Day Fifty Five

Today's miles: 8 (on Kearsarge Pass)
Total PCT miles: 789

We had breakfast this morning and checked out of the hotel at 11:00. There was a bus going back to Independence at 1:30, so until then we went to the grocery store and the bakery to kill time. At 1:30 we went to the KMart parking lot to catch the shuttle and found ourselves in good company with a whole slew of hikers: the Chain Gang, Games, Reason, Starfox and his respective gang of six (they call themselves the "Wolfpack"), Lighthouse and Sunset. We completely filled the bus when it arrived - the driver must not have known what to think. His whole trunk was filled to the brim with packs.

It took about an hour to get to Independence, and we all chatted in lively spirits as we went. The few regular passengers who were aboard seemed quite overwhelmed by the sheer number of hikers they were sharing a space with. Every time we stopped and picked up another hiker, the whole bus would cheer and yell their name. It was a riot.

Once back in Independence, we went to the post office to pick up packages for those who had sent themselves a resupply, and then we waited. We all needed a ride back to the trailhead, but hitches were once again hard to come by. Fortuitously, we met a lady in the post office who said she'd do three runs to the mountain and take four people each run. We split ourselves up into groups, but even with three carloads, there would still be hikers left over. While we waited and considered our options, our favorite trail angel Aloha showed up in town, having just dropped off his wife Toots Magoots and her hiking partner Tears for Beers. He offered to take Rotisserie, Sansei, Katie and I back up to the trailhead. We thanked him profusely, paid him for gas, and left the hot desert to returned once more to the 64 degree mountains.

It was 5pm by the time we reached the trailhead and we still had a long haul to get up to the pass. We trekked slowly - time in town always makes us lethargic on our first day out - and we were surprised by the sharp cold and the extreme wind. By the time we hiked the six miles to the top of the pass, the wind was so fierce that it was ripping our clothes and knocking us over. We hurried down the other side to escape its wrath. It seemed so strange that we were sweating this morning in desert heat and we were now bundled up in every stitch of clothing we had in the mountains.

We followed Kearsarge Pass down and passed by Wocka Wocka, Giddyup and Sneaks, who were just heading into Independence. We had a happy reunion before parting ways.

We found a sheltered tent site two miles further - though not quite back on the PCT - and set up tents for the night. The sunset over the mountains was beautiful and we had a great view into the valley below over the lakes. It was a cold and windy night.

Day Fifty Four

Today's miles: 0
Total miles: 789

We considered trying to hike out today, but since we had a long day yesterday trying to get to town and didn't make it in until early evening, we were really yearning for a true day off. It always feels strange to take a zero day from the trail, though, so we wrestled with our consciences all morning until Rotisserie sealed our decision: some friends of hers were offering to pay for our breakfast and another night at the hotel, should we chose to stay. We did.

As it turned out, the Chain Gang was taking a zero day, too, so it was hard to pass up spending more time with them. Katie, Rotisserie, Sansei and I went to breakfast at Denny's and then did our resupply at a local grocery store nearby. I couldn't believe how ridiculous our hotel room looked afterward: there was gear and food everywhere, so much so that it didn't seem possible that it all fit in our backpacks. How could we pack so light and still have so much stuff?

We bought our favorite indulgences to stock the hotel fridge: chocolate milk, cookies, apples, bananas, and breads and pastries from the local bakery.

Other than resupplying, we were pretty lazy all day. There's nothing better than enjoying a day off hiking and doing absolutely nothing in town. We did a little more shopping, caught up on some blogging and TV watching, and went out to happy hour later in the evening. The four of us stayed up late again watching movies until we fell asleep.
 

Day Fifty Three

Miles today: 5 (on PCT) + 8 (on Kearsarge Pass to Independence) = 13
Total PCT miles: 789

Now that we were in the heart of the Sierras, it would be more difficult to resupply our food. We would go for longer stretches without towns and have to take significant detours in order to get to the towns that are available. Our last resupply was Kennedy Meadows, a week ago. Our next stop was the small town of Independence, at the base of the Sierra range. To get there we would have to take Kearsarge Pass, an eight mile detour to get down from the high mountains and catch a ride into town.

