Day 60
Clementine claims Anna by lying on her feet.
Still not sorted out on our plan, Anna and I left early to resupply, grab breakfast, and to discuss what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, the local supermarket, Rays, was hilariously overpriced ($3 for a small pouch of tuna) and my 6 day resupply ended up being over $100! After having been fleeced, we didn’t want to spend too much on breakfast, so we grabbed some cheap sandwiches from Burger King and discussed our options. We both agreed the Sierra still needed a week or two to thaw but that we also weren’t very stoked to break trail on the next section. We decided the best option would be to hang out in town with Imi to wait for Bush to come back with his buddy Whiskey and to decide with them since the snow would be more fun in a group or if we side quested, it would be more fun as well.
That settled, we went back, showered, packed up, and took advantage of the last remaining hours in our room. We then packed up and hung out at a coffee shop for a few hours where Imi connected with a local trail angel who was happy to host us while we waited on Bush! While at the coffee shop, I took advantage of the cozy couch and read a book. After a while though, we became quite hungry, so we set out to take care of some chores. We found Imi some sunglasses and I grabbed a can of permethrin to treat my clothes. Chores done, we went to “Say Cheese” pizza and loaded up on pizza and pizza rolls. Fat and happy, we wandered up the road to our pre-arranged pickup point and met Noelle, the local trail angel who graciously gave us a lift to her house in Dunsmuir, and hosted us at her house. We met her beautiful dog, Clementine, and her husband, and got nice and cozy while we all chatted. Just after dinner time, Anna, Imi, and I walked around to see the town and grabbed some ice cream before calling it a night and tucking in. Hopefully some more snow melts as I really have no interest in a snow slog.
Day 61
Anna, Imi, and I pose with Noelle at the Castle Crags Campground.
With the decision pressure finally gone, I slept soundly in my bed at Noelle’s house and didn’t get up until well past 7:30am. It seemed like everyone else was still asleep, so I stayed in bed and read for an hour or so until I heard the telltale sound of Clementine’s nails and feet on the wooden floor. Noelle made us all hot drinks and specifically picked out themed mugs for each of us! She then gave us some breakfast spot recommendations and we headed into Dunsmuir to grab breakfast sandwiches and chocolate croissants. While we were there, Imi solidified plans with Bush and Whiskey, and then Anna and Imi headed off to the Dollar General while I headed back to permethrin my clothes. We then spent the later part of the morning reading, playing with Clementine, and chatting with Noelle. Around 2:30pm, she kindly gave us a ride back to trail, made sure we had contacts and bailout points, and we said our goodbyes.
We quickly arrived at Castle Crags Campground and set up our tents at the PCT campsite. Not long after we arrived, Doc swung by and dropped of Bush and Whiskey who had kindly brought Taco Bell for everyone! Anna and I hung out for a bit, and then hiked down to the gas station store to grab some drinks and ice cream for the hot afternoon. Back at camp, we all hung out for a while before the mosquitoes became too much, causing us all to retreat to our tents. It’s nice to be back hanging out on trail, but I’m now a bit worried about the heat combined with the potentially deep trail snow. Tomorrow should go well, but fingers crossed for the days ahead.
Day 62
Navigating snow near Gumboot Lake.
Eager to be back on trail and to finish the climb before the day heated up, we woke up at five and started up. The first 9 miles from Castle Crags Campground were fairly friendly with the usual gently rolling up and down, but then we hit the hellacious climb of 3300ft over ~5 miles. Along the way, we had amazing views of the Castle Crags formation, above us and then eventually below us as the trail took us to higher peaks. We hit a few patches of soft snow but nothing too crazy. We passed a single weekender who had camped at the top, but otherwise it was just Anna and I. We stopped around mile 14 for lunch and to rest a bit before we pushed through a snow buried section. The next 5 or so miles were a bit slower going, but nothing too tricky as trail was buried in half frozen snow with zero bootpack. As we broke trail and rounded a bend though, we were rewarded with a few miles of gorgeous flat, snow free ridge hiking above the Seven Lakes area to our left. Because of this section’s south facing aspect, the next few miles were totally snow free with amazing views of Lassen to the south and the other surrounding peaks. At mile 22, we hit the turn off to ridge to the north around 4pm, and encountered horrible trail conditions: steep avalanche chutes with soft, thin, unstable snow. To make it even worse, the runouts were all full of rocks, making the trail even worse. We donned our microspikes and ice axes, then slowly began to probe forward breaking trail as carefully as possible, trying to route find around obvious hazards like cornices or buried blowdowns. In a few areas we rock scrambled and bushwhacked to continue on safely, but it was hell. On one particular chute traverse, Anna made it across fine, but her step and 5ft of snow slope below gave way under my foot, causing me to have to self arrest. These last 2 miles ended up taking us nearly 4 hours, so by the time we arrived at the Gumboot Lake Trailhead parking area (mile 1527.3), we were dead. Since this was supposedly the safest stretch of trail between Mt. Shasta and Etna, we decided it wasn’t safe to continue on. I messaged Imi on the Garmin (she was camped out with Bush and Whiskey miles back before the shady spot) that we were bailing in the morning, had a few snacks, and then tucked in for the night. Looks like we’re going to have to change plans yet again.
