Category: Pacific Crest Trail 2023

Start: 1903.8

Stop: 1920.1

Today’s miles: 16.3

Total PCT miles: 1772.3

I didn’t set an alarm last night and just knew I’d be getting woken up by the cleaning crew telling me it’s time to check out. Instead I was woken up at 7:46 by the man in the room next to mine yawning so loud I could hear him through my earplugs and THE WALL. I’m pretty sure he also heard my disgruntled response to his multiple loud yawns. I was going to try to fall back asleep, but I was already too awake. Might as well get moving.

I ran to the bathroom before anyone beat me to it. Then I went through all my stuff, gathered the things I needed to send home and some other random stuff for my errands and set out. I made sure I knew what time checkout was so I could get back and pack before then. Thankfully, it wasn’t until noon! Wahoo!

I crossed the street and got in line for the Alabama Hills Cafe. A girl that I met on Mount Whitney yesterday said she and her friend already had their name down so I could join their table when their names were called. Cool. Less than 5 minutes later the 3 of us were at a table outside. I ordered the breakfast burrito and an orange juice, plus a cinnamon roll to go. We chatted and ate. The one girl just finished the JMT and is headed to explore LA, the other is finishing her PCT at Kennedy Meadows South, but is zeroing today. I wanted to zero here too. It’s such a cute town!

After we ate, we paid our checks and I walked to the gear store. Y’all. I went crazy. I got a new sports bra (they carried the brand and style AND smaller size I needed!! How perfect!), new wool leggings (mine won’t stay up they’re so big now), new gloves (my trail magic glove is great, but the other hand having the cheaper glove sucks), and a fleece pullover because I’ve been hiking so cold. Oh, and I got a backpacker meal. The guy was so nice, letting me try things on in their back room and keep on the bra lol, and he even gave me a discount, saving me like $40! Sweet!

He didn’t have the headlamp like Margot and Marquis use that I love and is so bright, so I checked a few other stores around with no luck. I went to the post office and shipped my bear canister home, filled with the random things I just replaced and my microspikes. Then, I found another little store and got some gaiters that seemed much more lightweight and comfortable than the ones I tried before.

I went to the grocery store and did my resupply for the next 4 days. Finally, I made it back to the room to pack. I left the room with only minutes to spare before check out. Whoops! I went to the corner the gear shop guy recommended and started sticking my thumb out. Within 10 minutes, an older guy pulls up. He asks where I’m going and I tell him. He asks if there’s a campground there, I tell him yes.. and he goes, “yeah ok, todays an adventure anyway.”

Once I’m in the front seat and my pack in the back, he says he just needs to run in and get some food from the restaurant, since it’s a 45 minute drive.. and he was considering staying at the campground. I say ok, because what else is there to say? Haha.. he runs into the Mexican restaurant I ate at last night and ten minutes later comes back with a meal.

He gets situated in the driver seat and starts going, picking at his food. He asks me to navigate because he’s never been up this road before. I’m laughing and saying sure thing.. then he stops. He asks, “you have a license, right? How about you drive and I eat?” Hahaaha-so we swap places and I drive this stranger’s SUV up a twisting and turning two lane and sometimes one lane road, through the Alabama Hills and up to over 10,000 feet of elevation. We laugh and talk the whole time and I squeal with the excitement of this crazy road and this whole situation. I haven’t driven anything since May!

When we get to the top, I park his SUV and we say our goodbyes. He explores the campground while I eat my cinnamon roll and get on my new shoes and new gaiters. After I eat, I start up the trail happy as can be. Nothing was going to bring down my mood. It was sunny, warm but not hot, the wind was blowing. The switchbacks weren’t steep. I made it to the trail junction and just started hiking, no plan for the night except to see how far I get, and find a campsite after 6pm.

It was a gorgeous day and although there was some elevation, it was mellow trail. I got service around 6 and tried calling mom, uncle Keith, and aunt Kathy-no one answered so that’s a little concerning. Concerning enough that the spot I found to camp in has 1 bar of service and I’m not switching to airplane mode unless I hear from one of them. I also finally got ahold of Marquis! Man I’ve been missing the heck out of him.

We came up with a plan. I’m going to hike to Walker Pass, and then hitch to where he is by skipping 135 miles, and we’re going to hike south together. I just miss my friends, and I don’t want to hike the desert alone. At. All. Once Margot gets service we’ll let her know and maybe she’ll be willing to jump down to us and we can all hike together again. He’s also ordering me the headlamp I want and I’ll pay him for it.. this all has my excitement restored and I think the skip to be able to hike with my friend is well worth it.

Plus, it’ll help make sure I finish on time before Egypt.. and I can hopefully come back next year to fill in this new gap and the Etna to Dunsmuir gap too. Total, it’s less than 300 miles I’ll be missing.. 284.9 to be exact.. and morale wise, I think that’s quite ok with me.

