May 22, 2016

Death Canyon Creek (mile 730.8) to Trail Pass Trail Junction (mile 745.3)

Miles: 16.5 miles (14.5 PCT miles + 2 miles to Horseshoe Meadows)

It was a cold night. Really, really cold!

Andy’s feet never got warm the entire night despite wearing socks and down booties. Out of desperation in the middle of the night he put a trash compactor bag over the foot of his sleeping bag. This worked in February when he was snow camping but not so well this time around. It hardly warmed his feet while making everything wet.

Laurie, who is normally a warm sleeper, was chilly but not cold.

Both of our feet were so cold they ached and our hands numb – even with gloves on. Our tent fly had a layer of ice on it and the poles were frozen.

And this was only at 9,000 ft. Knowing that we will be camping higher, and possibly on snow – we decided it would be best to get out of the mountains and get warmer gear. We took the Trail Pass junction to Horseshoe Meadow and out to Lone Pine.

It was a hard decision. Leaving the mountains makes Laurie feel like she failed in some way. As if she should have seen this coming and planned better.

We talked as we walked uphill into the sunlight, with our toes and fingers gradually thawing out. We are out here to enjoy too, not only to endure.

Sure there will be times of discomfort but we want to set ourselves up for success, especially since we are headed deeper into the Sierras.

Having wet and cold feet for 1 month on top of not sleeping well felt like a recipe for grumpiness and maybe injuries too.

That is not our type of hike. We want to enjoy this adventure.

Now warm and with a plan in place we walked up to 10,676 ft. It was nice being back in the mountains. We were surrounded by pine trees, chipmunks running about and grand views. It was familiar and comforting.

Just as we had experienced the day before, at 10,000 ft and above there were patches of snow. In the morning the snow was hard and easy to walk across or around. We made lists of what we would buy and Laurie kept scheming of ways to get everything we needed and minimize our time in town.

We neared the top of a climb and Laurie, out of curiosity, pulled out her phone.

“I have reception…and 4G!” She exclaimed excitingly.

“Make sure they aren’t fake bars” replied Andy. Many times we have ‘service’ but can’t call, text or get online. It’s very annoying.

Laurie called her mom and it rang instantly.

Yes!

We dropped our packs, found a rock in the sun and went to work.

We first called Kathy. She is graciously storing all of our gear and found Laurie’s zero degree sleeping bag and agreed to express ship it to Lone Pine. Warmer sleep for Andy – check.

We ordered tall gaiters, waterproof boots and hiking socks too. We hope this combats the days of wet and cold feet due to the inevitable post holing.

We hope the gaiters also protect our legs if we posthole near rocks.

There is a gear store in Lone Pine where we can get any other miscellaneous warm gear.

Feeling good with our purchases we set out again. Laurie was prancing down the trail feeling light and relieved. She likes having plans to combat the unknowns. Needless to say, this trail and its constant changes are hard for her at times.

Our orders and sleeping bag will arrive Tuesday afternoon. So we will probably be in Lone Pine until Wednesday morning.

We can utilize the time to rest our achy feet, stretch our tight muscles, do laundry, catch up on our blog and Instagram, and check in with family and friends.

We didn’t mention eating above because on the trail we have started to get hungrier and are eating more, but in town we still don’t find ourselves wanting to eat, eat, eat. This is probably due to how well we eat on trail.

We hiked the next 7 miles in peace. Laurie continued with to do lists for the “down time” in Lone Pine. She mindfully reminded herself to look around and enjoy the day too ☺

The forest was beautiful. Occasionally we would get views of yellow and green meadows or snow capped mountains.

The air was warm with a bone chilling wind. Our warm gloves were on and off all day.

We stopped at Diaz Creek junction to get water around noon. It was a .2 mile walk off trail where we ran into 2 hikers (Google and Surplus) eating lunch. We chatted a bit and they mentioned that they heard we were in a cold spell and that’s why it’s been so cold at night. We don’t know for sure if this is the case and like our plan to continue with warmer gear – even if the weather warms up a bit.

Andy walked down a steep embankment to get water. He got 1.5 liters of water (nice change from the 6-7 liters in the desert) to fill up our Platypus bladders.

As we were transferring water into Andy’s bladder Laurie noticed a small tadpole swimming in the bottle. Oops! We dumped out the remaining water hoping our filters would catch whatever else was living in the stream.

We walked another 3.6 miles to our trail junction with the trail gradually climbing. The air was still cool but we were feeling sluggish. We ate only bars – partially out of ease because they were accessible, and partially to save trail food for when we return to the mountains in 3 days time.

We also didn’t want to stop for a proper lunch to save time. We feared that if we got to Horseshoe Meadows too late we’d miss the day hikers and potential rides down to Lone Pine.

