Day 58 June 15, 2008

My parent's surprise 25th anniversary party today.......Thinking of you guys all day long!
Up early and within 2 miles, we were to Evolution Creek crossing (where both Neighbor and I stripped down to our underware to cross the creek) Not too bad and not too chilly thank goodness! Saw a big brown bear today, neighbor saw it standing up scratching it's back on a tree! Climbed over Selden Pass (easiest pass) Felt great today (lots of good camping on the south side of Selden) Not too much snow on the south side too! (but some on the north) Had to cross Bear creek at 5:30pm (I don't like big river crossings) and neighbor came back across the river to get my pack and then guided me across and I am SOOO glad he did, I probably would have been swimming in that one. It wasn't a pretty site.

North side of Muir Pass

Neighbor in his element, (route finding)

Chickety going up Muir Pass

Neighbor and Chickety at Muir hut

Day 57 June 14, 2008

Chief slept cowboy last night with his headnet on! Funny guy! Hiking by 6am and headed to Muir pass. Saw a small black bear on his way to get water, he just stopped (like he was camoflagued) as I walked by and snapped a pretty lame picture. Muir pass was pretty snow filled, had trouble finding the trail, soon we were slipping and sliding our way up to the pass. There is a hut at the top of the pass, and it's very cool (I'll add a picture soon) We passed one lone hiker (hiking the JMT) today. (We only saw 1 hiker in 2 days) If you get in between the groups of hikers, you really do feel isolated in these big mountains. Had to cross over a few snowbridges today with rushing water underneith, just holding my breath hoping that they don't break as I walk over!!! Came to this view of Evolution Valley today and wow, isn't it just like a postcard?! Camped near Mclure ranger station and the mosquitos were out in full force (we wore our headnets!!!)

One of the Palisade lakes!

Day 56 June 13, 2008

Hiking by 0620 and downhill to a raging "creek" crossing! Brrrr, at 7am, dipping into that frigid water was the last thing I wanted to do! But we made it across and let our legs get feeling back into them and went along our merry way to Mather Pass. Nice walking, lots of snow covered streams (like the one in the picture) you just never know how long the snow is going to hold while you are walking over them!!! EEEeeeek! Up the steep pass we climbed and walked alongside some beautiful lakes (Palisade Lakes) and rivers for miles. Every corner you came around was a new beautiful view, sometimes it seems fake it is just so beautiful. In the end, we hiked close to 20 miles and camped next to the Le Conte Canyon ranger station (closed) and the mosquitos were out for the first time on the trip!! I don't think they were biting, just flying around, but they were out!!!

Day 55 June 12, 2008

Beautiful walking this morning, the sun and the reflections on the lakes were amazing. One tricky river crossing with fast rushing water with 2 narrow downed trees (covered in ice) to cross on....got my heart beating fast! The next crossing was more rushing water where we just took our shoes off and then decided to change into shorts and try that for something new. (should have put on sunscreen..) Then we crossed the river again, but on a big swinging suspension bridge! Up and over Pinchot Pass, made it to the top of that pass by 3:15pm and thank goodness the other side wasn't as snowy as this side, cause we'd be sinking in snow up to our hips all afternoon!!! Camped up high with an amazing view of massive mountains all around us! What a place to be!

Day 54 June 11, 2008

Walked to the bakery for breakfast (man, I love that place!) Then caught the 7am bus from Bishop back 42 miles to Independence and then hitched for close to 2 hours and finally got a ride back to the trail! A nice guy named Brian gave 4 of us and packs a ride up the big hill! Thanks again Brian, hope the car is still hanging in there for you!! The hike up kearsarge pass wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be and we motored right along....powered by cinnamon sticky buns from the bakery!! We made our way over Glen Pass (had to use the ice axes) and then down to Rae Lakes where we camped for the night. I have no idea where this picture was taken, it just looked pretty!

Day 53 June 10, 2008

We got to sleep in! Then we went to this amazing Bakery in town! Schatt's! Wow! Then we went to Vons to buy food for the next 96 miles to Vermilion Valley Resort. Light food is all we were thinking! Cause we have to hike back up Kearsarge pass in the morning with it all! We went through our packs and will be sending home more stuff that we haven't been using to lighten up even more. I'm sending home my headlamp! I'm getting desperate here! LIGHTEN UP! We were even thinking of buying a tarpten (we are carrying the Hubba Hubba) and as great as it is (easy to set up, free standing.......it's heavy) But between the 2 of us, we have 6 tents and don't need to accumulate any more gear! Oh, big thanks to Stinkyfeet for the Sierrasummitssunblock! I've been putting that on my hands twice a day (and I'm still getting sunblisters.......but without it, I'd be in big trouble) Chief wears his winter gloves during the day to keep the sun off his hands and might have to resort to that if things get too bad. So, we are out of Sequoia National Park and into Kings Canyon National Park. 790 miles north of Mexico and will be at VVR in another 6 days time! Internet there is $45 per hour.........so, I won't be e-mailing! :) The internet I used at Kennedy Meadows was charged with a solar panel! Amazing the technology you can find on the trail!

