I was supposed to answer a phone call from Jordan this morning at 5am. But I didn't wake up. I was up till like 2am. I am fadding in and out of sleep and realize It's almost time to check out. I fell so unorganized with food situation and I still have to go to the post office and mail out my bounce box. Thinking about going back out on the trail right now just gives me anxiety. I am just not ready to go. I call over to the hostel and reserve a bed for tonight. SlowGin had me reserve one for him too.
I went down to the hotel lobby and had my continental breakfast. I didn't eat very much this time there wasn't a lot to eat. Nothing like at the Quality Inn, or Best Westerns. I asked the girl at the front desk for a late check out. She gave me a hour.
I had so much stuff to pack up. I got almost all my food in my bear can. I didn't want to smash my avocado's in there. It's always a struggle, Don't smash the avocado's.
Walked over to the Hostel and it was a little unorganized. They are still new I guess and trying to refine there processes. The whole place was full of hikers. I had just missed Drew he headed back into the wild. Tink, DangerSpoon, CheeseBurger, CrackerJack, and lots more where here. Some I have never seen before. That seems to be happening a lot in the Sierra's. I don't know where everyone is coming from but there is so many new faces.
After settling into my room I shaved my head again, and took a shower. Walked around town. Checked out the movie times at the theater. I went to a Coffee shop called Looney Bean to kill time and had what is called a dirty Hippie. Chi tea and espresso with espresso whipped cream. Yeah it was intense it gave me the jitters. I was walking around town checking out the gear shops/outfitters. I didn't need anything, except KT tape and Sawyer Squeeze bag. But I somehow found both in the hiker box at the hostel. I also got my bounce box mailed ahead to Yosemite. I switched out my shoes from my bounce box. I am going to try out my other Altra's The Olympus. I put my Lone Peaks in the bounce box.
So it's movie time. I have two choices "The Edge of Tomorrow" or "How to Train Your Dragon 2" honestly I want to see both of those...
So I went to both movies, such a good day. They both where awesome.
lots of people where gone from the Hostel or sleeping there was some kind of spaghetti night at the bowling ally. Which actually sounded like fun but I wanted to watch movies and relax. Plus I would have ended up drinking beers and what not. I like to be in tip top shape when I go back out to the trail. So I usually don't drink the night before.
I climbed into my bunk and went to sleep. Tomorrow, it's back to the wild for me.
So I didn't wake up early enough to catch the first bus out of Bishop to Independence. So I'll just have to hitch. I packed away all my things, said my goodby's and at 8am I was out.
Town clean, pack full and I'm ready to go. I weighted my pack before I left... 48lbs! Yikes. 7days of food and 3 liters water.
I had to stop by the Looney Bean and get another Dirty Hippie. Yum so good. I sat around the coffee shop and enjoyed my drink and chit chatted with the locals about my journey so far.
9am it's hitching time. There is lots of traffic so it should be an easy hitch to Independence...
Wrong! 3 hours later I gave up and walked down to the Von's where the bus stop is. Looks like I'm going to take the 1:15 bus. I stopped at the Pizza Factory on the way and ate a medium veggie pizza while I walked haha.
Karen and George was also at the bus stop, along with a few others. This lady that worked for the news paper asked if she could take our picture and put it in the paper. So that was neat.
Finally got to Independance, and me and Giggles got a ride pretty quickly up to camp ground. This guy named Scott took us up.
Giggles, Scott and me. He was a really nice guy. Him and his friends where going to hike Whitney. He wasn't doing to well. This knees where hurting him. So he didn't go. He was just going to camp here for a couple days.
BristleCone (trail angel), Giggles me and SpaceAge. I met Space age back at Paradise cafe. I keep bumping into him while I'm leaving town and he is coming in. I wanted to take a photo with the trail angels that where at the camp ground but UberBitch was picking people up.
Finally I am hiking again and any anxiety is gone. I noticed I still had Cell service and I just had an idea of what I could do for Jordan (for her Birthday) when she comes to Mammoth to see me. I did a little research right quick and made an appointment for Her and me to... Just have to wait and see what it is... Hiked up over the pass and found an amazing campsite...
I ate my dinner and crawled into the good ol sleeping bag. Feels good to be back on the trail. It's way past hiker midnight so i don't think I'll be waking up very early. I still feel like I'm on town schedule. I went to sleep to the sound of bullfrogs singing their song.
Tyndall creek mile 775 to Kearsarge pass trail mile 789
Hiked 14 miles + 7 Kearsarge trail = 21miles
I woke up as planed 4am and was on the trail at 5:30am. everyone else was sleeping... I am on a mission get to Independence before 4p.
