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Day 75 – 05 Jun 19. Back on Trail Again

Today 14.6 km (9.1 mi) of which 5.6 km/3.1 mi is on trail, Total Distance 1459.4 km (906.8 mi). 5 hours 30 minutes (1300-1830)

I enjoyed my little sleep in, getting up for breakfast just after 0900. I finished off the last of my blogs and then started packing. For some reason it took me ages and I went past the check out timing. I rang reception and he said no worries, he would change checkout for me to 1200.

Finally ready I went down to reception and asked if he knew where a printer was and he said I was welcome to use his computer and printer. This is just another example of the excellent service I got at Sierra Lodge. I would definitely recommend it to future hikers. Reasonable price, good service, large and clean rooms, new bathroom with excellent pressure and temperature and I loved the oatmeal soap. They also have an outdoor hot tub which was great and continental breakfast is included.

I walked to Burger Restaurant for a final decent meal before getting back on trail. There were three PCT hikers who had just come off trail today. They were not interested in talking so I just read a book while waiting. The burger was nice again and this time instead of fries I got a salad and it was huge.

I headed through The Village to the bus stop only to see that the orange line was not operating. This would have taken me back up to the carpark. I walked to the traffic lights to get on the right road and stuck my thumb out. There was not a lot of traffic and it took a while but a young guy who lived locally picked me up and took me to the trail head.

There were workers on the road and they had cleared the snow of the road for the first mile. I got to see one of the machines as it was cutting into the snow banks. Some of the snow banks were twice my height. It is amazing how high the snow was.

There were a few day walkers and several stopped to talk, curious about my big pack.

After a mile on the road the snow clearing ended and it was back to the snow over the road. Surprisingly this last mile went quicker than I expected. I was now through Horseshoe Lake Camp Ground and climbing up to McCleod Lake.

Just past the lake I met a German PCT hiker. He was well and truly over the snow and I got the impression he was calling it quits on the trail. He said there were two others in his group and they had entered via Bishop Pass. One guy was continuing on and the other was also coming off trail in Mammoth.

I continued climbing and just as I started heading down from the pass I saw some more hikers slightly below. It was the same place as I saw the 4 hikers on my way down the mountain. I only recognised the lady, though I cannot remember her name. She arrived in Kennedy Meadows the night before I left so we did not get a chance to talk much. They had taken 8 days so made good time. Like everyone they found it physically tough but after a few days off were going to continue. They were asking me about the next section but there have been no reports so no one knows the conditions. I just told them what I thought, i.e. that it was going to be harder and more frustrating due to the melting snow.

We continued our own ways. I retraced my steps from 3 days ago and reconnected with the trail. There were several footprints visible which I was glad to see.

The trail followed a stream downhill, then cut across to a river. Here there was a bridge to cross over and some very old tracks. The newer tracks continued on the same side. I knew I would have to cross the river at some point but chose to follow the new footprints, a move I came to regret.

The footprints headed down steeply but where we needed to cross the river there was no crossing point and it was really fast and powerful as it was dropping height quickly. I continued downstream looking for a crossing point. Down and down I went before I finally found a log I could use to cross.

Once across I was in an area of massive trees which had fallen over. This meant a lot of clambering over trees, some of which were so big I had to find a way around them. It was messy and slow. The fastest travel was to climb onto one of the fallen trees and walk along the trunk above all the rubbish.

There were no tracks by this stage, I am not sure where they crossed the river.

Finally I emerged onto a nice clear track. Smooth dirt. I suspect if I had crossed the bridge where I should have I would have dropped below the snow very quickly and had the nice trail to use.

Now that I was on the beautiful track it was quick walking. There were a couple of small snow patches but not many. I dropped to an intersection, then to another intersection and I found a nice flat spot to put up my tent.

Just as I started putting the tent up it started raining so I rushed to get finished. The rain got heavy so I pulled my pack under the awning and unpacked from inside. The rain was really heavy for a while then eased off but continued to rain for a few hours.

It was nice and warm when I went to sleep.

Visits: 465

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