We tried to get an early start, since we love getting into town early in the day, but the mornings have been so cold that it's hard to get out of bed. We were on trail by 8:00 and hiked the five miles to Bullfrog Lake, which would connect us to the Kearsarge Pass trail. Here we departed the PCT and entered into some more stunning scenery - gorgeous blue lakes, mountain vistas, and a high trail leading straight up to the pass. The climb was very steep and not very well graded, so we were huffing and puffing and very glad to be at the top. We met some dayhikers at the top of the pass and chatted with them about the PCT. It was also the first time we had had cell phone service in a few weeks, so we stayed at the top to make some phone calls before descending a very steep six miles to the trailhead. I did not look forward to hiking back up the pass on the way out of town.

When we reached the trailhead, there were plenty of parked cars, but no people. Unfortunately, there was a 15 mile trek to town down very windy roads, so we needed a ride to leave the parking lot. We sat waiting for dayhikers to return to their cars, and soon the two men we had met at the top of the pass joined us and offered us a ride into town. They only had room for Katie, Rotisserie and I, though, so Sansei stayed behind to wait for another hitch.

As we descended into Independence, I watched the temperature gauge on the car dashboard go up. It was 65 degrees in the mountains, but by the time we hit the valley floor, the dash read 95 degrees. We were leaving the beautiful Sierras and descending again into familiar territory: the desert. I was having mini panic attacks as we passed by Joshua trees, tumbleweeds and desert sand. I desperately kept the mountains in my rearview and kept telling myself that this was only temporary.

We'll be back in the mountains again soon! No more desert hiking, promise!

We were dropped off in Independence, a very tiny town with not much to its name. The town of Bishop, thirty miles further, promised better resupply options, so we decided to try and catch a hitch there, instead. So far this journey we have had no trouble catching hitches into town. Being women, we look less threatening to drivers and they usually have a soft spot for us and pick us up within minutes. It also helps that many of the towns we pass through are used to seeing PCT hikers this time of year. Apparently this wasn't the case for Independence, though. We stood smiling on the street corner with our thumbs out for ten minutes... twenty minutes... forty minutes. Every car that passed by sped up and left us in the dust. We made signs saying "hikers to Bishop" and tried to look as adorable as possible, but no one wanted to stop. It was ghastly hot outside. We stood sweating and faint on the curb, desperately watching the minutes tick by and no ride to speak of. We tried looking up taxi companies to no avail. It seemed we would never get a ride into town. Then, finally, after more than an hour standing in the heat, a large van pulled over for us. We practically kissed the ground with delight. Our rescuers were four family members from Eugene, Oregon, who were in California for a wedding and road trip. They were a fun crew and they shared fresh mango and lychee fruit with us as they shuttled us to Bishop.

Sansei had caught a ride directly to Bishop from the trailhead and had gotten a hotel room for us while we were stuck in Independence. We joined him there and soon discovered that our old friends the Chain Gang were in town, as well, plus Starfox, Chik-Chak, Happy Hour and Squeaks. After showers and the usual gear-explosion in the room, we all went out to dinner together in town and had a great time catching up and laughing over good food.

Day Fifty Two

Miles today: 17
Total miles: 784

Since we've had such big days lately (22 and 21 mile days in the Sierras, which is unheard of - most people hike around 15-17 miles per day here) we decided to sleep in and shoot for 15 miles today, a very small day in comparison to our usual hikes.

I was awake at 7:30, though, so I got up and ready for the day, which later prompted Sansei to chide me, "I don't think you understand the concept of sleeping in!" But we had a lazy morning, enjoying the company of our friends and our breakfasts, and didn't leave camp until 9:30.