And we really didn’t want to spend another cold night at 10,000 ft or worse, have to road walk down 23 miles and 6,000+ ft to Lone Pine.

We got to the Trail Pass junction around 2:20pm. One of our calls earlier today was to the Dow Villa Hotel, where the woman who answered offered to come get us at 3pm when she got off work.

Very sweet!

We declined her offer not knowing how long it would take us to get to Horeshoe Meadows. Now at 2:20pm we tried to call but had no reception – oh well.

We descended down the trail, losing and finding it numerous times in the snow. We referred to the Guthook’s PCT app (uses gps) many times to confirm we were on track and continued down on snow, on dirt and at times downed tree logs.

Finally we intersected Horseshoe Meadow trail and found the trail easily from there on out. We could see the sandy meadow through the trees. As we neared, the beauty of our surroundings struck us both. Small pine trees stuck out of the sandy meadow with snow capped peaks in the background. Wow!

We stopped in awe, took a few photos and continued on, commenting on the beauty of this place. Andy has been to Lone Pine many times but asked himself why he’s never ventured here.

His thoughts were put on hold when Laurie spotted a day hiker in the distance.

“Run” she exclaimed while pointing.

“I’ll go catch her” replied Andy as he took off.

It was hard walking on the sandy trail. Both of our heart rates went higher than they had all trip!

Andy caught up with Moonburned about 0.3 of a mile from the parking lot.

She hiked 750 miles of the PCT last year and had to get off due to an injury. She hopes to do it again next year and was delighted to give us a ride.

We twisted our way down Horseshoe Meadow Road. It is a beautiful road blasted through the mountain side. Andy had mentioned to Laurie about biking up this road and now we realize why it is considered one of the most challenging rides in the US. The road is continuously uphill for 19 miles!

Once in Lone Pine we checked into the hotel, chatted with familiar hikers and ones we haven’t seen before in the lobby and took showers (Andy’s first in 200 miles!).

We went to the gear store, then grocery store and ate dinner in bed. Laurie was craving black beans so we got a large can with a pop top and she ate lettuce and beans out of the can – classy! We complimented that with hummus, blue corn chips and salsa.

We chatted with family and ordered more items for later on down the trail. We are happy with our plan and feel more prepared to go deeper into the Sierras.

Predictably we are going to bed later than we wanted, but hey it’s 10:30pm, which is better than we did in Mojave.

Tonight we are grateful for our town fund contributors and warm showers.

May 21, 2016

South Fork of Kern River (mile 706.6) to Death Canyon Creek (mile 730.8)

Miles: 24.2

We devised a new plan for the Sierras. We would get up early to maximize our daylight and allow for our slower speed across snow.

It was cold when the alarm went off at 5:15 am. Surprisingly we both started moving and we were walking by 6:10 am.

It was chilly walking into the morning air. We both started out with our down jackets, gloves and fleece hats to keep warm. Luckily we were climbing so our core temperatures quickly rose and we shed layers. Our fingers and toes were the last to get warm as the sun kissed our bodies.

Excitedly we walked through the forest but soon we entered a burn area with lots of blow downs (down trees blocking the trail). This made for slow going for a few miles in not so scenic areas. But of course, our efforts were worth it when we reached Beck Meadow.

We stopped for a few moments to take it all in before continuing on. We would have taken more time here but it was really cold.

We climbed again after leaving Beck Meadow and reached another bridge crossing over the Kern River around 11am. By that point we had covered 10 miles and we’re ready for a break.

And what a place for a break! The lazy Kern River flowed gently downhill while the swallows flew every which direction.

And the meadow! My goodness.

This is what we walked here for. Beautiful meadows surrounded by jagged mountains.

We sat on the grass next to the Kern eating our heavy and tasty trail mix watching swallows swoop in and out from their nests under the bridge.

Laurie washed her socks and underwear, then we back washed our filters. Town chores we didn’t get to in Kennedy Meadows but knew we could do out on the trail.

After 45 minutes we were ready to walk once more.

Today was climbing day so we kept climbing after shouldering our packs and walking through Monache Meadow.

Two thousand feet of climbing brought us to our first sight of snow! Just as we had anticipated, there was snow at 10,000 ft.

It was a gentle introduction. Patches of snow covered the trail. The dirty footsteps in the snow were easy to follow.

We climbed another 600 ft alternating between walking on snow and dirt.

Then we started our descent into Gomez Meadow. The first 600 ft had more patches of snow but then it was all dirt.

Once out of the snowy patches we took a late lunch in the middle of a switchback. We sat in the sun drying our feet and shoes which were now wet after postholing multiple times.

Now back on dirt we flew. With Andy leading we walked 2.5 – 3 miles per hour. We had planned on camping at mile 627 but we felt good and it was too early to stop so we pressed on.

