PCT Days 70 to 79 – Snowmageddon in the Sierra

Day 70

Today was rough. In anticipation of a few sketchy river crossings, crummy snow on Forester Pass, and the need to get over Kearsarge before forecasted thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon, we woke up at 1am. I was still completely shot from our prior days and Anna was also feeling pretty sore. The Aussies had done Mt. Whitney much more quickly than us, so they had already left yesterday afternoon. Because my brain was fried, packup took longer than it should have, but we still started hiking around 1:40am. The trail was mostly snow-free with only the occasional patch to hop over. Annoyingly, my headlamp did not charge properly the night before so it ended up dying midhike, forcing me to wear it hooked up to an external battery. Still, after an hour or so, we hit our first crossing, Wallace Creek, which turned out to be fairly shallow and not very quick. Since it was mellow, we crossed it barefoot to keep our shoes dry. A few miles later, we crossed Wright Creek, which was quite a bit deeper and faster. This time around we crossed with our shoes on and our socks off, a trick we had picked up on the AT to help dry our shoes out more quickly. I went first to scope out the shallowest/slowest route, and Anna followed after without any drama. I then popped on my new waterproof socks and enjoyed the bliss of dry feet in freezing cold wet shoes. From there, we continued on through a few meadows before catching a dazzling sunrise from Bighorn Plateau, right in the middle of the High Sierra. Not wanting to dally, we pushed on to our final crossing, Tyndall Creek. Tyndall was a bit deeper and appeared to be flowing faster, but a chance log upstream was causing turbulence in the flow, making it much easier to cross. Finally done with rivers, we dried our feet, stocked up on water, and headed towards Forester Pass. Unfortunately, the 3 miles of snowfields on the way up were already partially melted, causing us to posthole, and slowing our pace drastically. We slogged on and made it to the approach around 10:30am. 

Once again, the thinner air was killing me as well, further slowing our progress. The bottom half of the pass was still buried in snow, so we used the snow bootpack that went straight up. This proved challenging for me as I was beginning to punch through the snow and I kept having to stop to catch my breath. Once we finally made it to the top half, it was a breeze traversing the stone switchbacks. We did have to traverse the snow chute at the top, followed by a bit of rock scrambling to avoid the cornice, but it was no drama. We made it to the top a bit after noon, and then rocketed down the other side via glissade chutes. Once we were down the initial steep bits, our hopes for the day were dashed as the northern side of Forester was covered in snowfields as far as the eye could see, and they were incredibly soft. We ended up trying to scramble on rocks, wasted time routefinding due to the bootpack being melted out, and postholed up to our waists. Eventually, we called it quits after 3.5 miles had taken us 3 hours. We found a snow free spot with an amazing view at mile 784.2. All in all we hiked for about 15 hours and barely did 17 miles… The Sierra has kicked our butts. Now we’ll be forced to get up early again in order to get up and over Kearsarge Pass tomorrow before the snow gets too soft and before any storms roll in. Needless to say, we will probably be zeroing in town.

Day 71

Anna happily at the top of Kearsarge Pass

After yesterday’s slog and the challenges of the whole section, we ended up sleeping in a bit but not too late that the snow softened. We quickly packed up and started the slow descent across miles of blissfully frozen snow. Unfortunately, the snow did not break up until well after we thought it would, but still, we weren’t punching through. Once the snow did finally end, the trail became a flooded muddy mess with constant river crossings. When we finally got through all of that we hit the first of our climbs, a 1400ft climb over about 2mi. The grade was steep as hell and I was sweating as we worked our way up. Along the way we passed a sizable mule deer and we finally got to see a male grouse! At the top, we again had to route-find through a few miles of deep, soft snow before finally getting back to dry land. We then had another long-ish 1000ft plus climb up and over Kearsarge Pass, which was thankfully totally devoid of snow on the western face. Since the terrain wasn’t trying to kill us, we were able to finally soak in the incredible view around us! 