Day 52 June 9, 2008

Up early and headed to town! Oh the food we have been dreaming about! STEAK! Basically, meat and ice cream fill our minds all day long! We were hiking by 0530 on a side trail (off the PCT) to town. Hiking up and over Kearsarge Pass was beautiful, but it was a bit more downhill than we expected........since we have to hike back up it on our return to the PCT with fully loaded packs. Anyway, Gordon was in the trailhead parking lot and he gave us a ride to Independece where we picked up our 2 boxes at the PO and then 3 letters that had been forwarded from Wrightwood!!! (one from my sister, one from gram and grampa Kingsbury and one from Grammy Peg!!) Always a nice suprise! Then we caught a ride to Bishop (40 miles away) with a nice couple going to buy some hay in their huge pick-up truck. Once in Bishop, we found a motel and showered and did laundry and then put a hurting on the all you can eat Sizzler salad buffett! YEAH! Nice town, good outfitter, good times!! Denny's for dinner with Thrust and Pacman.

Neighbor and Chief on the trail

Bullfrog Lake with East Vidette in back

Day 51 June 8, 2008

Up early and heading for Forester Pass (highest point on the PCT at 13,180 ft) before the snow gets all soft and slippery. We were only 5 miles away, but had to actually FIND the pass! The trail is covered in snow, so it's basically a "pull out the map and go" type of hiking. Well, we found it alright and made it to the top by 9:30am and the views were just breath-taking. Just the 3 of us, again! Taking it all in. There was a significant amount of snow on the northern side, so we pulled out the ice axes and made our way down safely. The snow started getting soft around 1130 and luckily we had found (bushwacked/snow-whacked) our way to the trail below treeline by 1230. Only about 1/2 hour of post-holing. Once below treeline, following the trail was easy and we made good time to Bullfrog Lakes trail (which would take us to Kearsarge Pass tomorrow......so we could hitch into town for more food) Camped past Bullfrog Lake with Thrust and Pacman and had the most beautiful campspot ever!!

Day 51 June 8, 2008

Neighbor sitting at Forester Pass.

Chief crossing the chute at Forester Pass!!

I figure you didn't want to see either Neighbor or I in this scary picture, but we also crossed the same chute! :)

video from Bighorn Plateau area

Just click on the little arrow and it should play. Sorry if I moved the camera too fast and make you all motion sick!

Day 50 06-07-08

Didn't sleep so great inside the stone hut at 14,495 feet! The wind howled all night long and the lightening rods on the roof were shaking like mad! I kept thinking........please, please, don't let us wake up to a snow storm or something crazy like that!!!! But it was a beautiful morning, Neighbor went out for sunrise.......I was waaay too warm in my sleeping bag for that view! He took a few beautiful pictures and then we packed up and geared up and braved the cold! A few more summit photos and a few last glimpses of the amazing views that we had ALL to ourselves and then we started down the mountain at 0645am! There were quite a few PCT hikers making their way up to the summit and they looked at us and said, "what time did you start up this morning?!" ha-ha! Back down to Guitar Lake, we retrieved our stashed stuff (the marmots are crazy and will steal anything, so we had to hide it well) and made our way back to the PCT. (Mt. Whitney isn't on the PCT, it's a 17 mile side trip and worth every step!!) We crossed the Bighorn Plateau and had more amazing views and had to ford a couple easy creeks, and then camped by Lydall Creek for the night. Forester Pass tomorrow! What a great couple of days for the eyes!

sunset from the summit of Mt. Whitney!

Sunset was amazing! The Chief took tons of photos and uploaded them last night.

www.flickr.com/asafantman check his pictures out!

sunset on Mt. Whitney!

Day 49 Fri June 6, 2008

Ahhh, what a day! Today was supposed to be an easy 10 or 12 mile day to Guitar lake, so we leisurely made our way there, stopping at Crabtree Meadows, hanging out, relaxing, washing our feet, etc. Then we hiked up to Guitar Lake and the Chief said.......I think I'm going to go up to the summit now and sleep on top! What?! Crazy man! It was 2pm and I looked at Neighbor and we said, hey, why not?! So, we took everything we didn't need for the night out of our packs and hid them between some boulders (like everything! I even took out my toothbrush to lighten my pack!!) And at 2:30, we started up Mt. Whitney! The views were just amazing, this one above is just a sample of the sights we saw! We started passing people who were making their way down (and for once WE were the silly hikers going up the mountain late in the day!!) ha ha! Anyway, we huffed and puffed and made our way to the summit for 5:45. There really wasn't that much snow on the way up, we carried the ice axes but never pulled them off our packs, the couple of snowfields were hardpack with deep footprints to follow, so we never felt unsafe at any point. We 3 (Neighbor, Chief and I) were the only ones on the top! What a great feeling! It was very cold and windy though, so we took a bunch of pictures then went inside the stone hut on the top (which MIGHT fit 4 people) and pulled out our warm gear and suited up! We cooked dinner inside and then waited for sunset...........

