The heart of the Sierras: Mile 862

Written 7/2/14

Posted 7/6/14

Up until now we haven't really camped with a whole lot of people. We haven't been trying to be anti-social, but the way that it's worked out we usually have campsites to ourselves. The night after we descended Pinchot we had the most neighbors to date. Seven people were crammed into the only little site that was before the start of the next big climb (up Mather pass). It was kind of odd having this many people around us but we made the most of it by hiding in our tent all night and not really chatting with anyone because the mosquitos were so bad!! Since that night, we've hiked quite a bit with that group of people and have grown fond of them. It's the first time we've hiked consecutive days with a lot of the same people; however, we're back to camping alone tonight.

We bagged our longest mileage day yet after we summited Pinchot, making it 21 miles over Mather pass and beyond! This was a huge day but we got to end it by walking up Kings Canyon which was incredible! We followed the Kings River continuously through the canyon and the beautiful scenery helped the miles fly by. 

This ascent up Kings Canyon marks the start of Muir pass and this is one of our favorite stretches of the trail so far. At the lowest point between Mather and Muir, the Kings River empties into the valley via a huge waterfall creating a giant circulating eddy pool.  This could be one of our favorite swimming holes of all time (and we had the place to ourselves!)

The climb up Kings Canyon was gorgeous! We came across lakes with the most unique blue colors. This pass had the most snow on it so far and there was water everywhere. I think Muir pass has been my favorite because it was a very gradual climb. There were miles of alpine meadow, followed by miles of alpine lakes, all the while being surrounded by massive 14,000 foot mountains. At the top of Muir pass is a small 30 foot diameter stone hut. We spent almost an hour at the top of the pass chatting and laughing with Kimchi and Par-3. On the way down we went swimming in Evolution Lake and everyone thought we were crazy because it was so cold!

This morning we were on the trail by 7:30am and we had a short 11 miles to get to the Muir Ranch (our next resupply). However, we made the 11 miles last a long time because we were walking by some amazing waterfalls that deserved breaks and admiration. We had our first river ford on our way down which did not prove to be very challenging. This is a good thing because should you get swept away you'd get taken over those waterfalls quickly. The water was only knee deep and we made it across no problem (except for a few mosquito bites).

The Muir Ranch is a unique destination in the high Sierras. It's a quaint little mountain resort catered mostly to wealthy folks looking for a pampered backcountry experience. It can only be accessed by horseback or foot and is only a mile detour off the PCT. They have rustic cabins, horse corrals, and supposedly an outstanding chef. On the side however, they also accommodate thru hikers. 

They operate a resupply shack where PCT hikers can ship and receive a 5-gallon bucket full of food and supplies. The great part about this system is that hikers inevitably send themselves too much food or don't finish their trips, leaving their entire bucket unclaimed. The Muir Ranch donates all unclaimed buckets and excess food to visiting hikers (aka "hiker box"). This creates an all-you-can-eat buffet of mix and match food items. We ate to our hearts content (an entire stick of summer sausage, energy bars, rice with soy sauce, beef jerky...) and also picked up lots of goodies for the upcoming miles (13 ounce jar of Nutella, pack of Milano mint cookies, extra dehydrated dinners...). Some hikers bank on this bounty and stop only to feast as this place serves as a shelter for the homeless hiker. The hiker boxes are never empty at the Muir Ranch.

After gorging ourselves, we still managed a 2,500 foot ascent, most of the way up Seldon pass. This was an ambitious end to the day but it paid off as we have one of our best campsites yet, overlooking the valley below. We're only about 3-4 days away from our next town stop in Mammoth which we're very excited for! We'll be arriving on the 4th of July weekend so there should be a lot going on. Even though today felt like a town stop because of our feast, it was lacking cold beer, showers, and a bed. We'll have to see how quickly our excitement carries us the remaining 45 miles. 