At the top, we found that the eastern face still had a considerable amount of snow on it, but it was slushed out to the point that ice axes and microspikes weren’t needed. We were also surprised to find that it was covered with day hikers! As we carefully made our way down the snow, we chatted with the few we encountered and met an incredibly friendly dog. We also ran into Delicate Flower, Timber, and Santa who we had not seen any of since the water cache after Cajon Pass! About halfway down, the snow started to finally break up just as the sky was clouding up, so we picked up our pace and made it down to the parking lot. The massive downhill had cooked our knees and we were ready for bed. Another hiker’s parents were posted up at the trailhead and provided us with trail magic in the form of sports drinks and chips. After we told them about the trail conditions, we threw our thumbs out and quickly got a ride straight to Bishop from Dorothy, a local trail runner and former PCT hiker who we had chatted with on the walk down. Since she was running, she had easily caught up with us. On the drive in we chatted about trail life, what to do in Bishop, climbing gym cultural shifts, and navigating adulthood in a non-traditional lifestyle. Once we got to town, she called her friend to ask where the best milkshakes in town were, and then dropped us off at Aaron Schat’s Roadhouse. Anna and I ended up having an early dinner there before heading over to the Best Western to get cleaned up and turn in for the night.

Day 72

I got my chocolate shake!

I slept in very late and woke up dead tired still. The early mornings, long days, and elevation had beat me up and I was nursing an inflamed IT band from the Kearsarge downhill. Still, we got up and moving, hit the hotel breakfast, and then got to choring. Our first stop was the gear exchange a ways down the road so that I could find some shorts and stop hiking in my underwear. Unfortunately they hadn’t swapped to their summer selection yet (despite it being 91°F outside) so I picked up a new pair from the gear store. We then headed back to the hotel room, stopping in for a few donuts along the way. Back in our room and out of the heat, we called and caught up with our respective families. Once the temperature had cooled a bit outside and a thunderstorm had blown through, we walked down the street and hit up the discount grocery stores and Von’s to complete our resupply. By the time we were finally done, it was already dinner time, so I grabbed a cheap sandwich from the grocery store deli and called it a night. We grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry’s to share, and fell asleep watching a movie.

Day 73

Another round of storms hit Bishop

We slept in again, and I still felt absolutely drained. Over breakfast, I proposed taking a second zero to Anna both so that I could rest and so that we could avoid some bad weather, and she readily agreed. After our hotel breakfast, we headed down the street to the Looney Bean for chai lattes and to check out Schatz Bakery. On the way back, I grabbed a can of permethrin to coat my new clothes and we went back to the room. Anna ended up grabbing her kindle and heading to the park to read while I stayed back to knock out some more chores. I replaced the cord on one of our stakes, sewed the hook back onto my gaiters, and patched up a few pieces of gear that had holes in them. Around lunch, Anna came back and we had lunch at the KFC across the street, and it was the first good KFC I had had in a decade! Weirdly enough, the teenage crew there were also blasting meme songs like Crazy Frog… Satiated, Anna surprised me with a decadent slice of chocolate cake from the bakery, and we headed back to our room. I watched Letterkenney with Anna for a bit, and then went and sat at the pool in my boxers to coat my clothes in permethrin. While I was waiting for the stuff to dry, I read, and chatted with a crew of wildland firefighters who were staying at the hotel. Chores all done, we went back to Schatz Roadhouse for burgers and drinks, and then tucked in for an early night in preparation of our return to the Sierra. I still feel pretty beat, and I’m worried about the nausea and lack of energy from the elevation, but we need to save our budget and I want to get this his section done.

Day 74

The author on the west side of Kearsarge Pass

We both woke up before our alarms around 6am or so, anxious to have enough time before the bus came. Thankfully, packup didn’t take long, nor did breakfast in the hotel lobby, so we were able to relax a bit longer in our room before checking out. I was a nervous about the potential weather and trail conditions, but we had already spent too much time and money in town. Right after 8am, we checked out and walked down the street to the bus stop at Vons. There were already a bunch of hikers there, so I was glad that Anna had had the forethought to book us seats online. Once boarded, we headed down to Independence and chatted with the other hikers during the hour-long ride. Onboard, we saw Tinder, who we had met before we climbed Forester Pass, and Sparrowhawk, who we had met way back at White Water Preserve. Tinder and I chatted about the crazy news surrounding the Texas Renaissance Festival for most of the ride and then everyone split once we arrived in town. I popped into the post office to quickly mail out some extra layers now that the temperature had gone up and to my surprise I dropped about a pound from my pack! After that, I grabbed a Gatorade from the gas station, we found a good log to sit on, and tried to grab a hitch to the trailhead. Unfortunately, traffic was pretty dead so after 45 minutes we gave up. A local shuttle driver named Mark had offered his services to us previously and even had a discount if we could find 4 people, so we grabbed Manzanita and Maddie, two other hikers, and called for a ride. On the short drive up, Mark told us about how Seattle used to be in the 70s when he lived there, and told us to be careful of the afternoon weather. 

