass push-ups with plenty of bridge pushups!

After a couple of hours, it warmed up and we took a nice long morning break. There are so many nice flat rocks here, but this one was a perfect chair!

The clouds didn’t look friendly, but they never misbehaved, and we were dry and happy all day. The view from the top of Silver Pass was still pretty amazing even with the clouds.

This part of the Sierras have heaps of granite, so our break spots were always comfortable. I love all the options for sitting rocks.

As we hiked downhill along Mono Creek, we entered lower elevations and were surrounded by deciduous trees. Their yellow leaves made it obvious that autumn was here.

We skipped the side trail to VVR (a common PCT/JMT resupply point), as we assumed they would already be closed for the season, and had packed out enough food for 7 days. Our planned camp spot was another 6 miles distant, and we kept motivated on the 2.5 mile climb by making it a friendly competition against the clock. After only an hour and 1500ft+, we were at the top of the climb! The last hour to camp was easy, though it was a little difficult to find our camp spot in the dark. I quickly setup my tent and ate my ramen noodles, and fell asleep to the sounds of Bear creek nearby.

Sunday September 27, 11.0mi/17.7km

Red’s Meadow Trail Jct (906.7/7654ft) to Duck Pass Trail Jct (895.7/10174ft) (CA)

We spent most of the day in town shopping for food and gear. The first challenge of the day was buying 7 days worth of food, in 30 minutes or less, so we could get back to the hotel before the 11am checkout time. Fortunately, I’ve been doing this for months, and am very familiar the the Vons store layout. We made it back to the hotel for checkout, then walked across the street to the Outdoor gear stores, so I could replace my lost spoon. We met an older couple on the way, and the woman was very insistent that they give us something (they were PCT veterans and very nice), and so I was gifted a metal spoon with a hole drilled in the handle to “save weight”.

We ate lunch at Schat’s Bakery, and then I went to the outdoor store to buy a proper plastic spoon. They had merino wool shirts on sale, which Bonus Miles was in desperate need of, given the quantity of holes in her current one, haha!

We took a taxi back up to Red’s Meadow and the trailhead, and it was already mid-afternoon. It was a pretty flat and easy 11 miles, but we ended up night-hiking the last hour of it because of our late start.

The hiking should have been uneventful, but *someone* had the clever idea to turn “summit pushups” into “bridge pushups”. This proved much more difficult, since bridges are narrower, and our packs were laden with 7 days’ worth of heavy food. Needless to say, this resulted in hilarity. Cheshire Cat actually managed to complete his 5 pushups, and I almost fell into the creek in my attempt.

Eventually CC pulled me up back onto the bridge. After those shenanigans, we all were laughing so hard I started crying. This will be a fun week with this group!

We hiked on for another hour until sunset, and we passed the “900” mile marker, so we are 900 miles from the Mexican border!

The sunset was very orange tonight, and it stayed light for awhile after the glowing sphere disappeared.

We arrived to camp around 8pm and setup quickly, as it was already getting cold. There was a lunar eclipse tonight, but it was partly cloudy so we only saw it briefly, and my attempts at photos failed as well.

Saturday September 26, 20.1mi/32.3km

Marie Lakes Trail Jct (926.8/10,069ft) to Red’s Meadow Trail Jct (906.7/7654ft) (CA)

We left camp early, I think Bonus Miles and Cheshire Cat were excited to get to town, showers, and hot food. After two miles, we crossed over Island Pass, but it barely felt like a pass, since we only climbed up a few hundred feet. Even so, we did our “Pass Pushups”, which is when thru-hikers do pushups on top of every long climb to maintain their arm strength.

I hiked for an hour with Bonus Miles until we got to Thousand Island Lake, where we met a waiting Cheshire Cat. We had a nice break and discussed swimming, but it was windy and cold, so instead I took a quick nap on the warm rocks.

The trail split here into the PCT and JMT (usually the run concurrently), and since I’d already seen the PCT section when I was here in June, I decided to explore the JMT section. The two trails re-merge in only 14 miles, so I arranged a 5pm meeting time with my friends, and continued on. Much to my surprise, I saw very few people, and no mosquitoes for the whole day. The trail goes near Devil’s Postpile National Monument, so I took the half-mile side trail and poked around the rocks for awhile.

I was getting very tan after all these months of hiking.

The three of us reunited, and explored the Red’s Meadow resort area. It has a small restaurant, a tiny store, and not much else. Of course, the first thing I did was explore the hiker box for food or free stuff. Nothin’.

Usually, there is a bus that runs every hour to town, but not in late September, when all the tourists have gone home. We found a phone signal and called a taxi, which arrived an hour later. Even though the ride was expensive, it was totally worth it to go into Mammoth Lakes village and get a hotel, shower, and dinner. The Mammoth Brewery food was better than I remembered it, what a great day.