Author: gadget

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.

yeezy season got me on that ultralight wavy shit

there was a bigger better sign a little later but i wasn’t about to break my stride again

So i made it to Kennedy Meadows on time. Just to give a resolution to that tense cliffhanger i left off on. I was exhausted and i ended up doing a few unnecessary miles because i was originally headed to Grumpy Bear’s until Lullaby and Patient Zero turned me around to the General Store. It was a wise choice, that place was a party and a half. We discussed cults and dookies around the campfire for hours after hiker midnight. Also whoever was tented next to me got up at around 2am to vomit so that was fun.

I ended up zeroing there the next day with Keystone on a steady drip the whole time. Instead of taking a shower i just drank a lot of beer. Tom’s Place next door had a disc golf course so we played that too.

The next morning i went to Grumpy Bear’s for a breakfast with large pancakes which is turning into a theme out here. I got a new Sawyer because mine froze over at Nohawk’s trail magic and dodged getting sold on an ice axe.

After a slow and steady climb i made it to my first date with the Sierras.

We sat around a campfire by a river, both things were foreign experiences after the extended desert section. Jokes were on fire that night, the highlight being about how circumcision was ultralight. Also the birds flocked all around us which was cool, two of em dookied on my backpack.

The next day ye dropped and i might as well just stop here cuz nothing else will top that until he drops another album i guess. Stranded without signal i was forced to listen to every other Kanye album which okay it was still great. Also i had found that Hyper Potions put their stuff on Spotify which was fantastic, they make chiptune music that makes my soul feel good. I rolled up to Death Canyon Creek that night which was a lot more welcoming than the name suggests.

An uneventful day of hiking through 15 miles of postcards brought me into Horseshoe Meadow. Friendly trail angels gave rides down the 6000some feet off the mountains to the valley below, and one was waiting there when i rolled up. Forty five minutes later i was down in Lone Pine eating an avocado burger and downloading ye.

I got eager to hit the trail again the next day which was a miserable mistake. Everyone i camped with in Lone Pine left later and wound up on a lavender farm doing work for a day. Instead i sat at Chicken Spring Lake and played guitar. A short day the next day too, i finished reading Around The World In Eighty Days and camped with Mr. Freeze, Joe Dirt, and Joe Dirt’s bro whose name i forget sorry man.

oof this is already long i’ll break here and continue in another post about whitney and beyond

o, kennedy meadows south. a shipping container full of package containers full of bear-proof food containers for all the hikers. big vortex energy. big pancake energy.

the climb up to the sierra lows was savage. the breakout into the meadow is transcendent. the evening by the river was summertime.

sierras are nuts and amazing. i’m energized at the thought of them.

Hyper Potions on spotify too. they got an album called Collectors Box that assembles most of the real good tracks. bright, peppy, poppy chiptunes. if you want to know what most of my more dangerous perilous situations sound like it’s hard heavy breathing with their music in the background. relevant to this post is their single Surf, banging it loud in the endless meadows of the sierras.

the rush of tales through these days. i was for sure being in my place instead of documenting my thoughts. i still have many of them unfeatured, but i think i’ve spent all the very good ones in here. some lesser ones on here too, summarizing days and days of journey lowers overall quality oops. also i’ve gotten better at pruning fluff and focusing on substance lol out of shape earlier on in the trail huh lol

The morning near Lake Isabella turned into a full on zero as the day went on. Patient Zero and i after escorting our trail angel’s kids to school got milkshakes and sandwiches. I spent the remainder of the day just hanging out at her place. Some people hopped in the lake or kayaked it but my baby cold temperature threshold kept me from doing anything more than dunking in the water.

Later that night Madam Cheesesteak pulled out her tarot cards and started reading. It was a lot of fun seeing her tell stories about us using these cards and of course our spirits that we channeled into them so we could get accurate readings. She didn’t see any problems in mine, she said i got it all figured out so hell yeah at least i got that going for me i guess

We set out at 5am the next morning on a long bus ride back to the trailhead. What a Fool Believes by the brothers doobert played on the radio and i did my best Michael McDonald had a grand ol time. The clouds were aggressive but that didn’t really trouble my four hour nap i took that day. They even aided in the 12 hours of sleep i got that night.

From a slow start i did 16 miles up to a sign showing off memorial day trail magic in honor of a dude named Strider. I thought a lot about sitting that day so it was welcome news.

They made steak tacos for dinner and the alcohol flowed wild and free. That night we gathered around a candle (because forest service people said no campfires) and the music started. Nohawk and another guy (who gave me a capo who works as a bill collector who’s name i forgor i’m sorry) jammed out for hours. I got to hop in for a few songs, we traded dirty songs for a bit and i got to sing Brokedown Palace with Lullaby which was a fantastic moment. They kept going until around 10 i think when we all crashed out.