Back at the trailhead, we could see the clouds were building but we figured we had enough time to get over. Anna and I wasted no time in climbing, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that a considerable amount of the snow had melted! As we scurried up the 2600ft climb, we were sweating hard from the heat, but we could also see the clouds continuing to build. Thankfully the climb up proved to be much easier than the climb down, and we made it about 400ft from the top when we saw a crack of lightning split the sky. Not wanting to chance it, we went back down below the treeline and found a nice rock outcropping to hang out under. For the next hour we sat there watching the storm blow through. The temperature also plummeted, making my sweaty clothes freezing and turning the rain into sleet. Blissfully, it broke up though, and we hurried up and over Kearsarge Pass before any more storms could roll in. On the other side we cruised along, although we were both starting to feel the elevation again. Around 4:30pm we decided to start looking for camp after we found some water, but unfortunately all of the trail water we were expecting was nowhere to be found. We made the call to continue on up the approach to the next pass as FarOut comments mentioned reliable water and tent sites. At this point we were really tired, but we slogged up the hill nonetheless, sad to be passing up so many great tentsites. Finally at the water, Anna set up to filter us 4 liters and I started hunting for a tent site. Unfortunately it seemed like everyone else had had the same idea, and because of the snow, tent sites were at a premium. We managed to squeeze our tent into a small muddy/snowy spot at 791.2, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough space to stake out one of the rainfly vestibules. Fingers crossed it doesn’t rain tonight!

Day 75

Hikers climb down the north face of Glen Pass

Since we ended up only 1000ft below Glen Pass and we were surrounded by other tents, we decided to not get up until 5am. Once up though, we quickly packed up and hit the trail, eager to be up and over the pass before the snow became soft. Starting the day off with a very steep climb was tough, but thankfully the trail and bootpack were friendly and I was able to take it slow since most of the others were a ways ahead or behind us. The climb itself really wasn’t too bad, and we made it up right as the sun was coming over the mountains. Once on top, we could see that the north side still had a ton of snow, as predicted. We strapped on our microspikes, got out our ice axes, and carefully made our way down the steep bootpack. Navigating the snow and occasional rock fields ended up taking longer than the climb itself, but we still made it down safely and in good time. Once out of the snow, we cruised along the Rae Lakes and spotted small trout in them! Unfortunately, I started to once again feel the effects of elevation, so we slowed our pace so that I could breath normally. 

The trail then continued on for several miles, going around and between lakes. We stopped at Dollar Lake for a light breakfast and to watch the marmots while our feet dried from the lake outlet crossing. After our break, the trail went sharply downhill, and turned into a mashup of mud, jagged granite, and flowing ankle deep water. I had successfully kept my shoes and socks dry until we hit Baxter Creek, which was roaring with snowmelt. Seeing the writing on the wall, I found a good spot to cross and waded in, soaking my footwear and my legs up to my thighs. After that, we continued to slog through the mess until we reached the Woods Creek suspension bridge, where we stopped to have lunch with some other hikers we had been around since Mt. Whitney. They decided to take a siesta there, but we were eager to set up camp early in order to tackle Pinchot Pass tomorrow, so we motored on. Over the next 3 miles, we forded 3 very high flow streams and climbed 1300ft before we called it a day at the last official campsite before the pass. I wish we could have been a bit closer, but we’ve learned to never pass up a good tent site. Not to mention, right as we were wrapping up our 5pm dinner, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and dropped a deluge of rain, sleet, and snow. Hopefully we make it up and over Pinchot Pass quickly and easily enough so that we can maybe get over Mather as well. It all depends on the unknown snow conditions.

Day 76

The face one makes after hours of postholing with Pinchot Pass in the background

Hoping to put some mileage down, we woke up at 3am and hit the trail not long after. The first mile and a half went by quickly despite the steep grade and freezing river crossings. However not long after that we hit the snowfield from hell. The top most layer was a thin sheet of hard ice, with deep soft snow beneath, and undermelted air snd rocks beneath. The next 2.5 miles of terrain towards Pinchot Pass was completely covered in this crud, and we spent hours playing what felt like the worst version of Mine Sweeper. You would take a few firm steps and then fall in anywhere from shin to waist deep. We both took a bunch of bruises and cuts, but my final posthole took the cake. We were maybe 50 feet from the partially snow covered switchbacks for the final climb and I fell waist deep with both legs. I was able to get my front leg free, but my back foot was pinned between rocks and ice. I carefully wiggled my foot out of my shoe and gaiter, but the shoe was stuck and my shin was bleeding profusely. After 20 minutes of digging, we were finally able to free my now snow-filled shoe, but the front hook on my gaiter had torn off in the process. After that nonsense, we made the pass without too much drama due to good bootpack and half thawed switchbacks. Despite hitting the trail at 3:20am, it had taken us five and a half hours to do 4.5 miles… 