Day 63
My two new best friends in our hitch back to Mt. Shasta.
Since we were so zapped last night, we both slept well and slept in! Thankfully I had remembered to download a few maps offline on CalTopo, so I quickly figured out that we could follow the Gumboot Lake road along the South Fork of the Sacramento River, and it would spit us out at Siskiyou, just outside of Mt. Shasta town. The whole thing was barely 12 miles and mostly downhill. Eager to not waste another day, we packed up, and followed the road. The first few miles were buried in hard snow, but as we descended, it quickly thawed out and we entered a gorgeous forest. Once we were fully out of the snow, we stopped for breakfast and hot drinks and saw a van drive by! We quickly packed up and hopped back on the road, hopeful for a hitch. Maybe 5 minutes later, a nice woman in a van came by and offered us a ride! Apparently the forest service had just opened the road up to the lake! Anna took the front seat and listened to the driver talk about the magnetic healing energy of Mt. Shasta while I cuddled in the back with her two massive dogs. We saw a few glimpses of Lake Siskiyou, which appeared to be crowded in anticipation of Memorial Day weekend. She then kindly dropped us off in town at a coffee shop, and we finally relaxed and read for a few hours. Imi and crew had to backtrack to bail out, so it took them longer to make it back down. While we waited, I continued to read Barbarian Days, which was making me wistful for the beach instead of all of this snow. Around 2pm, a large Toyota HiAce arrived and blared La Cucaracha. Our ride had arrived! Whiskey had driven his car across from North Carolina and fortuitously stored it nearby. We hopped in, and hit the road!
The next few hours were a bit of a blur for more as I went in and out of sleep and bouts of carsickness. As Mt. Shasta shrunk behind us, Lassen grew ahead of us, before shrinking as well. We were headed to Reno since Bush was keen to hit a casino for the night. Meanwhile, I tried to sell everyone on staying an extra night so that we could catch a minor league baseball game for the holiday weekend, but no one was interested. Once we got to Reno, we checked in to our hotel, and Anna and I cleaned and charged, before tucking in to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Whiskey was asleep in his own room and we were far from any dining options, so we grabbed some chicken from the downstairs casino. It was pretty dire to say the least, but food is food. Around the time the movie ended, Imi returned from the casino. We chatted a bit about how we were getting back to Kennedy Meadows, and then called it a night. I’m still sad no one was interested in doing anything for Memorial Day, but it is what it is.
Day 64
Stay classy Reno.
Unfortunately, I think I’m fighting a cold since I woke up incredibly warm multiple times throughout the night. Needless to say, I slept poorly and laid in bed for a while until Anna began to stir. We took advantage of our room and got cleaned up again before packing up and hitting the road with Whiskey a bit after 10am. He kindly stopped by a Patagonia outlet so that Anna and I could replace our ruined, threadbare shirts, and then we headed to REI for last minute gear where we met up with Bush. Properly supplied, we headed south towards Bishop and drove through miles and miles of empty Nevada desert. I slept for a bit, but it was a restless sleep due to the cramped quarters and me feeling ill. We drove for hours, eventually rolling in to Bishop around 5:30pm for gas and food. The gang wanted Taco Bell, so we popped in there and headed into the mountains to camp on BLM land. We could see the Sierra still getting snowed on, which was a bit disheartening, but between the Aussies’ visas and our budgets, we can’t really afford to keep waiting. The campsite we chose was high desert at 7500ft, so it should help acclimate us. We all enjoyed a nice fire as the sun set over the horizon. I love this aspect of camping/thru-hiking, but I’d be lying if I said I was excited for the Sierra.
Day 65
Sorting our Sierra resupply in the heat.