Anyway. It’s almost 9pm now. I’m camped in a nice spot all alone and I think it’s time to bundle up tight (I have all of my new gear on, and Marquis says I won’t need most of it when I get to where he is.. haha, of course). Sweet dreams, y’all.

Start: 1887

Stop: 1903.8

Today’s miles: 16.8 (+3.8 side trail)

Total PCT miles: 1756

The way my day started was drastically different from the way my day ended. When I woke up freezing at 5:30, I snoozed til 6, then 6:20. Y’all. I like my sleep, especially when I’m bundled up warm and it’s cold as hell outside!

I started packing and was leaving camp by 6:50. The temperature according to my garmin Inreach was 28 degrees. No amount of movement was warming me up. And then, within 2 miles of hiking, I had to cross a stream that didn’t have stable rocks or logs to go over on. The water came up to my knees and it was FREEZING! Literally, little pieces of ice were floating by. Jesus.

After the crossing, I had tiny rocks in my shoes, but my hands were so cold I couldn’t untie my laces, so I just kept walking, praying my numb feet weren’t getting mutilated in my shoes. The trail started to climb, switchbacks through sand and rock and few sporadic trees. The sun was off somewhere far far away from me. I was I cold and miserable and questioning absolutely everything.

At the top of the climb I had to sit and take my shoes off. It was such a struggle.. the laces were now frozen. Once my shoes were rock free, I continued hiking, the sun finally touching me off and on after 9:20 or so. Sometimes I’d just stop and bask in the sunlight, hoping my fingers and toes would regain more feeling soon.

As the day went on, it warmed up some (into the 40s) and my mood shifted. I became focused solely on getting to Cottonwood Pass trailhead, getting a hitch into town and getting a Big Mac. Why a Big Mac? Who knows? But I’ve been dreaming of one! So, I took no breaks, I ate my few bars and my one Poptart all while walking. I filtered water once. I spoke to people I saw on trail but I kept it short and hardly slowed to catch my own breath.

I made it to the junction for the side trail. I had service so I talked to mom for a minute or two before I lost service, and I posted about summiting Mount Whitney.. then all but ran down the switchbacks to the parking lot. It was close to 4 miles on that side trail and I was there by 4:15! I used the pit toilet and then walked to the stop sign for the parking lot so that way any car leaving would have to make eye contact with me.

I was having zero luck. Not one single car was coming or going although the parking lot was slap full. Where were all these people?? Then, some trail maintenance guys came down and one came to tell me they had a camp they were staying at for the week, so no one was going into town tonight. He apologized and wished me luck.

At 4:45 a man drove by and said he was going to drop off his hiker and he’d be back to take me down. Cool! Come to find out, he’s a shuttle driver.. he charges EIGHTY-FIVE dollars to bring a hiker to this trailhead from town! I immediately asked how much he was wanting to charge me because I might have to just wait-and he said nothing since the other guy paid him already. Ha. Wow. Glad I’m not that guy.

The ride down was long and winding and absolutely stunning. Paul, my driver, gave me all kinds of cool information, about the road and Owens Lake, the paragliding in the area, all the movies made in the Alabama Hills-these crazy rock formations that literally look like they’re from another planet. He was cute and chatty and I enjoyed our ride to town. He dropped me off at McDonald’s and I made a mad dash to the kiosk to order my food! I sat and ate my Big Mac meal-faster than I should ever admit, drank my coke, and then walked across the street to the motel I wanted to stay at.

I got myself a room, although it’s a shared bathroom kind of place, and the girl gave me my package Andrea shipped here for me: my new shoes!! Hell yeah. I talked to mom while getting somewhat organized and then I showered while the bathroom was available. Across the street was a laundromat, so once I was clean I washed my clothes and posted some blog posts while they were washing and drying.

I walked down the street to the grocery store, intending to get some drinks for tonight, Gatorade and whatnot, and saw that the Mexican restaurant across the street was open!! No way! I thought it closed at 7pm and here it was 8pm and they were open! I was their only customer.. and I got all the things. Chips, salsa, queso with jalapeños, enchiladas with rice and beans, plus a glass of wine. I worked on the blog and danced while I ate. The waitress got quite a kick out of me.

When I finished up and paid, I went to the grocery store and got my Gatorade, then made my way back to my motel room. This bed is cushy and comfortable and the room is cute. Normally I’d watch TV or something, but I’m too tired to go grab the remote, so I think I’ll just head to bed now. This little town of Lone Pine has totally renewed me. I feel so much more positive now than I was this morning or even the last few days. Yay for that! Goodnight y’all.