Zero days and mosquitos: Mile 812

Written 6/29/14

Posted 7/6/14

We got to experience our first zero day in Independence. This is officially the first full day that we did absolutely no hiking since we started the trail. Unlike the magical land of food and drink we had imagined and fantisized, Independence turned out to be a tiny little town with only a few dining options to satiate our hunger pangs. We posted up in a cute little motel that was owned by a former PCT hiker named Strider. This place was a little pricier than the cheapest motel but it was really awesome and worth the extra money. We got an ice cold Sierra Nevada when we checked in. They also had a laundry service and loaner clothes so we could wash EVERYTHING. The day we left we got a hot and hearty breakfast and ride back to the trailhead from Strider. All these little extras really made it worth while and we had our own private space, with A/C and a TV for a change. We did little but stuff ourselves with food and lay in bed which is precisely how you're supposed to spend a zero day. 

Our first meal off the trail was an amazing pancake breakfast with pie a la mode for breakfast dessert (new concept: eat a dessert with every meal!). This was SOOOOO much better than oatmeal with peanut butter. After taking a breather and laying in the grass at the park, we mustered the strength and gumption to go have burgers, a pile of fried food, and ice cream cones. An evening full of cable TV followed, rounding out one heck of a rest day!

One might think that amount of sloth and binge eating would make getting back on the trail difficult; but this was hardly the case. We got right back into hiking gear and spent each of the last two days busting out 15 miles and 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The rest and recuperation did us well as we are taking down mountain pass after pass in the Sierras. 

Yesterday we went over Kearsage Pass and Glenn Pass. Glenn Pass proved to be more strenuous than we thought it would be because it was straight up a series of right switchbacks for almost a mile. The views at the top of Glenn were worth the climb though.

Today we climbed over Pinchot Pass. This was one of our biggest climbs yet; 7.5 miles ascending 3,500 feet. It felt like it went on forever but there were more lakes than we had seen yet on this climb. Swimming in alpine lakes gives you a boost of energy to help carry you through the steep uphills. The next few days should be very similar.

One thing that has made relaxing at camp difficult has been the mosquitos. We haven't been able to get to camp without frantically throwing on our bug armor in a while. Fortunately we're equipped to handle thembut their   overwhelming presence is still aggravating. We often feel like prisoners in our little bug net cell which is the only place we are unreachable. Our bug net is functioning terrifically! We couldn't be happier we made this and brought it along. We're anxious to test out the other features of our tarp tent. 

Independence Resupply: Mile 787

Written 6/27/14

Posted 6/27/14

After our big Mount Whitney day we had a fairly mellow day going over Forrester Pass. This is the highest point on the PCT, not including the Mount Whitney side trail, at 13,200 feet! 

Hiking up to the pass was very gorgeous alpine meadow with a lot of waterfalls, creeks, and lakes. When we got to the pass we chatted with some other folks hiking south bound and got the scoop on the northern trail conditions. We were happy to hear that our upcoming down climb of Forrester Pass was going to be the sketchiest part of the Sierras. Heading down the pas really wasn't too bad, just one steep short section of snow. 

The next day we were only 9 miles away from getting to the Onion Valley trailhead where we were planning to hitch a ride down into Independence, CA. Those 9 miles proved to be some of the most difficult miles yet because of the weather. We had to head over Kearsarge Pass in very strong winds because a storm was pushing through. I got blown over three times by gusts of at least 40-50 mph!

Eventually we got all the way down to the parking lot to discover some awesome "Trail Magic". The term Trail Magic is used when anybody helps out a thru-hiker, either by giving away some extra food, offering a hitch into town, or just general support of hikers. An older couple was staying at the campground in the parking lot offering food, beer, and rides into town. They are retired and just camped out for 2 weeks up there to support hikers. They hiked the PCT last year and just wanted to help out. What awesome people! 

Once we got to Independence, we realized that this town is tiny! There isn't much here. We decided to catch public transit down to Lone Pine which is a slightly bigger town. We've been eating a ton of food and resting up. Planning to get back on the trail tomorrow morning. Luckily the owners of the motel are very friendly to hikers and are going to give us breakfast and a ride to the trailhead tomorrow morning! It feels great to be in a bed and be clean again but I'm really looking forward to the next section of trail. We'll be in Mammoth in roughly 9 days where we'll post our next updates. Stay tuned! 

Mount Whitney: Mile 774

Written 6/24/14

Posted 6/27/14

We stood on top of the tallest mountain in the U.S. (excluding anything in Alaska) at 14,505 feet!!!! Mount Whitney is so awesome!!!