We forded our first "real" rivers today, which were nothing more than rock-hops across low-flowing streams. But, ever the jokers, we couldn't resist crossing while yelling at each other,
"UNBUCKLE YOUR HIPBELT!! HIPBELT!!" as though the water were waist-deep.

Our big goal today was to cross over Forrester Pass, the official highest point on the PCT at 13,200 feet. We reached the start of the ascent just after lunch. It was a five mile climb to the top, but we discovered that the first three miles were so gently graded that we barely noticed we were going up in elevation. All around us was an open, granite bowl filled with small alpine lakes, and before us, a wall of mountains. This wall was intimidating and impenetrable, and we wondered why the trail was moving so swiftly toward it when there was clearly no way around it. With only two miles left until the Pass, we found ourselves at the base of this wall of mountains, staring straight up. And there, in a tiny notch in one of the peaks, we saw a white field of snow, and a tiny figure standing at the top. He was so small that at first we didn't believe it could possibly be a person, but then the silhouette moved, and then, waved.
And it was then that we realized where we were going.
Up.
Up.
Up.

The trail all but disappeared among the loose rock and granite of the mountainsides, and we walked among it, clinging to the rock faces and skirting our way to the top. We climbed in elevation so quickly that the world seemed to drop out beneath our feet, and Rotisserie, frightened of heights, hugged the inside of the trail and refused to look over the edge.
"It's beautiful! It's beautiful!" Sansei tried to coax her, but she said, "I believe you; I'll look at your photos later!"

I was prone to vertigo, myself, but often my desire to see amazing landscapes overcame my fear of heights. And so I moved along this rocky catwalk, drinking in the views and climbing ever upward. It went by much more quickly than Whitney, so before I knew it, we were very near the top. A final quick succession of switchbacks went up and over the summit, but before that was a swath of snow that one had to move across.

This was the most frightening part for me, for the trail was narrow and slippery here, and one wrong step could send you careening down a very steep and rocky ravine. I found my breath catching, and Sansei, who had gone before me, noticed my hesitation and stepped back across, his hand outstretched.
"You can do it," he promised. "Take my hand."
And so I planted my foot in the slippery snow and gripped his fingers tightly as he pulled me across the divide. And then we were at the top, the highest point on the trail, looking down at a beautiful valley dotted with lakes.

Bramble, Sansei, Honey Bunny, Rotisserie

Our friends Games, Reason and Pimp Limp were already standing at the summit, taking photos. We joined them, whooping and hollering in delight that we had accomplished so much in two days. By then it was late afternoon and we needed to get down the backside of the mountain in order to find a place to camp for the night.

The north side of Forrester Pass had a good deal more snow than the south side, and we enjoyed a few short glissades as we went, giggling and soaking our shoes and butts. We were all in good spirits. As we walked the ridgeline of one mountain and traversed to the next, we turned a corner and gasped in shock at our view, for it was stunning. We were standing at the highest point above King's Canyon Park, the whole valley laid out beneath our feet. And we circled above it like falcons, slowly descending into its beauty. With the sun setting over the mountaintops and coloring everything pink, it was the most beautiful sight we had ever seen.

Mountains rolled around us like a giant bowl, enclosing us in a great circle of peaks, dotted with snow and blue lakes and beautiful green, pine tree-filled valleys. We couldn't stop exclaiming and taking photos and pausing to soak in the views. It was truly a magical place. It was our first true glimpse of the majesty of the Sierras, and even weeks later we would look back at this moment and call it our favorite of the trip thus far. There was simply no sight that could match it, and we were in awe.

The valley rose up to meet us as we touched down hours later, the mountains reaching overhead in a protective circle. We had smiles that wouldn't leave our faces. We walked until dusk and found a beautiful campsite among the pine trees. We camped with Games, Reason and Pimp Limp that night, talking over the events of the day and sharing our favorite moments.

These have been wonderful days.