Despite it being a bit warmer than usual, I woke up alternating shivering chills to sweating fever once again. No clue if I’m sick or what the deal is. As a result, once we hit the road, I had zero appetite and didn’t eat until much later in the day. The drive from Bishop to Ridgecrest consumed most of the morning, but thankfully it gave me time to half sleep in the car. Once there, we posted up at a Starbucks to charge our devices and so that everyone could get their caffeine fix. It was ungodly hot compared to the last time we were there, so the strong air conditioning was excellent. Once everything was charged and we had all gone through our foodbags, we headed over to Walmart to grab any last minute items. Since it was a holiday weekend, the Walmart was packed and annoyingly out of things. Still, we managed to find most of what we needed before the others. Since we had time to kill, Anna grabbed some Subway and I grabbed some Panda Express since I figured white rice and grilled chicken would be easy on my stomach.
Groceries and food sorted, we headed to Sergio’s house and repacked all of our food on his lawn so that we could spread out. Surprisingly, mine nearly all fit into my foodbag, despite me picking up a bit more than planned. Anna’s all seemed to fit nicely in her bag as well, but the others were having to get creative to get the 7 day supply to fit. Once that was all sorted and Sergio was ready, we dropped off Whiskey’s van at the storage facility, and then caught up with Sergio on the drive up to Kennedy Meadows. Unfortunately a bad group of hikers had taken advantage of his generosity, stolen from him, and then bad mouthed him on FarOut, all of which had had an impact on him and made him more sad. He was happy to see us all though again, and talked about his family and other hikers he had hosted. On the climb up to Kennedy Meadows South, we noticed that the flowers were all but gone along with the snow that was present on the mountains tops. At the General Store, we were shocked by how many hikers and weekenders there were. We stayed briefly to grab a few bites of food and sort out our bear cans (which had been very generously supplied by Outside Jay! Thank you so much man!). Fearful of the crowd and the potential to get sick, we hiked out and set up camp along the gorgeous South Fork of the Kern River at mile 707.1. It’s definitely weird to be back here.
Day 66
A view of the meadows before climbing up to 10,000ft.
I had a bit of trouble sleeping again, but I made sure to wake up at 4:30am in order to adjust our sleep schedule for the passes. Since I was tired, we had a slow wake up and hit the trail a bit before 6am. Right off the bat, we had a slow, warm 2000ft climb over 9mi. Most of it was graded nicely, but there were bits that were fairly steep. Near the top, Imi, Bush, and Whiskey caught up and hiked with us for a bit before passing. We also encountered several locals who were out camping and fishing for the holiday weekend. Since we were so used to only seeing hikers going northbound, Anna inadvertently mooned some southbound weekend hikers when she was changing. Once on top of the first climb, we had a cruisey couple of miles to Monache Meadow where we stopped to grab water from the Kern River. While there, we chatted briefly with some other hikers and watched some small birds flitter in and out of their nests under the bridge. We hit 10 miles before 10am, and then started the slow trudge up our main climb of the day. The climb ended up being an absolute slog, predominantly due to the elevation kicking my butt. We climbed 2800ft over 8 miles, topping out at 10600ft, our highest elevation of the hike so far! Once on top, we took a break before coasting the last few steep miles down back to 9000ft. We were going to go a bit further, but we saw the gang set up at mile 729.3, so we stopped and called it a day just after 4pm. All in all, we did 22.2mi, 5300ft up and 2500ft down. Not a bad start to the Sierra section, but I’m absolutely feeling the altitude.
Day 67
A large sequoia (Anna for scale).
I ended up passing out very early yesterday, but unfortunately my sleep was pretty restless. It seems like I was not alone though as I could hear the telltale sound of other pads creaking. Despite getting up at 4:30am, Anna and I held off on packing up until 5:30am since we were camped too close to Bush, Imi, and Whiskey to be stealthy. Once we heard Bush rustling, we sprung into action and quickly hit the trail. The first few miles were flat and crossed a pretty meadow before immediately sending us up a 1700ft climb to 10700ft. Unlike yesterday, this climb was thankfully much easier, hopefully on account of us acclimatizing to the elevation. We reached the top before 9am and then motored down the other side, easily hitting 10mi before 10am again! We stopped briefly on the way down to have a snack break, where I also decided to start walking in my boxers since my new shorts were causing some severe chafing. Chafing sorted, and with more of a breeze between my legs, we kept pushing until we stopped at Dutch Spring for water and lunch around noon.