Day 49 Fri June 6, 2008

So, today was supposed to be an easy 12 mile day

Day 48 Thurs June 5, 2008

Brrr, what a chilly night! Should have put the extra pair of wool socks on this night! When we dared to crawl out of our sleeping bags at 0630 it had warmed up to a steamy 26 degrees! Frost on the sleeping bags, frozen camelback hoses, and a wet tent! We waited for the sun to hit the area we were in and dried out all our gear and then finally got hiking around 0720. I usually get a good headstart on Neighbor and the Chief, I enjoy the warm-up time, leisure pace and rising sunshine. Not too many big climbs today, hiked over Cottonwood Pass at 11,000 feet and then we could see Mt. Whitney for the first time! Doesn't look to be a crazy amount of snow either! Views are getting expansive and amazing! We hit our 17 mile mark, but because the going was so easy, we pushed on and hiked almost 24 miles this day! (mileage usually drops in the Sierras due to elevation, terrain, snow, etc) Hiking the extra mileage today will make an easier day to Guitar Lake tomorrow (then Mt. Whitney the next day). Camped with Sauerkraut by a nice little stream. Turkey tetrazini Mtn. house meal for dinner with Idaho instant potatoes! Yummm! Also, love the Kona cola Nuun! It tastes just like flat soda and that is a luxury on the trail (even though neither of us even drink soda at home!!) It sure tastes yummy out here!

Day 47 Wed. June 4, 2008

Chilly morning, didn't get hiking until almost 7am. Had a little Carnation Instant breakfast to get us going (yeah, right!!) Hiked up to 10,000 feet (from 8,600 where we slept) and as we were all quietly walking along the trail, I looked up and saw a HUGE brown bear coming down the trail right towards us! I let out a little eeeeek and then Neighbor started yelling, BEAR, BEAR, BEAR! And off it ran! It must have been 350 - 400 pounds of flesh! Thank goodness it ran! But it never even saw or smelled us until it was pretty close! Too bad I didn't have the camera out at the time! Wow! After all that excitement.....up we still climbed, through a few patches of snow, higher and higher, not sure if it was the elevation, the 7 days of food in my pack or what, but the uphills were killing me today. Took a nice break overlooking the valley below and a dried up salty lake. Reached our intended goal of 17 miles around 4:30pm and called it quits......unfortunately we were at 10,500 feet and it was going to be a chilly night, that's for sure. Camped with Argentina, Laces, Cliff and Chief near a water stop. Ate a Mtn. House dinner of Lasagna and then some alfredo dinner. Eating all double dinners through the Sierras......and 5 bars a day and breakfasts (carnation and some granola)

Day 46 June 3, 2008

Well, I forgot some of my guidebook pages inside of the Kennedy Meadows store........so we had to hang around until they opened up at 9am before we could head into the Sierras! Atleast we were able to buy a muffin for the trail!! :) Pretty easy walking, the chaparral wasn't quite behind us yet, we were still walking in the 4 inches of beach sand for quite a few miles. Not sure if I mentioned the forest fire that we were about to head into, but there was yes, another fire in our hiking future (the Clover fire...they name their forest fires out here) Anyway, it was about 5-6 miles from Kennedy Meadows and as we got closer, you could smell the smoke and a helicopter kept going over our heads hauling a waterbag.......kinda eeeery! We passed a sign that said, "trail closed, federal offense to pass this point" or something to that effect.....but we were told it was okay to pass.....so, onward we hiked! Then we came to a fire crew along the trail taking a lunch break and they were fine with us being there. They just had one guy at the begining of the fire area and another at the end and as long as we checked in with both fire guys........we were out of the danger area and all was well! I will attatch a picture of the fire in a bit. Interesting stuff! Then we came to Beck Meadow (this HUGE green meadow, open space and a big ole mountain in the distance.........welcome to the Sierras!) yeah! Crossed the South Fork of the Kern river (on a bridge!!) and hiked a few more miles before we camped for the night. 16.4 miles into the Sierras....officially! We camped near The NewZealanders, Fireman, Sundown, Laces and Chief. The packs feel VERY heavy with the bear cannisters and ice axes and 7 days worth of food..........ugh.