It’s almost 5pm and I’m in my tent, in my quilt, and can barely hold this phone to type this up. Holy cow, I’m spent! But.. I SUMMITED MOUNT WHITNEY! (For the second time lol) The tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, coming in at a whopping 14,481 feet!

I slept really well and got up at 6 to get ready. I had already decided I didn’t want to do a sunrise hike, simply because it’s been so dang cold! So, at 6am I got up. I had to take the essentials with me: pack, rain gear, microspikes, TP, wallet, headlamp just in case, food, water and water filter. Everything else I shoved into my pack liner bag and set it on top of my sleeping pad, scootched it all to the center of my tent, then finally propped my umbrella up to cover it.

It sounds excessive, but I knew I’d be gone all day, and I wanted my stuff protected from anything that could happen while I was gone. I then took out my trekking poles while keeping everything else staked tight, tucked the ends and put a rock on each side-hopefully to protect everything inside from rain, wind, critters.. I was nervous leaving it all, that’s for sure.

I was hiking by 6:30 and the first 3 miles weren’t terrible. They were up and down and around water sources, creeks and snowmelt streams.. many flooding the trail. I sat and filtered water at Guitar Lake inlet stream, the last official water source listed, although there was plenty more for the next mile. It was cold, the trail was shaded from the sun because of Mount Whitney looming overhead, AND those little streams all over trail were half frozen and so very slick.

I fell once, on my right hip and jammed my left hand. It hurt at the time but I honestly forgot about it until just now. I was actually quite happy to reach the dreaded rock switchbacks everyone hates-simply because that meant the meadow of mushy and icy streams were over. I trudged along, taking my sweet time, sucking in air like an asthmatic. At one point I thought I could hear myself wheezing. Good stuff. Just. Keep. Moving.

I passed some trail maintenance workers, I will forever be impressed with any trail maintenance crew-but these guys were moving boulders, digging out rocks to make the trail even, all kinds of stuff, but they were doing it at like 13,000 feet! My goodness it was astonishing. Here I was barely able to breathe and take a step and they’re BUILDING actual steps like it’s nothing. Whew.

About half a mile from the junction to the Whitney Portal (where people can come in on a day hike or JMT hikers can leave out of), I saw the couple from Canada I met the other night with Miles. They did sunrise and were already heading back down! They were going to take a nap and consider hiking out this afternoon.

From the junction, the summit is 2 miles more. Now that I was on the trail with day hikers, I was actually passing folks left and right. Some of them worried me, looking like they were seconds from keeling over. Somewhere in the middle of that 2 mile section, I crossed paths with CliffJumper! He was coming down, but somehow we summited on the same day! I was happy to see him, we hugged and talked a bit.. then I sadly had to keep climbing.

The last chunk of trail had snow on it, so people had made rock cairns marking an easier way to rock scramble to the top around the snow. I purposefully didn’t touch even the tiniest bit of that white stuff. When I finally made it to the top, it was only a few minutes before noon. I was pooped! But honestly, I was also proud. I knew it would take me awhile, especially with the altitude getting to me more than it usually does, but 5.5 hours was better than I thought I’d do!

I took pictures and signed the log book. I tried to get service to call mom.. and it said I had service, but nothing was coming in or going out. I probably needed to just give it some more time, but I could see smoke and clouds rolling in and that scared me. I didn’t not want to get caught up here in bad weather. Plus, my head was starting to hurt, which isn’t a great sign at high altitudes. So, I started heading back down.

I checked in with mom on the garmin, so she wouldn’t be waiting for the phone to ring. I had so been wanting to hear her voice. I also checked in with Andrea, because as I was coming down the switchbacks, the smoke was coming in thick and it was getting hard to breathe. I had to use my headband to cover my nose and mouth. She was able to find out that it’s from a contained fire in the Sequoia National Park (the one I’m in) and she even called the wilderness office to verify that I’d be safe camping tonight. God I love her so much.

As I came down I stopped and talked with any and everyone I passed. Many hikers were headed to Guitar Lake to camp and then summit Whitney tomorrow. One lady, Pat, gave me her number and said to let her know if I ever need any help getting to and from trail.. she lives in LA and would be happy to help me, even if it’s somewhere to stay overnight or something! The crazy thing is, I’m flying in and out of LA for my sister’s wedding! Talk about the trail providing!

I eventually filtered more water and got back to my tent. I got my poles in and retightened it all down. I unpacked and I’m laying here, in and out of the sun (I wish it would just stay right on my tent and warm me up like an oven). I’m so tired I think I might cook and eat dinner now just so I can go to bed.. otherwise I won’t eat. Tomorrow, I’m going to try to get up early and be on trail by 6, so I can get to Lone Pine as early as possible tomorrow afternoon. I have 20 miles but I’m praying they won’t feel like the last few days since the elevation gain and loss is much lower.

Ok, that’s all for today. Goodnight y’all.