Day 63 – 24 May 19. Back over Kearsarge Pass and on trail again
Today 12.3 km (0.2 on trail, 12 off trail) (7.6 mi 0.1 on trail and 7.5 off trail), Total Distance 1269.1 km (778.6 mi). 5 hours 40 minutes (1100-1640)
I woke up early and headed across the road to the Alabama Hills Cafe for a final hot meal before heading back into the hills.
I finished packing and walked neearer the edge of town. It took a while to get a ride but finally a nice lady picked me, and another hiker who was flipping north, and dropped me off in Independance. I then walked through the small town to where Onion Road started. I was there at 0800 and there was very little traffic. The few campervans and cars that passed did not stop. Just before 1000 hours another hiker walked up. He had done a long section of PCT last year and was doing a section up to Mammoth. He was an older gentleman. I commented that it was a strange time to be doing a section with all the snow and he said that is when he got a permit. he had snow shoes on his pack.
Finally just after 1000 a campervan with three young Patagonia emplyees stopped and picked us up. They were plannig on going skiing.
At the carpark I did my final preparation. it was looking horrible higher up so I put on my wet weather clothes. There were some PCTers who had just come down from the Pass. They had got horrible weather and deep snow that they postholled through. They looked exhausted.
While doing my preparation I was chatting with the older hiker I made a comment about rather be going on my own than trying to teach and look after a beginner as I went. He said “so we won’t be walking together then”. I found out he had very little snow experience and no locator beacon. Very scary!
I took off up the hill. There did not seem to be any new snow, despite the storms of the last week. I was going very slowly as my pack was heavy. I did not weigh it but I had an extra 3 days food than when I left Kennedy Meadows when it weighed 18kg (40lb). My calves were on fire as I climbed the hill. I ended up tkingg off my wet weather gear very quickly as I was too hot.
On my way up I met a few day walkers and a couple of small groups of PCT hikers. The weather stayed okay until I got near the top of the pass when it clouded in, though I was still hot climbing the hill.
The footprints I was following took a different path than what I took going down and I was pleasantly surprised to come to the sign at Kearsarge Pass much earlier than I was expecting.
At the top of the pass it was quite neat that the side I had just come up was completely misty but the other side was clear.
I dropped down into the valley. Once again the footprints toook a different path and I was actually not happy with where they went, They were taking a dangerous route, high above the lake and through some rocky cliff areas. At one point they actually dropped about a meter off a rock into snow. I decided I wanted nothing more to do with this route and made my own way down to the flat. It was harder to walk in the snow but safer.
Once down at the lake it was a short walk in the foootprints back to the junction wheree I left trail 6 days ago. I tried to find the triple trunk tree to tap back onto the trail but couldn’t find it, despite walking up and down for a while.
I only went a few hundred meters up the trail and set up camp. Not long afterwards it started snowing.
I was tired despite the short day but needed to get used to being back on trail again.
Visits: 540