Start: 1833.2
Stop: 1854.2
Today’s miles: 21
Total PCT miles: 1706.4
My dogs are barkin! At lunch today, Strider looked at my food with me to make sure I wasn’t setting myself up for failure. The last two days have consisted of me not eating nearly enough calories for the work I’m putting in, but I also think I need to add another day, stretching my low amount of daily calories one more day..
I do have enough to get me to Cottonwood Pass and do Mount Whitney.. but I split up one of the days because after today I realized it’s just too dang much! If I’m wrong, no worries, I’ll just keep hiking and make a new plan, but for right now.. slowing down the next 3 days over the hardest 2 mountains sounds way better to me than my original plan. Oh, the Sierra! Always ready to blow your mind and make you lose your mind too!
I ended up pushing snooze this morning for 10 extra minutes.. I yelled to Strider to let her know, so she wouldn’t be out packing her tent in the dark while I was snoozing still haha. I finally started moving at 5:40 and we were both packed and on trail by 6:10. Not too bad at all! As we started walking, our headlamps put away since it was bright enough (just barely) to see the trail, I told her about my 3:30am adventure, and how I almost screamed for her because I scared myself so bad..
I woke up at 3:30 and had to pee. Like bad. So, I put on my crocs and get my KulaCloth and head outside my tent. We’re camped on sandy rock between massive slabs of rock.. with a couple bushes around. I remembered from setting up that I needed to go on the slab, around the bush, and down some-and then I’d be on scrub brush and sand-not rock.
So I do. And I pee. And then I get so completely disoriented that I couldn’t find my way back to my tent. I walked slowly, felt for the bush.. noted that the rock I was back on was now suddenly sloping wayyyy down and not in a safe way. I literally started to panic and almost screamed, like her name was coming out with the next breath, when I realized I was standing right at her tent! One more step and I would have probably kicked Strider! I was so happy I found it that I almost fell into it! She’d really think I was a lunatic. Instead, I grabbed on to the bush beside her tent, slowly stepped around and over her guylines, and safely made it back to my tent. What in the whole hell?! No wonder I pushed snooze. I think the elevation had something to do with it, surely. Right? Ha
Anywho. We had 4 miles to the top of Mather Pass at 12,094 feet. I had been stressed about this one because of the snow comments-but-it was completely fine. The first 2 miles were meandering through alpine meadows, water was everywhere, there was a lake, and we were in the bowl of all of these massive mountains. We could see the sun shining on other areas, but it wasn’t high enough in the sky to warm up anything in the bowl we were in.
The next mile was tough, but the last mile about did me in. It was slow moving on trail surrounded by massive boulders. Up big stone steps and then crunching on loose gravel the size of coke cans. It switchbacked and became steep. There was a section with snow, hard as ice in the cold shade we were in. It had partially melted out in some places, so big sharp rocks were protruding through.. I had to step on the snow, not slip, step onto rock, and climb upwards too. It was maybe a total of 20 or so steps.. which I handled fine without microspikes. Once the snow ended, I had to rock scramble back up maybe 20-30 feet to the trail. Then onwards up I went.
The top was stunning all the way around, valleys on either side of the pass, one sunny and one still in the shade, both spectacular. I stayed up top only long enough to get sunscreen on and my sunglasses out, then I started the descent. It switchbacked down and had a little snow to go over too, but only one spot-everything else I could literally walk or scramble easily around. I met a guy doing the JMT and we walked and talked until I caught up to Strider, filtering some water.
She and I hiked through this valley together, 4 or 5 miles down before climbing again another 4 up Pinchot Pass at 12,127 feet. Two passes in one day! The valley stayed in the alpine zone, so it was cool and less buggy than the other valleys have been. I was so grateful. Lakes and scrub brush and tiny bits of grass all growing on rocks and sand. It’s seriously out of this world gorgeous.
We ate lunch with 3 miles to go to the top of the pass, only because I was getting dizzy and couldn’t walk much farther for fear of passing out. I was happy Stridor agreed to still eat with me, she usually eats her lunch an hour or so later than I do.. and I haven’t been eating enough calories in general through this stretch, so there was no way I’d have made it another hour.
I ate ramen for lunch, and it honestly really helped me get up to that pass.
Those last 3 miles took me almost 2 hours, but I was still moving faster than this morning. The rocks were steep, but the ascent had no snow that couldn’t be walked around. There were at least 3 incredible lakes, all snowmelt, that we walked by.. or climbed by I guess. The top was just as fascinating as Mather Pass, the beauty unbelievable. I was mesmerized. If there wasn’t all this beauty at the tops of these climbs, I don’t know that I’d do this at all. It makes everything so completely worth it.
I started the descent and was moving pretty quick on the switchbacks. It was still rock trail, but it was sandier and easier to walk on for awhile. Before it turned into huge rock steps.. those hurt. The views went from those gorgeous alpine meadows with water everywhere and birds chirping, to hot valley with a raging river next to the trail, and eventually into the forest. We were supposed to try to climb some of Glen Pass today, but when I finally caught up to Strider again, we were still a good ways away from the bottom of the descent, and it was getting closer to sunset.
Apparently the start of the climb has some significant avalanche damage. To the point it can take hours to get through. A man told Strider how to climb around it, and we did not want to get stuck in that with the sun setting. So, we’ll get to tackle that first thing in the morning I guess. We have a horrible 8.7 miles to the top of Glen Pass, then on the descent, Strider will take the junction over Kearsarge Pass to get into the town of Independence, California, and I’ll keep hiking towards Forester Pass. I’m aiming for less than 20 miles tomorrow and the following 2 days.. and then it’ll be about 20 miles exactly to get to Cottonwood Pass after Mount Whitney.
Let’s pray tomorrow goes well, I’m stressed about the avalanche debris and the fact that I’ll be hiking uphill for close to 9 miles. Yikes. In that case, time to get some sleep, 5:30am comes way too early for me!