Day 57
Today was a drag for me. I felt so exhausted from two zeros and not doing much, how does that make sense!?
I’ve been feeling anxious going back into the sierra. Kearsarge Pass seems so daunting and today we are just heading back to the trailhead so I have all day to think about it.
We got up at 8 and packed up, cleaning the room as we went. I made a leash for my ice axe and pitter pattered about trying to find stuff to do.
By 11 we were out of the room and heading to the bus. The bus left at 1:15 so we had a lot of waiting time. We picked up lunch at vons and ate, then waited and waited.
The bus was free! Someone gave us a free pass, how kind. I slept most of the ride, then felt super out of it once we got to Independence. A guy offered to take us up to the trailhead for 30 bucks and we figured why not. We’ve been here ever since- took a 2 hour nap, woke up super out of it, ate dinner, set up, and now we’re laying in the tent.
I know that everything’s going to be fine and hiking just the two of us is the best thing we can do for ourselves right now, but I’m having a hard time getting my mindset back on this week. I think the two zeros and then another to trail was too long for me, even if I physically needed it. My shin is pretty healed up which feels good and I’m just hoping that at 330 when the alarm goes off I’ll be ready for it.
Day 58
Boy, were we not ready for that alarm. We hit snooze for a half hour then got up at 4, leaving by 5ish. Kearsarge was just as tough as Friday, but we could tell there was significantly less snow. It was a slow couple of hours getting up and over it. Taking your time to stay safe is so important but man does it eat up your day!
We were exhausted coming back onto the PCT. The sun was hot and already melting snow, and we quickly tried to make it up and over Glen Pass. It was pretty sketchy and the altitude was knocking me out, and finally we reached this one part where I looked at it and said absolutely not. It was 11:30, the snow was melting too fast and I didn’t feel safe going up and over. So we called it. 🙁
There was enough room for us to lay out and cowboy camp, so we decided to nap all day and get up super early (midnight) to do Glen and get to the base of Pinchot (or over if we’re lucky!)
I took a three hour nap, and then the sun beat down on us for so long that all I did was sit around and watching the sun change the shadows on the mountain.
It really sucks, wanting to hike but knowing that the safer option is to wait. All day I just wanted to pack up and walk but because of all that snow and the rate at which it’s melting, I was a sitting duck.
We ate dinner, got into our sleeping bags by 6 and said goodnight. Let’s hope tomorrow goes better with more mileage! Please🥲
Day 59
Glen Pass is the BANE of my existence.
The alarm went off at midnight and I was ready but Noah said he only got an hour of sleep 🙁 So we set another for 2 and went back to sleep.
Two rolled around and we were up and moving. It was an easy pack up because we cowboy camped! That was the only easy thing about this morning.
It took us so long to get to the top of Glen and we were only a little over a mile from it.
We were in the dark, headlamps on, half of the moon shining and I was not having any of it. I was pretty scared on this pass. It was super steep and sketchy with all of the snow, and when we got to the top we couldn’t even celebrate because the other side was a million times worse.
There was a boot track that went down the side of Glen and just tapered off straight down. I think I took an hour getting down that with my ice axe. I had “Honeybee” in my head the whole time.
So here we were, sun rising, it’s maybe 6am and we’ve been up since 2 and only done MAYBE 2.5 miles. Morale was very very low.
From there we traversed down into the valley, which had lots of snow. It wasn’t too bad for a bit, and the views were beautiful! We passed so many lakes today and threw rocks in them to break the ice.
I got down on myself for how slow we were going, but it’s pretty much out of our hands. The snow is so hard to walk through, especially when it starts to melt at 10am.
We trudged through from 10-12, and at one point Noah was ready to call it. I knew we were going down in more elevation and I was hoping that the snow would be gone soon so I pushed us on. We ate lunch at 12, had an hour long nap and then got ready to keep going.
The trail was snow free! Only a few patches here and there, but I’m so glad we kept going. We walked through so many rivers today – some of them had pretty strong currents but I’m thankful for my height and these jacked legs of mine.
We were hoping to get to a campsite 4.5 miles before Pinchot, but we called it a mile before. It was almost 5pm and we were exhausted. I’m glad the rest of the day turned up, but we really hiked for about 12 hours (not including breaks) and only made it 11.5 miles. Tough day. I need to adjust my expectations about mileage in the snow. And then I’ll look forward to booking it when there isn’t any!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Honeybee”-The Head and the Heart “Bed Chem”-Sabrina Carpenter and “All My Love”-Noah Kahan
Day 60
PINCHOT PASS, COMPLETE! Today was one of those completely unexpected, sucked a lot at parts, incredible beautiful sweeping views, surprises that come in the form of old friends kind of day.
The alarm went off at 3am and we both completely shut it off. No snooze, just off. We slept for a long LONG time, and both didn’t even discuss how this was going to affect our day, that’s how tired we were from yesterday.
