15.53 // 767.5 (no PCT miles)
This morning Bob, Lighthouse and I got up at 3 AM to start hiking Mount Whitney. We were ready to go by 3:40 AM and then it took us another 20 minutes to find a safe place to cross the creek. The log that everybody uses during the day was iced over in the morning. So we walked up and down the creek and ended up having to cross on that log anyway. So by the time we got on the trail, it was 4 AM. We started hiking with headlamps on and it went pretty well. It was mostly easy to follow the trail. We lost the trail only a couple of times. We hiked until about 3 miles and then took a breakfast break. Then we got going again and it was a lot of work, a lot of incline. It was 7.4 miles and 4000 feet ascent. It took a long time because we were slow due to the altitude and the incline. I was the slowest. Lighthouse and Bob both did very well. The scenery was different. Lots of rock and talus. It was pretty interesting. We hiked and hike and hiked up up up up up. We had a couple of snowfields to cross, so we put our traction devices onto our shoes. We reached the summit around 9am. It was pretty amazing. Mount Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states at 14,505 feet. We took about five hours to get there. We were able to hang out have something to eat and take pictures because it was warm in the su . We also had cell service!!!! So Bob and I sent some messages. I tried to call the kids but the signal was too weak. It’s Father’s Day apparently. After about an hour we started walking back down. That takes pretty long too because it’s steep and technical and Bob‘s left knee is still bothering him. This whole day kind of aggravated it more. We got back to camp at about 1:45pm. It was really interesting to see the sites coming down since it was in the dark when we were going up. The rest of our group decided to move on because they were already rested after their sunrise summit. By the time we arrived they were ready to go back on to the PCT trail. Bob, Lighthouse and I stayed another night. We did some hiker laundry. This is the first time I feel like we had downtime. It does mean we have a big day tomorrow, but it also means we are letting our bodies recover from the ascent today. Today’s miles do not count towards PCT. Summing Mount Whitney is an additional trip.
we had a nice relaxing evening, went to bed early and will hit the trail early again tomorrow.
18.31 // 785.5
Today was a big day. We started off the morning leaving Crabtree Campground about 5:45 AM. We wanted to get going because we knew we had Forester Pass 9 miles away and they recommend doing that early in the day and we weren’t gonna be able to do that but the earlier the better. We hiked 4 miles and met up with Lighthouse. He left camp just a little before we did. This was our first river crossing. We all got wet by just walking through it. No rocks or logs available and only knee deep. There were a ton of mosquitoes so we did not want to stay around, but Bob and I were both ready to have breakfast. So we hiked up the hill on the other side of the creek and had breakfast in the sun. It was really nice. There were still mosquitoes but fewer. Then we got going knowing we had another river crossing within a mile. This one had a log that we were able to cross so we did not have to get wet a second time. We kept going to Tyndall Creek, another river crossing. This one again, I just walked through with my socks and shoes, and my pants got wet. This is where we met up with Nature. Nature joined us from here because we were all going to do Forster Pass. It is a difficult pass and the highest pass on the PCT and we were going to be doing it later in the day which isn’t recommended (though we found out later it is a matter of preference). Nature joined us so that she wouldn’t be doing it alone. The trail leading to the Forester Pass approach was gentle and curated and an incline overtime. It was not a bad approach. And then we started climbing on the switchbacks on the south side. There was some snow, but not too much. We did not put on our traction devices yet. We did lose the trail a few times, every time there is a snow or a boot path, sometimes it’s hard to find the PCT trail on the other side. Once we got through the snow, lake, and rocky section we were ready for the switchbacks that took us straight up the mountain. It was pretty spectacular views. Then we crossed over to the north side of the pass. This is where we did need traction devices. There was a long snow field with a snow boot track in place but now it was around noon and the snow was melting. We cautiously went down the side of the mountain. It was nerve-racking for me. I think everyone was very careful and cautious, and I was too. I did have a quick fall at the beginning which broke my trekking pole (with an already broken tip). It broke the center section, so I shoved that up into the remaining part of the pole and had a short pole on the up side of the mountain. Then I did have a big post-hole, which caused my right leg to be pointing down the mountain it was concerning, but I was able to keep my head and stay calm. Bob was right there, reminding me to stay calm and I was able to get on a rock and get myself up out of that post-hole without twisting my leg. I was very lucky. Then we kept going and I fell again by a rock. Somehow I ended up with my back towards the downhill side and my feet towards the uphill side, again a rock stopped my fall. I was able to get back up on that rock and get back on track for the traverse. It was unnerving. Nature, Lighthouse and Bob all did have some post-holing moments, but I’d say my two falls were the most concerning. It seemed like a very long snow traverse. We did take a break quick break once we reached the rocks, but I didn’t want to stop. I really wanted to just get down and have this behind me. Coming down was still tricky. Nature did a great job navigating for us. We lost the trail and picked it up many times between snow traversing and finding it again. There were three hikers that were behind us that came trailing down like it was no big deal. We continued to persevere and hike down the mountain until about 4:30pm. We reached the first campsite and we stopped there and had a snack since we skipped over lunch. We had just kept hiking through all the challenges and difficulties. That was a good break resting spot. Then Nature went on her way and Lighthouse, Bob and I had 16.4 miles under our belt and still had energy for more. So we continued to hike down the mountain. We were anxious to get to lower elevation and away from the pass. We hiked another 2 miles when there was yet another river crossing. We did not want to get our feet wet right before camp so it took a while to find a good place to cross. We made it To Bubbs Creek camp. It is very windy. Bob set up the tent and a lot of wind breaks while I got water and made dinner and our protein shakes. We are both anxious to get to town tomorrow and get a break. I feel like this first section of the Sierra’s was Intense. We sort of went straight from desert to extreme Sierra’s. We are going through another learning curve. 