The morning is cold and everything is frozen when I get closer to Forester. I can see Forester in the distance. I'm a little intimidated I must admit. I don't know what to expect. I have only heard bad things about the high mountain passes. Most years hikers need spikes and ice axes to go over the pass due to ice and snow. This is a very low snow year so I didn't even buy either of those. The view is incredible, I am really enjoying the trail so far.
I can see the pass in the distance...
Getting Closer...
Closer to the pass the wind is super icy cold just like on Whitney.
Haha got to love a wet foot.
Here is it. I have to go over that? It's crazy looking it's like straight up and down. There is no sign of a trail. Looks like I will have to climb it. I didn't bring my climbing gear. Oh wait I don't own any...
Just kidding there is totally a trail.
I'm entering Kings Canyon.
Yummy look at the water. I call it Glacier water.
I just basically ran though Kings Canyon which was a shame it was really nice through there. Beautiful Canyon actually, wish I wasn't in such a hurry. I didn't take any pictures. I can see a lot of people camped in really nice places. There is a lot JMT hikers. There is 3 things that you can look for to know they are JMT hiker. 1st there are most likely going south. 2nd they camp in the middle of the day. 3rd you can tell a JMT campsite from a PCT Hiker campsite cause of the Clothes line lol. JMTers seem to all (at least quite a few) have cloths lines they set up to dry cloths and what not lol. N E ways...
I flew up Kearsarge pass.
Found some more Glacier water.
The Kearsarge trail after the pass feels like it is forever down hill to get to the camp ground where I will need to hitch hike into town.
I ran into HappyMan! He was heading back into the wild. He told me there was Trail Angels in the camp ground. Doing trail magic and giving rides into town!
I'm running now. My pack is light. Hardly any water and no food. I drank most of the glacier water I collected at forester. I passed a bunch of other hikers I know as they where heading back out.
I can see the camp ground below. (Feels like a hour later) What the heck? I can see the camp ground again from the trail and How come I'm not there yet? Mind games. It feels like I've been running for hours. The trail is messing with my mind as descend the longest mile ( last mile of the day)
I finely made it to the camp ground!
My brain is fried. My face is fried and burnt from the wind. I have been working so hard to get here I can hardly make conversation or focus. It's kind is funny actually. BristleCone and UberBitch are the trail angels that are hosting us! They hiked last year and are here for a couple weeks or so doing this for us hiker trash. They are so awesome. I enjoy a Gatorade and beer as I decompress from what I just did. Everyone seems surprised I came over both passes today and before 4pm. It was pretty hard I guess. I'm just happy to be here.
They took 4 of is into town. I realized my 3 boxes are at the Chevron and not the Post Office. Haha which means I didn't have to push so hard to get here by 4. Oh well I'm here and it feels great.
The bus stop is near by and SlowGin is there! I met him at the Lone Pine hostel. I decided to go to Bishop cause there isn't much here in Independence.
I got a text from Tink. Her, Drew and DangerSpoon where at the hostel. Awesome, I haven't seen them in a while. I called the hostel and they where full. :( SlowGin and I decide to share a room at the Econolodge. It was an alright place. Not the worst place I've stayed at.
I went to the laundry mat to wash my cloths after a shower of course. I bought a McDonalds salad and a small fry as I walked by so I could eat something while I wait for cloths. There is a ton of hikers in this town. I see them all over the place. Bishop seems like a pretty good town for hikers. It has everything we need even a couple outfitters.
After laundry, back to the room and I went through my resupply boxes and realized I only have 6 days of food and my next resupply is Tuolumne, 8 days/150 miles, crap. I checked PCT Planner and realized I planned on stopping in Mammoth to resupply for last couple days. Ok that makes since now. I think most people go into Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) or to Muir Ranch. I wasn't going to do either. Muir Ranch Isnt very hiker friendly I hear. VVR is like going to professional sports game and paying $20+ for parking $6 for basic hotdog and $10 beers. I hate supporting exorbitant priced establishments.
It was nice being able to talk to Jordan again. We are making our plans for when she is coming out visit me on my birthday week. July 1st is my 30th birthday we planed to spend almost a week together in South Lake Tahoe. The problem, I'm 5-6 days behind schedule... Which puts me at Mammoth Lakes when she would be here and not Tahoe. Which I think is going to be ok Mammoth lakes looks like a pretty good town. They have a brewery! That's all I care about haha. So Mammoth it is.
