Start: 1871.5
Stop: 1887 (+0.5 on side trail for Whitney)
Today’s miles: 15.5 (16 total)
Total PCT miles: 1739.2
Today was another phenomenal day! Although I spent it primarily alone, I’m currently not feeling lonely. I have a feeling the miles coming up will end up getting that way.. with most of the flippers finishing and all the SOBOs being so spread out.. my friends on either side of me.
Anywho-when my watch vibrated at 5:30am, I reached up and touched my tent wall to see if there was condensation.. there was: AND IT WAS FROZEN! I sat up, realized just how cold it was outside of my quilt cocoon, and I pushed snooze and snuggled back in. Shorter miles have to be good for something, right?!
When my watch vibrated at 6, I peaked across the way and saw that Miles’ tent was still up. I took out an earplug-didnt hear him moving, put my earplug back in and set an alarm for 6:45. I just could not move in that cold! I did finally start packing at 6:45 and left by 7:15, only a couple minutes after Miles. That couple of minutes difference means besides seeing his shape on switchbacks above, I didn’t see him again all day!
It was cold going, in the shade of the mountain.
The trail was still kind, even with the switchbacks.. they were graded and gentle, no huge rock steps except for every once in awhile. I filtered water within the first mile, but not from camp.. I needed to warm up a tad, get my heartbeat going, before touching ice cold water.
The views as I got higher were unbelievable. It was a rock covered fortress of mountain walls with snow and lakes all around. There was a small patch of snow I had to walk across, but someone on horseback had recently come through and covered the snow with dirt, making each step very stable. Then it was switchbacks up and around, up and around some more. There was a huge patch of snow on a ridgeline, but someone had made a trail to follow down below it, allowing me to completely avoid it. It was perfect, and spit me back out on a switchback.
The switchbacks up ahead had tons of snow along one side, so there were rock scrambles to get around them, and one section of rock and snow to get over, maybe 5-6 steps total on snow.. although it was more like ice. I made it to the top by 9:40, which, I was assuming it would take me until 10am-knowing I’d go slow because of the elevation. Forester Pass is the highest pass on the PCT, coming in at 13,120 feet.
I took some pictures at the top and had another hiker take a picture of me with the sign. I passed into my 7th national park at the top of this pass! I’m now in Sequoia National Park.. hard to believe I’ve made it so far! It feels so very surreal!
I started heading down the pass pretty soon after the other hiker left, simply because the air felt really thin and the best remedy to that was to get down! The switchbacks along the descent were steep until hitting the “floor” about 3/4 of a mile down. After that? The trail was GLORIOUS. Easy, smooth path twisting and turning around lakes and through trees and across water.. but never anything difficult. It went by so quick!
I had to take my shoes off for a creek crossing, so on the other side I ate lunch and left my shoes off and laid out my tent to dry that now soaking wet condensation. I sat around for 45 minutes or so, then packed up and kept moving. The afternoon held some climbs and descents, but nothing difficult and nothing that took my breath away.
I talked to a ranger with about a mile to go to get to camp. He said the weather should be good tomorrow, but that it changes very quickly. We chatted a few minutes about my hike and my plans, then went our separate ways. I hiked down the side trail half a mile before setting up camp. That leaves 15.2 miles total to go up Mount Whitney and back here tomorrow.
The odd thing is-I’m the only one camped here! I’ve seen several other people pass, but they’re all wanting to make tomorrow shorter, to where I’m more concerned about making the following day shorter-when I leave here and hike to Cottonwood Pass to get into town. Oh well. It’s a little unsettling here, I can hear a lot of creature movement outside.. but it is what it is and I hope I sleep well because I’m sleeping here tomorrow too!
In the morning, probably 6 ish, I’ll make sure to put everything in my pack liner and set it on top of my sleeping pad-scoot it all to the middle of my tent and pop up my umbrella over the bag-then when I take out my trekking poles and my tent collapses, I’ll tuck it and place rocks on the edges-in case it rains while I’m hiking.. hopefully that will keep everything inside safe and dry. Since I’m hiking up and back, I’m taking only my pack, water bottles and filter, snack foods, and clothes.. like rain gear. Anything I might need while on a mountainside.. but not my tent, pad, quilt, bear can, jet boil.. you get the drift..
Ok. Time to pop in my earplugs! Pray for good weather! Sweet dreams!