At the top, we chatted with the few other hikers who had been struggling up the pass with us, but didn’t dally since it was already late. We were able to make it down off the pass very easily due to good conditions, and we quickly put down some miles. We had several more river crossings, and then stopped near a stream for an early lunch at 11am maybe 8.5 miles in to the day. After our brief lunch, we forded the South Fork of the Kings River, which was one of the few river crossings we were concerned about. Thankfully, despite the river’s increased depth from snow melt, the current wasn’t too strong and we easily made it across. From there we trudged up the hill towards Mather Pass, but stopped short to quickly throw the tent up at mile 815.4. We could see multiple thunderstorms brewing in the distance, and we were about to climb above the tree line. Not long after we hopped in the tent, the heavens once again opened up and dumped a bunch of rain and sleet on us. Hopefully it melts out some more snow, and hopefully the others hikers climbing the pass were able to weather it. Since it was about 3pm already, we decided to call it a day. It’s crazy that we hiked for nearly 12 hours and all we have to show for it is 11.4 miles. The snow, rivers, and mud are really killing our pace (and us)! Fingers crossed it gets a bit better after Mather since we’ll be at slightly lower elevations.

Day 77

The author wades through creeks and blowdowns

I ended up passing out from exhaustion early last night, and except for waking up to another storm booming off of the granite walls around 8pm, I slept through the night. When we got up at 3am, the tent had a crust of frost on the outside so the temperature had really tanked! Wanting to make some distance today, we wasted no time in packing and hit the trail. The first mile and a half were annoying since we were route finding over snow in the dark, but it went by quickly enough. We hit Mather Pass’s climb right at first light around 5am. Thankfully there was another group ahead of us so we could see which routes they took. We did a bit of rock scrambling in the beginning to get on an established bootpack where the trail should be. From there, it dried out for a little bit before it hit the main set of switchbacks, which were buried in ice. To get around them, there was an excellent diy bootpack switchback in the frozen snow, so we went up that route, being very careful with each step. Once we were past the bootpack, we had one mostly snow free switch and then a scramble over some snow to the top. All in all, not a horrible climb despite what we had been told! On top, we soaked in the early morning views and then started our climb down.

The climb down mostly went well. The snow was frozen solid, so outside of the bootpack it was nearly impossible to get a good grip on the high angle frozen snow. We were doing pretty well until we ran into a spot where someone had decided to glissade down the bootpack, thus turning the steps into an icy slide… Anna managed to make it down by carefully side stepping in her microspikes and digging in where the snow seemed to have the most texture. I tried the same, but with no luck. Out of an abundance of caution I tried to downclimb it, but it was only a few steps before I lost all traction and slid. Since the snow was a solid block of ice, my attempt to self arrest was fruitless and I ended up slamming to a stop in the ice covered runout. I was battered, cut, and bruised, but otherwise alright. Anna helped me pick up my things, and then we walked on, eager to catch up on our mileage goals.

We managed to get out of the snow earlier than expected, at around 11000 feet or so. The trail was quite flooded from all of the snowmelt, but otherwise it was in good shape! So we pushed on the rest of the day, hopping blow downs, crossing numerous rivers and streams, tripping over granite, etc. At one point we did see some deer, marmots, and pikas, but no other wildlife of note. After Mather Pass, we descended down to 8035 feet, and we were rewarded with a gorgeous dense forest filled with the sound of the roaring Palisade Creek and Middlefork of the Kings River. We were aiming for a campsite closer to Muir Pass (our next one) but once again a series of progressively stronger thunderstorms rolled in right around 3pm, so we stopped short just before the storms hit at mile 832.6. We once again put in a 13 hour day with only 17 miles to show for it. Still, as I sit here writing, rain and hail are coming down on the tent, I can hear the boom of thunder rumble off of the granite walls, and I can see the brief flashes of lighting. This weather would be completely miserable to hike in, and it would be next to impossible to dry out until tomorrow after sunrise. Needless to say, this section is grading on me.

Day 78

Anna and I just before the snowfields north of Muir Pass

Another rough one. It must have rained overnight because when we woke up, the tent was covered in rain (not dew). We once again had a 3am wakeup and quickly hit the trail. We cranked out the first 5 miles and 2500ft of climbing in around 2 and a half hours and started the approach to Muir Pass right as the sun was coming up. The next 2ish miles ended up taking around another 2 hours due to the amount of route finding that was needed and the semi crummy snow. The last push of the climb was rough since we were walking straight up the snow, so it came as a surprise to me when suddenly, there was Muir Shelter! We hung out for a bit, took pictures, and read the hiker log, but we were careful to not dally too much as we knew that a large snow field awaited us. 

