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Lunchtime on top of Whitney at 14,500'. Used my emergency space blanket for warmth, since I didn't have my sleeping bag handy.
Next PO stop: South Lake Tahoe, at mile 1090. My optimistic estimate is still July 6th, but I'll probably actually be there on July 7th. Address:
Hold for PCT thru-hiker ETA 7/6
Matthew Wismer
General Delivery
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
Since the last post, I carried 2 days of food in a bear can until Lone Pine, then 7 days of food in a bear can till Red's Meadow. I'm staying in Mammoth tonight. And I didn't lose mileage in the Sierra, even though I basically did a full extra day off trail!
The 2 days were to judge how I did at altitude, before committing to a count of days for the long haul. I managed a 27 mile day up 6000', then a 20 mile day ending at 2 pm, so I felt convinced I could average 25 miles a day through the Sierra, which is well known to be the hardest section of trail. (Lone Pine to Red's is 158 on-trail miles plus 21 off trail miles, 16 of which were Whitney, which was non-negotiable. The others were to get to a road from the PCT.)
Lone Pine itself was great. An easy hitch in, and a relatively easy hitch out with Megan and Olivia. A few town meals and I was back on trail within 25 hours, which is impressive for a 20 mile hitch while Whitney was on fire. Yeah, Whitney was on fire. But only the part near Lone Pine, not the part that I would be hiking. So it was fine.
Day 1 out of Lone Pine was just an afternoon getting set up for Whitney the next day, and oh boy was that bear canister heavy with 7 days of food. I was happy to drop it to day-hike Whitney, which is why I also didn't have my sleeping bag at the top. The top was breath-takingly beautiful after the breath-taking high-altitude ascent. I got down around 5 pm and made a few more miles before ending my day.
Then came the seemingly endless series of grueling and beautiful passes that made me reconsider my 25 mile a day plan. Forester and Glen on day 3, then Pinchot and Mathers on day 4. Each pass was a 2000' to 4000' climb, ending around 12,000'. (Except Forester at 13,200'.) I only did 23 miles on day 4, and had some worries that I was gonna have to bail early for food reasons. (Probably at VVR.)
On day 5 I had what looked like a miserable 5000' climb to Muir Pass, but it wasn't hard at all. It was a gradual climb, so I only did one pass that day. And one Muir Pass was much easier than day 3 or 4. At this point everything got much easier, as the following passes peaked well below the previous ones.
Day 6 was just Selden Pass, but I randomly got shin splints in my right shin, so called the day a bit early. And then my favorite enemy arrived, the mosquitoes.
I kept a flying insect kill count on the AT, and added it to my journal entries and blog posts. I've been keeping the same count on the PCT, but I didn't go out of the way to kill the few desert bugs I encountered. My kill count as of last post was 2. When I entered Lone Pine, 4. Then there were a decent amount in the Sierras, so it was 71 as I approached Selden Pass. When I fell asleep that night, it was over 300. (I killed them between my tent's bug mesh and rain fly with the extra hour I had to burn because of shin splints calling the day short.)
They continued to be bad on the morning of day 7, so I hiked with a single trekking pole and got to 611 at lunch. Then, just before the relatively easy Silver Pass, a thunderstorm rolled in, hailing on me briefly with very close lightning strikes. I was glad to still be under treeline with Small, Tall, Tamale, and Splash, discussing how bad it was. Tall and Small had a schedule to keep, so they pressed on after a bit, while the other three of us set up our tents for a half hour to let the lightning finish completely before crossing the pass. The sky still looked ominous, so I got back under treeline quickly.
Then this morning was an easy 15 miles into Red's and a resupply. I still had about 1000 calories left in my pack, down from around 21,000 at the start of my resupply. Basically perfect. Tall and Small did a short resupply at Red's Meadow (small general store like Kennedy Meadows), and the three remaining hitched into Mammoth, where I ran into Sam and Margo, who are now 40ish miles ahead, after doing one less resupply and skipping Mt. Whitney. Maybe I'll catch them.
I'll add that it's very weird hiking in the Sierras, with so many people backpacking out for a weekend or a month. Normally, 90% of the backpackers I see are PCT thru-hikers, but now I can't make that assumption. I've met some cool JMTers, but they tend to do fewer miles, not having the extra month of training that PCTers do at this point. So I basically only see them once, or possibly a few times over the course of one day.
Did I mention how beautiful this part of trail is?
- Happy Meal, 626
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