The morning was great, and I saw very few hikers all day. I kept climbing way up high, and soon came across an amazing view of the desert floor to the east.
I love it!!
Oh yeah, by the way, this is another VERY picture-heavy day, haha. I couldn’t help but to take pictures every few minutes, it was so beautiful!
I didn’t see any snow until almost 11,000 feet! Just a tiny patch in the shade. This however is very deceiving, as many of the passes we go over will not have much snow until 11,000 on the southern approach, but could perhaps have fields of snow all the way down to as low as 9,000ft!!
First patch
Mt. Whitney in the distance
Some of the other passes we’ll be hitting afterwards
It was actually getting pretty hot even way up high on trail! As I was taking a small break, Shadow, Earlybird, Omri, and Aaron (now going by the name Alright), caught up to me. They have heavy packs at the moment since they are pushing from KM to Kearsarge Pass, where as I’m hitting Lone Pine tonight, then skipping Kearsarge in an 8 day stretch all the way to Vermillion Valley Resort.
We chatted for a bit at Diaz Creek and then I headed on my way; I wanted to get up the last 5 miles up the huge climb and hitch down into Lone Pine at a decent time. The food that Julian had given me definitely helped boost me up the last bit of the mountain. I did the last 3.7 miles in exactly an hour, which is crazy fast for how steep the trail was going up!
Awesome trees!
Sad fish rock is sad...
The rock formations and trees were so beautiful today, and it felt so great to be hiking with such great scenery. I kept stopping and just taking huge sighs of pleasure and joy. I was hiking solo all day but I kept telling myself out loud how beautiful everything was. And going “Yiiiiiiiiii, I made it!!” I love being up here :)
I boosted up the last bit of super steep climb and made it to Trail Pass, my exit for the trail that would take me down to Horseshoe Campground.
Horseshoe Meadow in the distance, East of trail
Beautiful sandy meadow with the High Sierra in the background
BEAUTIFUL!!!
I saw a day Hiker slowly headed back to the trailhead as I was about 1/2 a mile away. I approached him and asked if he was done for the day and headed toward Lone Pine. He said he could take me right to the hostel! This worked out so well as the Horseshoe Meadow road has just opened about a week ago, and I wasn’t sure how many people/cars would be up there.
This gentleman was named Booger. Yes, Booger. I assumed at first it was a trailname, but it was a name given to him by his army division when some custard had dried on his shirt and stayed there for a week. Booger is 76 years old and often likes to do smaller 14-18 mile two day trips in Death Valley in the winter and here in the Sierra in the summer.
As soon as we got back to his truck, he offered me a warm beer out of the back of his truck that he said was at least 5 years old! A hiker never turns down a beer, warm or cold, old or fresh! On the way down, there was some great views and Booger told me a lot of history of the area.
A 2011 beer :)
Booger
He dropped me off at the hostel and I got a room for the night. The large 8 bunk rooms were $30, so I opted for a 4 bunk room for $35 instead. Since I arrived just after 3pm, I was the first one there!
All to myself :) for a while...
I immediately took a shower since it was still 93° out and I knew that my dreads would have time to dry out. When I got out another girl named Shepard was checking in. She warned me that she thinks she had food poisoning. That was scary. Thoughts of the Noro virus filled my mind, but after I questioned her about the timing of her symptoms, I was sure that it was just the standard food poisoning. This made me feel a liiiiiiiittle bit better, but sharing the room with a sick person when I was still so paranoid about getting sick, I was still a little uneasy.
Either way, I went down to the main office and found a brand new pair of hiking pants in their hiker box. They were size 40 in the waist and I’m only a 31! With some jerry-rigging of the waist belt, they sufficed for me to be able to do laundry in. I put on my rain jacket and clown pants and grabbed all my dirty hiking clothes and headed to the laundromat. It was only $1.50 for a wash and someone had already bought some soap and had written “Straight outta Campo!”, so I knew it was up for grabs for us PCT hikers.
While that was in the wash, I headed to the Mexican food truck that I recalled from 2 years ago and had a HUGE burrito there! It was great. After wrapping up laundry, I headed back to the hostel, and two other hikers had joined, filling the room. One named wounded knee, who hiked a bunch and is REALLY fast (Like 30 mile days fast), and another older gentleman whose name I forgot.
The weather is HOT here, and it’s only getting toastier... luckily, on Monday, I’ll be hitching our back into the 10,000ft mountains as it’s reaching 100° down here :) I’m taking my third zero of the trail tomorrow, while I wait for Julian and Keglegs to catch up, and wait for the post office to open on Monday. I’m doing well on budget, and have only paid for two nights accommodations so far on the trail, so $70 for two nights won’t kill me. Plus, the A/C in here is soooooooo nice! Hahaha
Thanks for reading!
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