I awoke to frost on my quilt and a probably busted Sawyer but also coffee, sausage, and eggs. I sat down and played guitar for a good while. Before long i realized it was gonna be another zero. We had a spot of rain and i played guitar up until 9pm and i’m sure there’s some recordings of it out there. Jukebox and i had some proper jams with him on the harmonica which was the first time i did anything like that so that was cool. I started loosely taking requests mostly because people kept shouting em out despite my protests. They also kept complimenting me despite my protests

Nohawk had thru hiked back in 77 i think? He was in one of the first classes out here. This trail magic was in honor of his boy Strider who was a massive man who’s dead now. We heard stories about their gear weight, how the trail was routed back then, about the 40some mile day Strider pulled, and the time a pine needle got into Nohawk’s booty hole. It was a great time and hopefully i can make it back there next year.

I left there this morning on memorial day after pancakes and coffee. They gave me some tequila in thanks for how i played music for a good eight hours yesterday. I’m writing this in the shade about nine very level miles through our last fling with the desert before Kennedy Meadows. In fact it’s been a good hour since i sat down, i should really get a move on if i’m gonna get there before dark

cheesesteak told stories of her mother’s prowess with the tarot. she was showing her skills for hours at casa de luna, it was entertaining and she was quite good. i pulled the ace of swords upright right up front

didn’t make it back to the strider trail magic

the strider trail magic easily top tier trail magic

The evening after my slackpack we all went to the movies. Deadpool 2 was coming out that night but most of us watched Isle of Dogs instead. That day we had found out that our trail angel had in her possession multiple animal onesies. So i went to the movies dressed like a sloth and Stuck On The Ground went dressed as a narwhal.

We made it out of Tehachapi the next day, but not without troubles. It took most of the day for us to rally and hit the trail again. Long enough for Howzer to finish most of the Netflix Lost In Space.

you’re a great lady and i love you

I didn’t take many pictures the next couple days because dang i was moving slow. From the day i hit Tehachapi i had 4 days that i didn’t pass 15 miles which felt mediocre.

Also we had to do a 40 mile water carry which thankfully was easier because of the two caches along the way.

But then, just as i was feeling good feeling great, calamity. I present to the court Xzibit A: this cute little bunny

Look at his cute little floppy ears and his nervous stance. Don’t let it fool you, this beast wields despair. Xzibit B: my janked up hiking pole.

An important thing to note is how the tops of my hiking poles aren’t food. One of my poles was in my tent. This one remained outside, mere inches away from my food bag, bursting at the seams with Little Debbies and ramen noodles. Some critter decided that ravaging my expensive pole sounded better than feasting upon the cornucopia next door. I fully blame this critter for this catastrophe because i took an unsolicited photograph? Or maybe it was actually some other hiker who just got hungry? And that hiker was me oh jeez

I tried to get a meaty enough resupply to make it the full 100+ miles to Kennedy Meadows but that didn’t fly so i planned to hit Lake Isabella like most hikers do. I got a delightfully easy hitch from a former thru hiker shoutout to Mountain Goat. The 30 mile car ride through the California mountains was great.

I hit 15 french toast sticks from Burger King and headed to a coffee shop to hang out. Turns out Easy Company got set up with a trail angel (from some local news crew?) and we hopped the bus to some other town whose name i forget.

Nine of us got drunk at a brewery here and are now laying down to sleep at her house.

Unfortunately i didn’t get a picture of my messed up pole lol so chronologically this will probably be uploaded tomorrow morning when i’m not actually laying down to sleep so sorry i’m lying

also this morning we escorted the trail angel’s children to elementary school this morning after they missed their bus so that was fun and weird

-a string of weird adventures bookended by walking every day-

the government officals in Isle of Dogs all have pet cats, except for Major Domo. Major Domo isn’t a human, he is a cat. this is my Isle of Dogs theory thank you for listening.

that dry section between tehachapi and lake isabella sure was hot and dry. i remember many small sections of it clearly because i was movin slooowww.

i continued to use those hiking poles for years. freakin bunny, eating my gear while morale was low. a totem of tenacity it became.

i’m very glad to have stopped at lake isabella. i missed out on an interesting night one night before i arrived. the hiker bubble popped at a regular camping spot in town. they partied too hard and were booted and burned a bridge i bet. the crew i stayed with was great. shoutouts to trail jail, free mushbob

patient zero and i did the escorting. what a strange thing that all was lol

shoutouts also go out to the california raisins

missed a photo: