July 14 — day 74
Zero PCT miles today continued to stay at the Eastside Guesthouse and Bivy. I patched my Thermarest Neo. I finished my resupply from the Grocery Outlet and Von’s.
July 13 — day 73
Zero PCT miles today as I stay at the EG&B. I did a bit of resupply shopping today and a lot of eating. We had an excellent birthday celebration for Safari today. Activities included matching personnel items to their owners. Safari got them all. A blind taste test of various bars; Safari got all except an obscure one Panda and I had found in the hiker box the last time I was here. There was a poop emoji piñata that she gutted with a good whack with her ice axe. French Ninja made a delicious bowl with veggies and salmon over rice. Finally we had a birthday cake in the form of two pies from Eric Schat’s bakery.
July 12 — day 72
Stayed off-trail mile 903.3 hiked 16.9 PCT + 3.5 Mammoth Pass = 20.4 miles today. I was up early and grumpy as my pad had sprung a leak overnight. I set off at 4:15 before the others and kept walking thru snow, stream and lake crossings. Got into Mammoth via the tram from the Mammoth Pass Trailhead. Had an expensive but barely adequate mole dinner with a margarita at Roberto’s. There were a huge number of hikers heading by bus to Bishop. Returned to the Eastside Guesthouse and Bivy where we were happy to see Panda pretty well healed after his week or so recovery
July 11 — day 71
Camped mile 886.4 hiked 11.5 off PCT miles today. The Goodale Pass trail was lovely. There were no signs of others having traveled over the Pass this year although the melt may have obscured the tracks. We had some lovely glissades descending from the pass. By the time we got to the PCT junction I was completely wiped out. We camped near the trail junction in bare rick as all the other spots were soaking wet. It was a gorgeous campsite.
July 10 — day 70
Stayed at the Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) off-trail mile 874.5 hiked 10.8 PCT + 7.2 Bear Ridge = 18 miles today. Selden Pass was the easiest so far. The descent was tedious as per usual. Sam and I got to Bear Creek together. I found the log crossing downstream from the trail crossing. It was good and solid with bits of branches providing handholds. The mosquitos were extreme in this area. I’m so glad that I had long pants and a long-sleeved shirt as well as a head net. We got to VVR tired and hungry. I was happy to see AK who had arrived the day before. Had dinner of pulled pork tacos and apple fritters. Hung out with other PCT and JMT hikers at the fire.
July 9 — day 69
Camped mile 863.7 hiked 16.4 miles today. The first obstacle for the day was crossing Evolution Creek via the very muddy bypass route. It was cold and for me right up to the bits and pieces. I had the seemingly great idea of rinsing my pants out after the crossing. The local mosquitos agreed that this was an excellent plan. I had to quickly dress in order to avoid too much blood loss. Much of the rest of the day was relatively easy walking along the S fork of the San Joaquin River. Eventually, of course, we started climbing like fiends up to our camp at Sallie Keys Lake.
July 8 — day 68
Camped mile 847.3 hiked 16.8 miles today. It was another exhausting excellent day. It was another early start to try to beat the soft snow crossing Muir Pass. It was so beautiful on the ascent. There were a few clear boot paths on the otherwise unsullied snow up to the pass. The day was perfect; clear, still and warm. Eventually, there was a large gathering in and mostly around the hut. The gentle descent was a real slush fest. We eventually were in the forests and meadows of Evolution Creek. As elsewhere on the trail there was extensive evidence of the avalanches from the huge snows of the previous winter. We were again low enough to have a campfire. We collectively decided to drop into the Vermillion Valley Resort via the Bear Ridge trail to do a minor resupply and have a few good meals. This was excellent for me as I had really started to eat and was running low on food. I celebrated the good news by having a king-sized Payday bar for dessert.
July 7 — day 67
Camped mile 830.5 hiked 15 miles today. We had planned to leave at 5:00am in anticipation that our companions would catch up which they did as I was packing up in the morning. Mather was an awesome pass. We climbed rock bands far to the left of the trail as it was much safer from potential rockfall. Very high up we were back on the trail for a moment before the crux which was a very steep snow field under the cornice at the pass ridge. There was a lot of exposure on the last move passing over the cornice. After I made it I posted myself just over the crux anchored to my axe, giving words of encouragement to those following and ready to grab anyone slipping. Luckily we all made it under our own steam. It was a very long snowy and wet descent down the raging Palisades Creek drainage. We camped low enough to have a campfire, but most were too exhausted to enjoy it much.
July 6 — day 66
Camped mile 815.5 hiked 11 miles today. We started climbing at 4:00am in hard snow to climb Pinchot Pass. The morning sky is so gorgeous it almost makes waking so early worth it. After the pass, I descended rather quickly thru the rapidly softening snow. I met up with Sonic before the S-fork of the Kings River where we had lunch. We had to bushwhack on the south side of the river for 1.5 miles before we could find a place to ford. We were in the lead as we pushed up thru very slushy snow to an open dry campsite just below Mather Pass. Our companions we found later decided to quit a mile before due to the snow.
July 5 — day 65
Camped mile 804.5 hiked 11 miles today. Descended from Rae Lakes with the trail flooded in many sections and with many river crossings. The Woods Creek water slide was amazing. We climbed up as high as we had energy for on the steep trail up towards Pinchot Pass. I felt the magnitude 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake while I was lying in my Thermarest pad trying to sleep before our 4:30 AM start.
July 4 — day 64
Camped mile 793.5 hiked 4.4 PCT + 7 Kearsarge Pass = 11.4 miles today. We noticed a lot of melt in the Kearsarge Pass trail from when we were last here a few days ago. It was the first of many long hard days in this section. We climbed over both Kearsarge and Glenn Passes today before dropping down to camp at Rae Lakes. The ascent up Glenn wasn’t too difficult but some in our party had trouble on the steep snow fields in the descent. Chesus took a tumble and self arrested but was physically unscathed. It was almost continuous snow until Rae lakes.
July 3 — day 63
Camped off-trail first lake from Kearsarge Pass trailhead PCT mile 789.1 hiked 2.1 miles today. We were busy and sweltering in the Owens Valley getting together and busing it. Didn’t take long to get a ride to the trailhead. We didn’t make much progress but we enjoyed a campfire baked Brie and Some-mores.