Around 530 we knew it was time to get up (we were actually way overdue to get up) so we slowly started moving and then our saving grace appeared, GIL! Noah and I have been saying for days that we were hoping Gil and Tomtom would catch up (last time we hiked together we summited Baden Powell for sunrise!). I even had a dream this morning after we went back to sleep that they appeared and it was a joyous occasion.
We chatted with Gil for a minute and he said Tomtom must have passed us maybe ten minutes ago. We said we’d see them later and finished packing up, this time with a little pep in our step.
The trek to the summit of Pinchot Pass was arduous. The altitude was really affecting me, but I was glad the first bit was snow free. We also hiked next to this crazy beautiful river! It was gushing water so fast and gave us a beautiful morning hike ambiance. When we reached this really beautiful forest, the snow appeared.
Hiking in the snow slowed us down a bit, but we were determined to get to the top before the snow melted too much. I used cross lateral movements (shoutout Berg Dance!) to get myself up some steep climbs, and found that it was beyond useful.
We saw Gil and Tomtom summiting and took a break while we watched the clear the pass. We cheered for them so loud! They waved from the top. I was so excited to see them later.
The climb to the top was scary but I felt much calmer than with Glen. There was a big snow pass to cross which led us to some crazy looking rocks. Noah slipped but his axe stayed put so he safely made it to the rocks where he waited for me. I scrambled up the rocks, honestly would call it a rock climb moment and then we had a scramble up a rocky bit to the last snow before the summit. We did it! What a beautiful moment. We both felt so much better with this, more accomplished and grounded that we are capable. (Also, Glen literally sucked).
We slid down Pinchot with ease and headed towards the lakes waiting for us. There were so many of them, all brilliant blue and starting to melt.
It was so nice to walk down from Pinchot. There was lots of water melting – at one point we walked over a river covered in snow!
Then came the post hole nightmares of the day. Every step, over and over sinking into snow. Morale dropped. We had a huge forest to climb down and the post holing was nightmarish. The only thing that kept me going was seeing Gil and Tomtom at the end of it.
We made to them by 3 and I knew without a doubt we were camping there. We had planned for 4 more miles but why suffer when we had so much to catch up on! It was really nice chatting for a few hours. We both say all the time how much we miss them so I think subconsciously we went slower the past few days because Gil had texted me when they got to Bishop.
We set up, stretched, ate dinner, and got ready for bed. I’m excited for what tomorrow brings now that we’ve reunited with friends! They’re getting up earlier than us but I think we’ll camp together. I’m nervous about Mather Pass. I hope it’s not too bad and after everything is less scary.
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Down”- idk who check it out and “Things I’ll Never Say”-Avril Levine
Day 61
What an insanely hard, scary, fulfilling, stunning, incredible day today was. I feel like I’m finally back on PCT time after way too many zeros and my body trying to catch back up to what we’re attempting.
We woke up at 3 and were moving by 345. First thing on the agenda? And insane river crossing. The Kings River was no joke at 4am. The safest route was to cross at a section where it was split, meaning cross once, get on the island and find another safe route and cross again. The second time was so bad it was like an electric shock to my system. We were moving pretty quickly after that!!
We had 5.5 miles to Mather Pass. I was pretty nervous about this one because of the description on FarOut but I pushed it out of my head and let my freezing feet propel me forward.
As the sun rose we got to take in so many beautiful sights. There was a waterfall that had a huge snow bank so we crossed right in front of it!
We approached Mather Pass and could see Gil and Tomtom ahead of us with three other people we didn’t know! The three started the pass as we took a small snack break, and then we approached the base as Gil and Tomtom began. We watched all five of them for a bit, I repeated “I can do this” about a hundred times and then we started.
The first bit wasn’t too bad, just a long traverse to some rocks. I focused and kept putting one foot in front of the other.
Then came the straight up part. We had seen Gil and Tomtom go straight up but the other three had attempted a switchback which looked sketchier so we decided on straight up.
It. Was. Nuts. I cannot believe we did that! About halfway up the snow started getting slushy and we both were lowkey panicking about it so Noah spent the rest of the way making steps with his axe. It was slow moving but necessary for our survival! My legs were shaking and I was drenched in fear sweat but I kept putting one foot in front of the other because there was literally nothing else to do.
We made it to a rock section where Noah almost unintentionally killed me because he stepped on some loose rocks which pushed a HUGE rock off and straight down. He yelled “LOOK OUT” and all I could do was pray it didn’t hit me because I was mid climb. Thank god it didn’t hit me.
We continued through the rocks then the last part of snow. Noah post holed so bad at one point that I saw panic all over his face. It was really bad, really scary and could have ended a lot worse if his leg wasn’t so deep in the hole.
We scrambled up to the top and I kissed his face so hard I was so happy to have it all over. I took a video wishing my dad a happy birthday (I love you dad!!) and we kept on moving.
We trekked on down for a bit and then decided to glissade at a part that looked too steep. Noah said that he was scared so I told him I would go first. What a mistake that was. It was steeper than I thought and the snow was still pretty hard so it scraped the back of my other leg and I lost a bit of control. Thankfully, I was okay and I shouted that up to Noah. He was going to glissade down after me, but decided not to after watching me. However, he slipped and ended up doing the same as me. His didn’t go well either. He lost all three of his water bottles and a trekking pole. I fetched the pole and one bottle and then he went down to look for the other.