11.81 // 790.1
We had a good night. After Bob had created the walls around the tent and the wind died down we had no problems sleeping. This was a lovely campsite. It was 32° in our tent. Our fingers were cold, but we were able to get going and had our breakfast and got ready to leave by 6:30 AM. Lighthouse was ready before us so he left ahead of us. For some reason, Bob and I were moving slowly this morning and it didn’t seem to pick up. The forest was lovely. It was cold. We hiked for a ways and then Bob started having trouble with his stomach. He ended up needing to stop several times and was feeling weak. We had 4 miles to the spur trail for Kearsarge Pass. It was cool and sunny and the trees were pretty and we were enjoying the flowers. Our river crossings were all able to be done just by crossing on rocks or logs so that was nice. We didn’t have to get wet. There was a steep climb, heading up to the spur trail. We ended up never catching Lighthouse. We got on the spur trail to Kearsarge and saw some beautiful lakes. We did stop a few more times and got water and just slowly made our way up to the summit of Kearsarge Pass at 13 12,000 feet. We thought this would be an easier day. It was only 11 miles and we were heading into town, which always makes us excited and once we reach the summit, we just had a 4 mile downhill. As it turned out that 4 mile downhill was very hard. It was long and continuous switchbacks and seemingly never-ending. I’m not sure what it was about this 4 mile descent, but it was hard. It took us a long time. These were long miles. We didn’t stop to take any more breaks on the other side going downhill. We finally got to the bottom around 1:30pm. Bob asked the first hiker he saw if we could catch a ride with him to Independence, which is the town closest to the trailhead. We bought that hiker lunch at the taco food truck in Independence and then went to the gas station across the street to see if we could catch a ride with anyone. We were told to just hitch to Bishop, which is another 40 miles north of Independence or take the bus. We proceeded to hitch or try to hitch for about an hour and then we ended up staying in the shade at the bus stop. We knew the next bus was at 5 PM. So we had arrived in Independence at about 2:00 or 2:30pm and ended up waiting in the shade of the bus stop (because again, we are in the desert and the temps are in the 90’s this week) until that bus came at 5:15pm. We took the bus to Bishop got dropped off at the grocery store walked to a pizza place we saw and ate again. We finally checked into our hotel around 8 PM. I made sure to get one with a pool and hot tub so that Bob could do some physical therapy on his left knee. The downhills are hardest on it and after today it was not good.
0 // 790.1 – ZERO
This morning we had a delicious breakfast at our hotel. We had a nice visit with a couple of other PCT hikers (you can spot them a mile away 😜). We came back to our room and we were able to reach our son Oliver and had a great long conversation with him. We headed out to do some shopping in the three gear stores in town. I am looking for trekking poles. Bob is looking for a new sleeping pad and we have a few other items that might be replaced. We first stopped at the Shatz bakery, which was a very cool place. We bought a few items to have later. Bob had his first haircut in over 30 YEARS from the barber in town. I think he really liked it. We went to the Mammoth Gear Exchange, then Eastside Sports and Sage to Summit, all great shops in town. We then headed to the brewery to meet with Jukebox for a beer and a burger. Sean, Quick Change, Kodak and Fortune were there too. I had a delicious and fresh quinoa salad!!! YUM! 😋
Then I met the tramily at the bowling alley where I had a Cucumber Mule and ice cream with chocolate and caramel, a winning combination. It was fun to be with them again. They are getting back on trail a day before us.
I got back to the hotel and made more phone calls to Henry, my sister and my mom. It is nice to connect with everyone especially when we don’t have service for several days. We are finding that cell service is non existent in the Sierras, at least for us.
I am getting caught up on the blog and IG too.
0 // 790.1
We had another delicious breakfast at the hotel. I came back to the room and had a call with my aunts and cousins. We packed up and went to the hostel where the tramily was staying and got some fuel and watched them pack up. They are headed back on trail today. We came back to the hotel and started the last of our chores. We had packages to send, some last-minute gear to purchase, and our resupply to get from the grocery store. It is Juneteenth so the post office was closed. The trick with this is that when you mail something to a post office it has to be through USPS and not UPS or FedEx because a lot of the post offices in the small towns do not accept general delivery from UPS or FedEx. So we were hoping there would be a self-serve kiosk at the post office but there was not. We went across the street to the pharmacy so Bob could buy a brace for his knee. While he was in the store, he met a man who offered to drive us to the FedUp store (at the edge of town) so that we could mail our two packages today. That was so incredibly helpful. The woman at the FedUp store was extremely knowledgeable, and was familiar with what PCT hikers are doing, and that was helpful. Then the kind man drove us to back to town to the gear shop and dropped us off. We were able to get our errands done. I got a new pair of pants to replaced the ones that got a while in the seat around the 3rd week. 😬 Bob got a couple of new items. I saw Excel in town. It was good to see him since we split at Lone Pine. then we went and ate at KFC. We went to the grocery store to resupply, we’re looking at seven days. We’re trying to find calorie dense foods that take up the least amount of physical space so that we can fit more in our bear can. Bob and I both were a little spacey at the grocery store and had some trouble focusing and trying to learn the layout of the grocery store and every grocery store is different and we keep trying to find similar items and consistent items, things like protein powder or Ensure, collagen powder for our aged joints, and power green powder for our shakes. That took us a little longer than expected and we walked back to the hotel at about 6:30pm. Now we are repacking our food and getting ready to head back out on trail tomorrow. We will get picked up at 7 AM.
Happy trails,
Julie
@JulieandBobgoforahike
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