I went to the Von's to add some more snacks. I bought 2 avocados, 5 cliff bars(1st cliff bars on the trail), jar of peanut butter, via Starbucks packets, bar of dark chocolate, Quakers individual granola packets, and package of tortillas. Bought me a couple bags of chips, salsa and hummus to eat tonight. It was 1am by the time me and SlowGin got back to the hotel room from Von's we had to walk almost a mile carrying our food.
We ate and talked a bit. SlowGin has lived a pretty interesting life the last few years. He is originally from Korea. A year ago he rode his bike from New York to San Diego. Then just stayed in San Diego got a job and has been living there ever since. He's now hiking the PCT and he told me he plans to find a job and somewhere to stay in Washington or Portland after he is done. Such an interesting way to live. Just traveling around living and doing what he wants. Pretty cool.
Off to dream land for me and back to the trail tomorrow.
June 16 Top Mt.Whitney to Crabtree meadows mile 766 To Tyndall creek campsite mile 775.
Hiked 9 + 8 (Whitney trail)
Good morning Whitney. About an hour before sunrise people stated showing up. A few day hikers and a few pct hikers.
We sat around and I ate my oatmeal and waited for the sunrise.
Sunrise
Got to have a picture with my chair.
Moonshine lol
It was great. I love every minute of being up here. After sunrise we waited for it to get a little warmer. A couple day hikers walked into the shelter around 6:30am and they had be hiking since 5pm the previous day straight through the night! That's crazy really cold and miserable. They had heavy packs to. I don't know why they made this hike so difficult for themselves. They came up the Whitney portal side (east) it's like 22 mile round trip. From the PCT we come up the Westside. 16 mile round trip.
It's time to head back down.
Snow!
Guitar lake from Whitney
Guitar lake from the bottom.
Selfie.
Just chillin on a rock
Had to take another photo for Jordan. Haha
Views of clouds and mountains. I can't believe I get to see this all day every day.
I'm hiking so I can get close to forester pass which is the highest point on the PCT. The plane is to go over the pass early morning so the snow will be frozen solid to walk on and not posthole. (Which is where your one leg breaks through the show. It's a pain to get out and makes for slow going.
Moonshine hiked most of the PCT last year. He told me about a meadow 6 miles away from Crabtree that is really nice and we should camp there.
I ended up missing it and kept hiking for a couple more miles and camped at Tyndall creek with some other hikers. A couple JMT (John Muir Trail) hikers and 5 PCT hikers nice campsite and right by water to.
I kept seeing notes from DustBunny to Pockets and Hugs saying where she was camping at and to meet her. I was writing on her notes saying that's where I was going just for fun lol. Pockets and hugs where going up Whitney when we where on out way down. So I don't think we will see them tonight.
The plan for tomorrow is to wake up at 4am and get over forester pass and over Kersarge pass(7mile side trail off the PCT into onion valley) and into the town Independence before the post office closes (4pm) to pick up my resupply and bounce box. 2 mountain passes and 21 miles Big day tomorrow well see how it goes. - Posted from my iPhone
Woke up super excited. I am ready to do this. I wasn't excited to put on my shoes however. My wet shoe from yesterday is now a frozen shoe frozen solid. Dam, that sucks lol.
I hit the trail 7:30am only 6 miles to Crabtree and 8ish to the peak of Whitney so 14 mile day shouldn't be to bad.
The trail to Crabtree I found a tree monster...
Video here
Found this pretty mangy looking deer, what meadow trash. lol
The trail to the top was cold and super windy. It was kind of funny everyone on the way up that I told my plan to (sleeping on top of Whitney) basically thought it was a crazy idea and said it was to cold.
I also found out that a couple nights ago 12ish people went up there to camp to see the full moon on friday the 13. I heard that none of them got any sleep. The shelter is kind of small I guess. But I don't care what they think. I am going to do what I set out to do.
Yea, I made it. The hike up was pretty easy actually. I think hiking over 700 miles to get to this point may have had something to do with it. Being in the best shape of my life and loving it. If you want to lose weight and be in great shape... Hike the PCT and eat everything you want along the way. haha.
Here is the shelter on top. It's to bad that they cut in half and have the larger side locked up.
selfie Video here
yeah, amazing.
Pictures never compare to the real thing. Especially when taken on an iPhone.
Moonshine and I cooked dinner and just shot the shit for a while
It's still kind of cold in here you can see your breath but at least it's blocking the wind.
Here in my sleeping bag it's warm and cozy. I still can't believe where I am. I thought about doing this trail for so long and to be doing it and hiking Mt. Whitney the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states is pretty awesome.
I Love the PCT
Happy Father's Day Dad.
I imagine we will be woken early in the morning when the others come up to see the sunrise. For them a cold dark and difficult slog. For us... Just roll out of the sleeping bag!