We were starting to feel a bit tired by then and we had seen no one all day, so we took a longer break. Just before 1pm, we hit the trail again and ran into Bush and Imi who were just arriving. We chatted for a bit before jumping into our next climb of of 1600ft. A mile up from where we saw the others, we met Rebecca, a local former PCT hiker who was waiting on a friend, who graciously gave us trail magic in the form of cans of 7-Up! I apologized for my state of undress, and then we continued on. At some point, we rounded a bend and hit a sizeable (and annoying) snow field, which slowed our pace and dashed our hopes of an early evening. We then went in and out of snow drifts for the next several miles until we arrived at Chicken Spring Lake (mile 752), our destination for the night. We had done a bit over 22 miles, but we had also managed 4500ft up and 2000ft down, practically all over 10000ft! Just before we reached camp, we also saw a large marmot near the turn off for Cottonwood Pass, and at camp we spotted a large coyote! It would also be a mistake to avoid mentioning just how gorgeous Chicken Spring Lake is! Fingers crossed our luck holds and the trail to the Mt. Whitney approach isn’t too snowed in or slow tomorrow.
Day 68
Me hiking in my underwear because my new shorts were chafing.
The altitude is starting to get to us, and me in particular. I hardly slept last night and as a result I was already dead when we broke camp just before 5am. Anna thankfully set an easy pace for us as we crawled over the snow and boulders in the climb up from the lake. At the top, we passed the Sequoia National Park entrance sign, and had stunning views of the mountains in the distance. From there, we had long partially snowed over switchbacks for 10ish miles down to Rock Creek Camp. Along the way, Bush and Imi passed us and we traded Whitney plans for tomorrow. From there, we crossed the snow melt swollen creek via a fallen tree, and then hit our hard climb of the day, nearly 1500ft up over about 2.5 miles. The climb ended up zapping the rest of my energy, especially because the majority of it was not shaded. From there we cruised along through a sequoia forest until we hit a high slope angle snowed out section of trail full of boulders. Fearful of punching through the snow and breaking something, we decided to instead carefully climb down the nearby rock wall. Finally at the bottom, we cruised along the remaining mile and a half of trail, rock hopping across Whitney Creek twice along the way. We reached our intended campsite, Crabtree Ranger Station (mile 767.5), and set up camp around 2pm. The plan is to try and nap the day away, and to get up around 11:30pm to hit the trail at midnight. Hopefully I can finally get some rest in as I am dead tired.
Day 69
Anna and I at the summit of Mt. Whitney
Our plan was successful! The cool, cloudy afternoon yesterday, combined with me being dead tired meant that I passed our easily and slept all afternoon and evening. We woke to our alarms at 11:30pm and quickly hit the trail with minimal packs for the summit. Right away, I was still feeling sluggish, so most other hikers blazed past us and we could watch their progress by the light of their headlamps up above. Routefinding in the first section also proved to be annoying as the trail was either not clearly defined, snowed over, or flooded. Without too much drama, we made it to our first waypoint, Guitar Lake, and stopped to filter water. Since it was pitch black out with the new moon, we had no concept of the lake, or our greater surroundings. From Guitar Lake, we again toiled with routefinding in the half frozen snow fields until we finally found the switchbacks. Thankfully, these proved to mostly be bare stone and sand, with the occasional long traverse across an avalanche chute. The chutes though, were much too steep to pose a real threat at the time, had solid bootpacks, and were frozen solid. Still, a few of them definitely gave me pause. As we climbed ever higher in this first section, I battled nausea and fatigue from a mixture of exhaustion from our past few days and altitude. This first sections of switchbacks was by far the hardest and ate up a considerable amount of time. From there, we eventually reached the summit trail where the John Muir Trail and the Whitney Portal trail met. The summit trail from this point on was much more friendly, essentially just a long ridge traverse for the first third, a rock field with a loosely defined path for the second third, and finally a climb up a steep bootpack for the last third. Despite its ease, it was still slow going for me due to the effect of altitude on my body. Still, when we finally reached the summit around 6am, we were rewarded with an incredible view and I was happy to have made it up!
We spent maybe 20 minutes at the top, soaking in the views, before starting the long climb down. The climb down ended up taking around 6 hours as well, mainly due to our abundance of caution in the now melting snow, and stop offs to enjoy the scenery we had missed during our nighttime climb. Of note, we stopped at Guitar Lake for a long lunch, and while we were there we spotted a pika and more than 20 marmots! A few of these marmots had clearly been fed before as well, as they wasted no time in climbing right up to us and standing tall in an attempt to “beg.” Needless to say, we did not feed them. From there, we had another 2 miles of deep postholing, and made it back to our tent right around noon. Despite the tricky logistics of juggling the impending Forester Pass, potential thunderstorms, and Kearsarge Pass to exit for our resupply, we were both dead tired and decided to take the rest of the day off and enjoy gorgeous Crabtree Meadows. The plan is to once again sleep the rest of the day away, have an “alpine start” and hopefully get up and over Forester tomorrow before. Fingers crossed the trail between here and there continues to be friendly and not a 1 mile an hour slog fest. Town cannot come soon enough this time around, as the Sierra are kicking my butt.
