Miles: 774.7 to 788.9 Trail Miles: 14.2 Miles Hiked: 21.8 Forester Pass is the highest point on the PCT at 13,200 ft. We started hiking at 5am to cover the 5 miles to the pass. By the time we got to the base of the pass my hands were so cold I couldn’t even zip …
Mile Marker: 767 to 774.1 Trail Miles: 7.1 Miles Walked: about 19 miles Mt Whitney. Highest peak in the lower 48, at 14,505 ft elevation. We awoke at 0350 (25 deg inside the tent!) and started hiking when the group that had camped below at Crabtree Meadows arrived. It was cold. It was windy. It …
Mile Marker: 767 Trail Miles: 10.4 Miles Walked: 14.4 It was 32 deg in the tent this morning. I only have 14 miles to go to Guitar Lake, on the west flank of Mt Whitney, so I took my time and dallied in my tent. I tried to get caught up on draft blog posts. …
Trail Miles: 18.3 Miles Walked: 18.8 It was 34 deg inside the tent this morning and the condensation from my breathing had frozen on the tent walls. We’d camped above 10,300 ft after it had rained and hailed. Nothing to do but pack up and hike. At lunch we pulled everything out of our packs …
Miles 720.7 to 738.3 Trail Miles: 17.6 I woke early and tried to retrieve the food from the Bear Hang Surge had put up the night before. — We all had Bear canisters but too much food (7days) to fit in them. Surge had used PCT method of hanging food. I didn’t realize that and …
Kennedy Meadows CG to Mile 720.7 Miles 704.7 to 720.7 Trail Miles: 16 I left Kennedy Meadows with about five additional pounds of equipment. Going forward a bear canister ( 2 lbs. 9 oz.) was required for keeping food, an Ice axe and crampons/micro-spikes are necessary for crossing snow/ice on mountain passes, plus additional warm …
Mile Marker: 704.7 (KM CG) Trail Miles: 2.5 Miles Walked: 5.5 It was Memorial Day weekend, so Kennedy Meadows was full of weekend hikers as well as PCT thru hikers. As is typical when it’s a ‘town/resupply day’, it was busy – laundry, shower, resupply , mail, food. There’s no cell service there and the …
Miles: 684.8 to 702.2 Trail Miles: 17.4 Miles Walked: 19.2 I hit 696.5 miles at 10 a.m. That put me at just under 12 miles by 10am. There’s a hiker axiom: 10 miles by 10am and 20 by 2pm. I don’t bother with the 20 by 2 at this point (maybe in NoCal and OR). …
Trail Miles: 19.7 We awoke to overcast skies. It was cool. -Maybe our last few days in the desert are preparing us for the Sierras where the weather would be less predictable. I was looking forward to being done with the desert even though I’d enjoyed it and been surprised by its beauty and variety. …
Miles: 652 to 665.1 Trail Miles: 13.1 Miles Walked: 14 Surprisingly no hikers were up early and packing up at Happy Haven RV Park. No one was in a hurry. The post office didn’t open until 10, so we had a leisurely morning for hikers who are usually on the trail by 0630. I ate …