Miles: 903.3 to 923.1 Trail Miles: 19.8 Miles Hiked: 24.8 After four nights and three zeros in Mammoth Lakes we needed to get back on the trail – regardless of whether we wanted to or not. I’d taken Smokebeard to the trailhead the previous day. He and the AT Boys avoided the ‘zero flu.’ Even …
Mile Marker: 903.3 Trail Miles: 0 What can I say? I’d only intended to spend two days in Mammoth. Two zeroes, that’s all. But Mammoth. Beautiful, fun Mammoth. I’ve been coming here for years and its always the same: I never want to leave. My trail family succumbed to it as well. We had planned …
Miles: 884.4 to 903.3 Trail Miles; 18.9 Miles Hiked: 22.4 We were up and over Silver Pass early. The excitement of reaching Mammoth Lakes propelled us forward. We’d have at least 2 days and 3 nights off the trail: hot showers, laundry, real food, restaurants, flushing toilets, beds…..everything we were deprived of on the trail …
Miles: 878.7 to 884.4 Trail Miles: 5.7 Miles Hiked: 7.0 It felt so good to wake up on a bed. Even if I was still in my sleeping bag, at least I had slept on a normal mattress. At VVR, you could camp for free, but for an additional fee you could stay in a …
Miles: 861.6 – 878.7 Trail Miles: 17.1 Miles Hiked: 18.4 Last night Scooch, Painter, Carebear and I arrived at Senger Creek about 7:30pm. We were all tired, having hustled over Muir Pass and it’s endless snow, to do 26.6 miles. We were also excited. It meant our goals for today were in reach: cross Selden …
Miles: 835 to 861.6 Trail Miles: 26.6 My alarm went off at 4 AM. It was 39° inside the tent. That’s slightly warmer than it’s been recently but cold comfort at that time of day. Smokebeard, Fireball and Cherry Bomb hiked past our campsite about 0445. I don’t know how they did it. I was …
Miles: 815.4 to 835.0 Trail Miles: 19.6 0430 alarm. Ugh. On the trail at 0530. I wake and sleep with the sun now, but even today was early by that standard. We summited Mather Pass, elev. 12,096 ft. The climb up the south side wasn’t bad. We could have done it later during the day. …
Miles: 804.0 to 815.4 Trail Miles: 11.4 Today we summited Pinchot Pass, elev. 12,142 ft. I woke up before my alarm at 4:30 with frost on the ceiling of my tent. It was cold and damp in the meadow where we had camped and the moisture from my breathing during the night had condensed. I …
Miles: 789.8 to 804.0 Trail Miles: 14.2 I had a restless night. It took awhile to fall asleep and I awoke often. I was warm enough cowboy camping, but after 3 nights in a king size bed I felt confined in my sleeping bag and 20 inch wide air mattress. It was only1.3 miles to …
Mile Marker: 789.8 Trail Miles: 0.9 Miles Hiked: 8.5 Glen Pass (elev 11,946 ft) was only two miles up the trail from where we left the PCT two days ago. We wanted to camp short of the pass and cross it early in the morning tomorrow, so there was no hurry. It was a 7.6 …