We camped just below Mount Whitney at a high alpine lake, Guitar Lake. We decided to wake up at 4am in order to watch the sunrise as we were climbing and also to beat the crowds. As we started our climb, Mike was feeling pretty tired and nauseous. I thought the altitude must've been getting to him so we stopped and he drank a lot of water while I tried to capture pictures of the sunrise.

We climbed 3,500 feet up from camp to get to the summit around 8am. When we arrived at the summit nobody else was there. We knew some other PCT hikers were sleeping in the hut at the summit but we felt like we were totally alone. Eventually a couple from Russia came to join us on the summit. After taking some summit photos we decided to head back down because we still had another 15 miles to hike before sundown!  See if you can spot me in this picture...

It was our biggest mileage day yet! We did a total of 20.1 miles with approximately 4,500 feet of elevation gain. Our feet hurt and we're exhausted but gee whiz what a phenomenal day!!!

Climbing high: Mile 761

Written 6/22/14

Posted 6/27/14

Oh boy the mountains are beautiful! We hit our 100th-trail-mile mark today when we got to Cottonwood Pass which also marks the start of the high Sierras! The day after we left Kennedy Meadows we were able to hike 19.5 miles with 4,000 feet of elevation gain which makes that our biggest day yet! We've been feeling really good and we're incredibly excited to spend the next couple of days in the mountains. We also got to experience our first lake swim at the 10,500 foot high Chicken Springs Lake. It was cold but clear and refreshing!

Ever since we left Kennedy Meadows we've been gaining elevation and the scenery has been constantly changing. Our water sources are starting to become more frequent which allows us to carry only 1 or 2 liters at a time and save some extra pounds on our backs. We started this section with 7 days of food and 2 liters of water each. Those are easily the heaviest packs that we'll have this entire trip so it feels great to have that behind us!

Our leg muscles are holding up incredibly well. We both feel like our legs haven't really been tired much. We do some yoga and stretch every other night which is definitely helping. Our blisters on our feet have been more of an issue than any thing else. PCT hikers refer to it as "having your blisters come in". It's inevitable that we'll get blisters and everyone experiences this phase differently. For me, I had horrible blisters all over my feet by day 4. I had a blister on each toe, one on the back of my heel, some between my toes, and some on the balls of my feet. Luckily for me, most of those blisters were small and they completely healed by day 7 and now they never hurt! Mike's blister experience has been a little different. He tends to only get one (maybe two) blisters at a time but there is always a fresh one somewhere on one of his feet. They heal after a few days and I'm sure that eventually he won't get them anymore. Just have to tough it out a little longer! 

We're getting creative setting up the tent. We were missing out on the stars because we weren't able to set up the mesh without the tarp. We started using this cord that Mike brought to tie between two trees and then just hooking the mesh to that. This way the ridge line isn't weight-bearing and we don't have to worry about putting too much force on the mesh seams. We can't cowboy camp without a mesh around the Sierras because the mosquitos would eat us all night.

I've also started to get in better eating habits with my trail food. The first few days I was trying to conserve my food because I didn't want to run out. So I was only eating snacks when I started to feel hungry. I was burning out in the afternoons with that scheme and I didn't have enough energy to get me through the day. I'm now eating something every two hours (minimum) even if I don't feel hungry and it's helping me keep my endurance throughout the day. 

Kennedy Meadows: Mile 710

Written 6/19/14

Posted 6/27/14

What a stay! We escaped the hiker vortex, Kennedy Meadows, but got to indulge just enough while we were there. So far on this trip we haven't run into a lot of other hikers and our interactions with those we have met have been fleeting. At KM we finally got to meet and socialize with all the other people that are around us on the trail. As it turns out there are lots of people that started where we did and skipped the desert so we aren't the only ones jumping on late.

