Cottonwood Pass to Kearsarge Pass

So we caught a surprise hitch out of Lone Pine with Adam, a shirtless, bearded fellow from from San Bernadino, CA--Adam. He spotted us walking aimlessly around town and asked if we needed a ride to somewhere in town. Turned out Adam was heading up to Horseshoe Meadow to camp and offered us a ride back to the trailhead! What luck! Dangit and I ran into the grocery store, grabbed food in about 10 minutes (Black Friday style!) and headed back towards the trail in Adam's classy sedan. The rest of the night we hung out with Adam around a campfire, ate fire-grilled steak and fresh fruit and drank Sierra Nevada’s. We also talked about how much we love being outside where life seems richer but also more simple. It was a wonderful and unexpected night and sure beat paying money for a hotel room in Lone Pine!

The next day packed up our stuff, said thank you to Adam, and made the climb up Cottonwood Pass back to the PCT. We also saw our friend Feather before heading out. She was going into Lone Pine to resupply. Hopefully we see her again. Just after Cottonwood Pass we made it above timberline for the first time! The second half of the day we spent walking through deep sand above treeline (strange…). With the burning sun and the sand it felt more like the Sahara Nevada than the Sierra Nevada.

Although the sand makes travel slow and tedious, there were the most interesting dead pine trees in this area that twist and turn like abstract art. Dangit and I agree that these trees would look cool in our house someday.

Surprisingly enough, the next day we... did more hiking. At lunch we spent over an hour in the idyllic Crabtree Meadow watching schools of Golden Trout, soaking up the sun, and washing our shirts in one of the bear canisters with views of Mt. Whitney in the distance.

Most hikers climb Whitney, but we did not since the 17 mile side trip could be too hard on our legs this early in our trip. Plus we will keep from falling behind our friends who are doing a bit higher mileage than us right now.

After our break in the meadow we hiked a few more miles down to Wallace Creek. We thought that it might be cold and dewy next to the water so we wanted to camp just above the creek. To our dismay there were no flat spots until the top of the climb above the creek. However, this turned out to be a blessing! Instead of camping somewhere ordinary, we camped on top of a cliff with views of the waterfall in the valley below and huge mountains in the distance. So awesome!!! Best day on the trail so far!

The next day we spent more time hiking with incredible vistas and even followed a young male mule deer across an alpine mesa. Later we finally made it to the base of Forrester Pass, which at 13,200 ft above sea level is the highest point on the PCT. The climb is pretty steep but snow free due to this years unusually low snow pack. While safer than most years, one false step could lead to a long tumble down granite talus to the valley floor. Yikes! We had lunch on top and spent over and hour soaking in the views. Best part of the trail so far! We decided to glissade, which is a fancy word for sliding down snow on your butt, down the backside of the pass. That night we made camp a few miles down from the pass. What an epic day! This is what we are hiking for!

The next day we decided to hike straight out to the Onion Valley Campground via Kearsarge Pass to reach Bishop, CA. The climb to the pass was beautiful but the 4.6 mile to the campground was brutally long. However, much to our delight two trail angels (Bristlecone and Uberbitch) had a campsite with refreshments, food, and most importantly rides down to Independence. From Independence Snaps, Pounce, Dangit, and I tried to hitch ~40 miles to Bishop. Hitching can be pretty hard. Hundreds of cars went by. Some drivers shake their heads, others change lanes, some pretend they don’t see you, and lots look apologetically. I don’t blame them, I've driven by lots of hitchhikers before. We tried everything first just the thumbs out, then we took a sharpie and wrote “HIKERS TO” and “BISHOP” on Dangit and Snaps’ stomachs. This got a us a few laughs, smiles, and waves but no rides.

Finally a map delivery man whose niece is hiking the PCT (Storybook) was able to take Pounce and Snaps. After a total of 1.5 to 2 hours three ladies picked us up and dropped us off at Hostel California in Bishop!

I have been operating under the delusion that Colorado is the only state with incredible mountains. Perhaps this is because I have never hiked in the Sierra’s. I have been absolutely blown away by every vista, switch back, and glacier carved valley. Unlike much of the Colorado Rockies, the peaks of the Sierra are impressible steep and composed completely of grey granite which is decorated with bits of snow. The valleys and passes are without compare. I used one camera battery in the first 3 weeks on the trail, but drained a battery in one day between Forrester Pass and Kearsage Pass! Truly unbelievable. I couldn’t be happier with our decision to hike this summer and I wonder why more people don’t try to experience these mountains.