Woke up late the next morning but it was cool, i didn’t have far to go. The side trail to Mount Whitney was eight miles long total, and i camped about 3.5 miles in right by Guitar Lake. hey what’s that i’m hiking with a guitar and i’m going to guitar lake how perceptive of you sick joke bro i promise you the first one to think up that one lol
Real talk Guitar Lake was nice. Freezing, but it was mighty pretty up there. I didn’t get to see too much of it that day though, i had a brutal alarm set for 1:45am so i could see the sunrise on Whitney. It would’ve been nice if i could’ve gotten some good sleep that night instead of just laying in my tent for most of the evening but hey we can’t always get what we want.
Come 1:45 and i pounded a Clif Bar that had caffeine in it, put on ye again because of course i did, and set off for my third 14er. I left my tent up with most of my gear in it and slackpacked with my quilt, sleeping pad, and tequila in my pack and all of my clothes on my body.
About halfway up the climb the moon broke over the mountain top and i turned off my headlamp to admire the natural light in the canyon below. Shoutout to my rubbish headlamp that refused to turn on after that. If i didn’t have my phone on me I woulda been in a bad way.
The climb wasn’t that treacherous. Only once did i put on my microspikes to traverse an icy snowy cliffside, but other than that it was just a lot of switchbacks. I broke the summit at around 4:45, sat down on my pad, curled up in my quilt, and watched the show along with 20 or so other people who kept taking pictures of the wonderful colors. Sorry not sorry i didn’t take any, you wanna see it you gotta earn that shit. Also my phone was mostly dead because I had music playing and my flashlight going for a lot of the climb.
I floated down the descent with my light pack back to my tent where i took a juicy nap. At noon i rolled out, but not quickly. Two river fords blocked my path. The first one i stopped to take my socks off to help mitigate how much water my shoes soaked up which was a fine idea if it weren’t for the aggressive swarm of mosquitoes who descended to feast upon my flesh. Dozens of them fell while i removed my socks but that didn’t seem to put a dent in their numbers. The second one i just plowed through before the horde was fully alerted to my presence.
That night i stayed at Bighorn Plateau on the precipice of Forrester Pass, the highest point on the PCT. Doom and gloom surrounded this imposing ascent.
I awoke to a pair of frozen shoes and socks, so i waited for my brother the sun to do his best job at thawing them. It didn’t matter if they were dry because a river ford separated me from the pass.
The climb was steep that’s for sure. A hodgepodge of trails cut through the snow since the proper trail was buried. With the power of The 20/20 Experience and my boy JT i was barely tired when i reached the top.
The descent got interesting. There were a handful of paths cutting straight down the far side where people slid straight down, but without an ice axe i instead chose life and kept to the trail. Even with my microspikes on i ended up skidding down a lot of the way which was both fun and terrifying. All was perfect up until the pack i was following got off trail, and we struggled for a good 10 minutes to find it again, even with the help of a man further ahead trying to guide us.
As the sun climbed higher i started to posthole which was fun and tiring. Thankfully the pack neared the end of the snowy section. We walked over a snow covered stream and continued to descend down the dirt covered path. Last night i stayed at the start of Bullfrog Lake trail.
I awoke this morning and met my neighbors. They were two guys doing the John Muir Trail, and they misestimated their food situation so they came by asking for some food. I helped them out since i was on my way to Bishop. Hopefully i see them again when i return to the trail but i might take a zero tomorrow so we’ll see.
I got a ride down from the trailhead from a nice old couple from Tennessee who gave us a bag of cherries. also i notice i’m kind of loose with singular or plural pronouns and i promise that’s because sometimes i’m by myself and sometimes i’m with other humans it’s not because i’m rocking multiple personalities promise
I found in Independence that the next bus to Bishop was that evening, so i pulled out the Doctor and tried to catch a hitch. And boy did i catch one.
His name is Flook and i only remember that cuz he wrote it down for me man names are hard. He told me about the work he did with historicorps, about hot springs in the area, and about a group of people who hike out other people’s trash, all during the long ride to Bishop while we listened to the soundtrack to Avatar.
He took me out to breakfast and gave me a bunch of vegetarian food before he left. Also he gave me some money for the hostel here in town.
so now it’s now and i just found out that there’s gonna be more new kanye tomorrow like whaaat
whitney was rad. big times, the line of hikers lighting the earth with their headlamps making their ascent with the moonlight. never too sketchy, conditions were gentle and ice was low. some small views presented owens valley below with the desert town lights beaming.
i got a wedding invite on my phone when i was on whitney. the very same wedding that i would leave trail to attend.
bighorn plateau yes please. so vast, big desert energy.
i like when trails have river crossings. makes em feel like the big leagues.
a biting cold on forester pass. the ascent long, up the chute to a snow covered wall for the final climb. uncurated, many footprints suggested possible paths up with varying degrees of switchback. that one bend near the top, snowpack presenting as a path with the biggest scariest slide directly to the left.
the journey down the far side a lovely first time dancing with a good snowy pass. got that swing of sliding on the feet down the snows easily. sliding on slush in grade school served as ‘wax on, wax off.’
holy moly the vista work the sierra nevada got going. jmt confirmed best views per mile easy.
man i dunno 