It was interesting coming into the social scene. We felt like a pair of outsiders since everyone else seemed to know each other and all had cool trail names! It felt almost like being in high school when you don't belong to a clique :( To hide the fact that we were trail newbies and avoid any ill-fitting nicknames, we decided to give each other trail names. Receiving your thru-hiking trail name is a big deal in the PCT community; like a right of passage. Normally you have to hike several hundered miles before people get to know you well enough to earn your new title. But since we just started and didn't know anyone we thought it would be easier to come up with our own. Thus Chappy (Mike) and Two-Step (Erin) were born! No one seems to have noticed that we made our own names so long as we have a short anecdote for how we got them and we have seemlessly blended into the social network. We've met a lot of interesting and fun people: we hope to see more of the worldly travelers Hobo & Milkshake; the badass Two-Feathers solo hiker from South Africa; the Jolly Lama; and Dances with Bacon. 

It's easy to see why hikers have a hard time leaving KM. They have a large outdoor patio with 10-25 thru hikers drinking beers, watching the World Cup, eating burgers, and playing games. They had outlets available to charge your electronics, showers for 3$, laundry for 3$, a port-a-potty (with toilet paper and hand sanitizer!!!), and FREE camping in their yard! KM is basically a big party for thru hikers to go and be merry!   

We mingled and got our jollies in over our 24 hour stay and took off the next afternoon. We were able to get a good 7-8 miles out of KM which was enough distance to feel removed from the party. We weren't the only ones to leave that day and we ended up camping with other hikers for the first time. It was nice to have a small circle of people to interact with and get to know better as opposed to a large group of people. Though the conversations are similar (e.g. where you're from, why are you doing the PCT, what does your trail name mean, etc.) you still feel like you get to know people better out in the woods. 

We were the first to arrive at the campsite  and we stumbled upon a 2-foot long King snake! The catchy rhyme to distinguish between King (non-venemous) and Coral (venemous) snakes came in handy:

"Red touches yellow, kills a fellow. Red touches black, you're ok jack!"

We warned the other campers about it when they arrived but nobody seemed to mind. Storyteller actually got really close to it to take pictures! I was still pretty scared to sleep there so we opted to put up the mesh enclosure underneath the tarp. Worry-free night of sleep!  The wind was still roaring though, so even though our slithery friend didn't cost us any sleep, our tent collapsing in the wind did :(

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post.  We still have to get in the habit of taking pics with our phones to upload, not just the camera!

The desert stretch: mile 702.2

Written 6/18/14

Posted 6/27/14

Today we reached our first big landmark, Kennedy Meadows!  We've spent the last few days making our way through hot, windy, dry terrain. We intentionally cut out a large portion of the desert stretch of the PCT, whittling our stint down to a mere 50 miles or so. Neither of us regret that decision.  It's pretty landscape with expansive views, desert plants like yuccas and Joshua trees, and has it's unique charm, but we couldn't imagine 700 miles of it.  Water sources are normally a big concern through this section, and with California's drought, this is an especially dry year.  You can't bank on every 'reliable' source. There were a few occasions where we had to put in extra miles to find water which meant carrying extra weight but luckily we were prepared for such scarcity!

Another interesting aspect to the desert stretch (due to the dry climate) are the amount of burn areas. Wildfires are common and can create massive burn areas. We passed through several of these in the past couple of days; some of which left the landscape completely bare with dead trees. I find beauty in the stillness but it's very sad to see our human impact on such a large scale.

One of the more interesting things that we came across on the trail was an abandoned village called fox mill springs. It looked like nobody had inhabited the area in several decades. There were rusted out cars and foundations of buildings and delapidated equipment strewn about. It was an odd sight especially since there seemed to be no roads to get to that spot on the hillside.

There were a few inhabitants left. We saw a desert horned lizard (or at least that's what Mike thinks they were...). We almost stepped on a few of these well armoured reptiles because they just sit in the middle of the trail! 

We ended our desert stint today when we came across our first major water source: the Kern River! The water was flowing and it was even deep enough for us to take our first swim! This felt SO good to us I can't even imagine how the other hikers felt after spending an additional month in the desert.

We just walked in to Kennedy Meadows general store where all of the other hikers gave us a standing ovation which was really fun! All hikers get applause when they arrive and it makes you feel really good! We also passed some hikers leaving KM who warned us that this stop can be hard to leave because it's a vortex of luxuries and good people so we're going to try hard not to stay for too long.