We had walked maybe half a mile on firm hard snow when bam! Not just a posthole but a whole section of snow collapsed under me, knocking me on my side hard enough that my glasses fell off. From then on, the snowfields just became progressively worse where even if you were on the bootpack, and stepped precisely where the person in front of you had, you could fall up to your waist. Because the north side after the pass is relatively flat, the snow fields from hell went on for nearly 5 miles, becoming progressively mushier. We both fell multiple times, received cuts from the icy top layers, and bruises from buried rocks. Around noon, we stopped near Evolution Lake to eat something and dry out the tent. Unfortunately, there was zero shade and I ended up getting a bad sunburn on my legs. It was there too, while drying out our socks and shoes, that we both noticed how macerated our feet were from the days of soaked feet due to snow, flooded trails, and river crossings. The skin between two of my toes was worn down and Anna had sores all over her feet. We took this time to tape up our feet, and with no further deep crossings for the day, I donned my waterproof socks. We slogged downhill into a gorgeous forest full of meadows, with the plan to cross Evolution Creek. Unfortunately, we were too tired and the sky was darkening, so we called it a day a little past 4pm at a lovely tentsite next to the river at mile 850. The only downside to our spot is that the mosquitoes in this valley are hell incarnate… The Sierra section cannot end soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

Day 79

Look! A river with a bridge!

Anna and I decided to sleep in until 4:30am so that we would have a little bit of light for the Evolution Creek crossing. When 4:30am rolled around though, we slept in until 5:45am since we were dead tired and not interested in hiking. Once we got up and moving, the hiking was not too bad nor were the mosquitoes thankfully. That was, until we took the Evolution Creek alternate crossing route (since the creek was swollen with snow melt). The alternate was basically a shin deep wade through a swamp for a mile, with a mid-thigh wade (on 6’2” me) through ice cold rushing snow melt in the middle. Needless to say, it sucked. The main crossing looked to be chest deep and pretty treacherous though, so we were glad to have taken the alternate. Once we were through, I rinsed my shoes and feet off, dried my feet, and put on my waterproof socks to try and avoid further maceration. Anna’s feet were getting absolutely shredded though. 

Once we started the long downhill afterwards, Anna told me that her stomach had been killing her, which is very unusual for her. We were also both totally drained, so on one of our breaks I started scouting for ways to get to VVR sooner. I noticed that the side trail to Muir Trail Ranch, lead to another side trail which hooked up to Florence Lake. From there, it should be a pretty easy walk to VVR. We chatted for a bit and determined that it was a better plan to not have a sick person go over a potentially sketchy mountain pass, and that since it was lower, it should give us some nicer snow-free hiking. Once decided on, we cruised the next few miles, enjoyed the 3 bridges that crossed the roaring South Fork of the San Joaquin River, and exited at mile 858.9.

The initial trail was fairly buggy, which was foreboding, but otherwise it was quite cruisy and well maintained. The few people at Muir Trail Ranch all seemed to be quite busy, so we left them alone and mosied on. We stopped a little ways in to have lunch, and a local family with dogs said hi followed by a Mercedes MOG passing by. We then walked on until we hit the fork to either hike Florence Lake or take the trail to the ferry. Since we had zero info on the ferry, we opted to hike around the lake. The lake itself was absolutely gorgeous, and we saw tons of wildlife including a bald eagle nest complete with eagles! The weather kept threatening it’s usual afternoon violence, but aside from a quick shower, it held off. Once we made it around the lake around 3:30pm, we were both cooked and we had done roughly 20ish miles for the day. We saw a sign for a general store, so we headed over to check it out and learned that it wasn’t open yet for the season, despite it being June 8th. We wandered down the road to a public camping area, Jackass Meadows, and learned that it was closed for construction until mid July… Defeated and now very tired, we grabbed some river water to filter while the mosquitoes attacked us, set up the tent in the first suitable spot we could find, and then dove in to hide for the night. Anna’s stomach is still giving her a lot of grief, so I’m hopeful we can get a hitch to VVR tomorrow. If not, it looks like we have a cushy 10ish mile forest road walk in. I hope she’s alright and not getting sick with something. Likewise, Mammoth (our next real town) cannot come soon enough.