We got to Death Canyon Creek around 6:15pm and it was like walking into tent city. We had seen only 5 other people all day (a couple and a family) and now there were at least 10 tents scattered about.

Everyone was hunkered down in their tents so we don’t know if we have been hiking with any of these people. Guess we will find out tomorrow on the trail, maybe.

Today was a great day and we are both tired. It got cold really quickly and we are only at 9000 ft! In a few days we will be camping at 12000 ft. Hopefully our bodies get used to this cold quickly!

Tomorrow we will encounter more snow. As Andy said tonight over dinner “it is make it or break it day….we either decide to keep going north or turn around and retrace our steps to Kennedy Meadows” depending on conditions.

We both hope for the former.

Tonight we are grateful for dry, warm feet and hot water.

May 20, 2016

Bushcamp (Mile 693.9) to South Fork of Kern River (mile 706.6)

Miles: 10.7 (+ 2 mile hitch)

Since we had only 8 miles to walk to get to Kennedy Meadows we decided to sleep in. Sleeping in for us means waking up around 6am and taking our time getting ready. We were on the trail by 7:50am.

The wind picked up last night so our sleeping bags, bear cans and shoes had a layer of dust on them. It didn’t matter though, we are used to being dirty now and embrace it (most of the time).

We walked 4 relatively flat miles through the rocky valley to the South Fork of the Kern river. This is the most running water we have seen in 2 months!

We took a few moments to take it all in.

We walked here… Just over 700 miles.

It feels pretty awesome.

The trail turned into sand as we neared the Kennedy Meadows road. We walked the one half mile on asphalt and ran into 3 people we had last seen at Paradise Cafe (before mile 200). It was nice to see them and even nicer to know that people like us were heading into the Sierras.

We are both nervous about what lays ahead. We know it is cold and snowy above 10,000 ft. People are switching out to boots but all we have are trail runners.

There are lots of other hikers with only trail runners but the idea that we may not be well prepared is both embarrassing and terrifying for Laurie.

We have ice axes and micro spikes and have been reassured by hikers who have been through this area in past high snow years that we will be fine. It comes down to confidence and right now Laurie is lacking it.

As we walked into the parking lot of the Kennedy Meadows general store we were met with a large applause and cheering from the patio. This is the welcome that every hiker gets. Very cool.

Getting this far is an accomplishment!

We put down our packs and took in the scene. Fifty or so hikers were scattered about – some on picnic tables in front, lots sitting at tables on the large deck and others roaming. The wait for laundry and showers are 1 day long.

We got our resupply boxes and Laurie’s new shoes and headed to the deck to sort and repack. Now that we are entering bear country everything has to fit in our bear cans. It is hard to get 7 days of food in those things but we did the best we could.

We chatted with fellow hikers: Mulan, Pretzel, Krispy and later Dirtmonger. Andy has known of Dirtmonger and followed his blogs for a few years now. The guy is an impressive hiker and his reassurance that as long as we go slowly in the Sierras we can make it helped us a lot.

Thanks for your words of wisdom Dirtmonger!

Everyone has different plans from Kennedy Meadows. Our plan is to head in and see for ourselves what the snow conditions are like. We are excited for the adventure and a bit nervous. We have plenty of food and can always turn around.

After sorting through our resupplies, we got a ride to Grumpy Bear’s restaurant for lunch and wifi. Kennedy Meadows has food but no reception or wifi and we had an important message to relay to Andy’s dad.

Laurie enjoyed a milkshake and we split a cheeseburger with avocado and fries. The food was ok but the trip over was worth it for the wifi.

Laurie checked in with family and Andy messaged his dad, successfully changing the address of our next resupply before he shipped the boxes.

Originally we had them going to the post office but since we are ahead of schedule we will now arrive on Friday of Memorial Day weekend and don’t want to have to wait 3 days to get our packages.

After charging our phones and getting in touch with Andy’s dad (our resupply guru) we headed back to the general store and packed up.

We headed out around 5pm and walked along the road toward the campground thinking it was faster and easier walking than the trail. About 1.5 miles in a family stopped and offered a ride. Initially we said no but then agreed – road walks just aren’t fun. And we enjoy meeting nice people.

Jason and Marilyn, and their 2 kids Addison and Mika, were very generous. Addison- who was probably 2- gave Laurie her lupine flower and Marilyn offered us dried apricots. Again, we were touched by these random acts of kindness. Thanks y’all!

Once back on the PCT we walked another 2 miles along the Kern River to our campsite near a bridge crossing.

We had dinner and Laurie reorganized the bear cans to stuff more food inside. The temperature is dropping and it definitely doesn’t feel like the desert anymore.

It is nice to go to sleep to the sound of rushing water. We’ve really missed it.

Tonight we are grateful for rivers and Andy’s parents for packing and shipping our resupply boxes.