At this point, the snow was melting, faster and faster, and we were both hurting from the glade. We stopped to filter water, took Advil, ate some food and kept moving. This part of the day felt very slow, but was honestly so beautiful that I think that is all I will remember. There were so many waterfalls and beautiful lakes, and even though it was hard finding tracks in the snow and staying on the PCT route, I was having a really great day.
We post holed for quite a bit but knew that 5 miles after Mather Pass the snow would stop. We were in great spirits about that! It was really fun hiking with Noah today. The views keep getting better and the company is always amazing.
When we finally hit the valley, we could see that there was no snow and we celebrated! We hiked down a bunch of stones and granite steps, and there was lots of water coming down with us. It was hot, but my feet stayed cold, which was really nice. The elevation loss felt tough but I knew we were in the home stretch. We saw two marmots and they were so cute!
We took a lunch break at the bottom after climbing down and even though it was 3 PM I knew I needed it. I hadn’t eaten too much today because I was so focused on getting to our end. We had peanut butter tortillas with trail mix and I ate my oatmeal too. then we had 4.5 miles until the campsite.
Since there was no snow, we did it in under an whour and a half! It felt so good to walk without snow in my way, and it was really affirming to know that I am still just as fast as I was from Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadow South. Thank God!
That 4.5 miles was really beautiful. We walked through a meadow with some insane views. When we got to camp, we were so excited to see Gil and Tomtom and we also saw the three others that did Mather Pass today too. We caught up with Gil and Tomtom of them about our days and set up camp, grabbed water, stretched, and ate. They told us our plan their plan for the next few days and asked us if we wanted to be part of it. Of course we do!
We met the other three people – their names are Frank, Hipster and Hummingbird. Hummingbird started a fire and we all gathered around and talked for a few hours. It was so nice to meet them and chat and laugh. We are all in all at what we did today, and we’re all taking it easy tomorrow. I am so excited to sleep in! I freaking deserve it.
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “God’s Plan”-Drake (sorry Kendrick) “loml”-Taylor Swift “Take Me to Church”-Hozier and “Cha Cha Slide”-who knows
Day 62
Today is our two month trailaversary! I can’t believe it’s been two months already. The best two months of my life! And today was an easy and beautiful day for us.
We slept in and got up after 630. We’re officially hiking with Gil and Tomtom! We did a quick 7.5 miles to the highest point with snow free sites before Muir Pass. We barely walked through snow today which felt like a huge treat.
The miles went quick and we saw lots of waterfalls, walked along a river and had some nice cloud coverage as we gained elevation. We took a small break 5 miles in and ripped the rest pretty quickly.
We arrived to camp at noon and ate lunch, took a fat nap and ate dinner. Not much to report but all in all I’m happy to have taken it easy. The only down side is the snow melted and our tent now sits atop a puddle. Plus, when we were brushing our teeth it started SNOWING. Our first sierra snow and I am not happy about it! Hopefully it’ll stop soon. We’re waking up at 2 to do 23ish miles tomorrow. Gonna be a long one!
Also, we’ve discovered wild onions. It has completely changed our eating experience.
Songs at the forefront of my mind: All Kendrick – “Peekaboo”, “Humble”, “tv off”
Day 63
Today was so freaking long and I am ready to go to bed so I’m writing highlights out and adding tons of photos to show how amazing it was:
Did Muir Pass!!
Muir was so beautiful it was one of my favorites. The hut was so warm at the top and we wrote our names and confessions and hung out while the sun rose.
Walking down into the valley after the sun didn’t hit us until 830 so we got so much mileage in which felt GREAT!
Many beautiful lakes, rivers, barren desolate landscape and great conversations with Gil and Tomtom. We enjoyed our traverses even though they were covered in snow! The snow had the best crust.
We left the snowfields and found ourselves in the forest and going down in elevation.
Took spikes off as there was little to no snow, had a nice break and kept going.
Feet stayed dry until noon! Big river crossing but we had a long lunch and dried out all our shit- yard sale!
8 miles to go and we walked along a BEAUTIFUL river through a canyon with epic views.
Noah’s tummy hurt :/
I pushed the last 3 miles out in under an hour!
Dinner was lovely, so ready for bed. Today was our longest day in the sierra! 24 miles total.
Tomorrow we do Selden Pass. Another 2am wake up womp. The sky has been gorgeous at that hour but everything else has been tough.
That’s a wrap on Week 9! It felt much better to slow down this week. I had a tough start for sure, but once I got my trail legs back I felt the confidence take over and had an incredible rest of my week. We took too much time off (even if I needed it) and I spent too much time dwelling on the bad experiences of last week to focus on believing in myself. Don’t worry, I got my mojo back.
The next few weeks of the sierra will be the last and I can’t believe we’re over halfway through! Until next time y’all😘
