Day 62

Trail miles: 0

Total: 788.9

I was able to sleep in until 7:00am and had a nice hot chocolate coffee mix from the lobby. I started uploading photos to Amazon Prime for Big Owl to see the photos I took heading down Forester Pass. I wasn’t finished yet, but breakfast was at 9:00am so I had to do more in the afternoon. I had the French toast special from Alabama Hills Cafe and it was alright; it did not live up to the hype that I have heard, but the berries on top were a nice touch. Resupply was next and boy was it the most expensive place I have every been to. The Lenny and Larry cookies were $4 each! I spent well over $150 for food this time. I got a new water filter at the hiker shop, because the desert ate mine (meaning too much dirt and sand got it that it barely flows). Good thing I have it though, because Trebuchet had to turn back to Cottonwood after getting sick. I think I did a better job picking food out this time and I hope it fits in my bear canister tomorrow night. I still need some ziplock bags to repack some of the bulkier items. And they were sold out of a lot of things, like freezer bags, tuna, and honey buns. But Raechel and Krista got some tuna from the hiker box I will be able to eat! They also gave me a pop tart. I can always count on them to raid the hiker boxes for the good stuff. Brad even grabbed me a Cadbury hot chocolate packet to mix with my coffee tomorrow morning. I skipped lunch because we were eating dinner at Jonah’s friends house, but I got really hungry, which means I think my hiker hunger has kicked in. But I held off, and it was worth it. We ate pork tacos, salad, tres leches cake, panna cotta, and jalapeño poppers. We enjoyed being in a home and having a home cooked meal! We stayed until 7:30pm. Now I have my bag half packed and ready to hike up Kearsarge Pass again! This will be our toughest section of the whole trail.

Day 61

Trail miles: 1.9

Total: 788.9

Off trail miles: 7.5

Miles to Lone Pine: 29 miles

Hills and off trail miles are killers, but in the Sierras, they are forgivable. We hiked up 2 miles to the junction to Kearsarge Pass which leads up and over the pass down to a parking lot where we could hitch into town. It was so beautiful. More lakes and mountains I can’t even believe are real. The downhill was easy of course and I was basically running to get to the pit toilets. There were so many day hikers because it was a holiday weekend and there were no good spots to pee without being seen. I met these cool group day hikers that were camping at the bottom of the hill. We talked about my hike for a little and they asked my trail name. I said Slalom because I have to wait for everyone at the bottom of the hills. Once I made it to the bottom, I found out Raechel and Krista had met them too. The group asked “hey do you know Slalom? Yeah she’s way head of you!” That made my day; they are too funny!! We were picked up by Jonah who borrowed his friends car and headed to the Dow Villa Motel. It is such a quaint little place with a nice sitting area downstairs. We chose food over cleanliness and had BBQ from across the street. Then right after laundry and showers, we ate again. We had family style Chinese where we all got a plate we wanted and everyone took a portion. It worked out way better than I expected! More chores to do tomorrow on our zero.

Day 60

Trail miles: 15.8

Total: 787

Today was a horribly solemn day. A young woman died today on Forester Pass, and it hit everyone very hard. We were heading up the approach switchbacks when we heard a helicopter getting uncommonly close. It took me a second to realize what horrors that could mean. It wasn’t until a hiker coming downhill talked to us that we found out a girl died from altitude sickness. Nothing prepared us for walking around a dead body that day. I feel heartbroken to think that her parents might not have known yet. We got to where they couldn’t see us anymore and took a second to gather our emotions. We had to keep moving because of the snow conditions on the other side of the pass and the sun was only getting stronger. In the Sierras, there’s a lot of trail along ridges that you have to walk along. In the early morning, frozen trail and microspikes make for less chance of slipping and sliding down the hill. We made it to the top around 11:30pm, which is very late. We took a very slow descent and make it to the bottom safely. I postholed more than a few times, and got stuck so bad that Brad had to help pull me out. Or sometimes I would have to roll out of them. The area was so beautiful, I just wish that girl had gotten to see it. And waterfall after waterfall along the river.

Day 59

Trail miles: 4.2

Total: 771.2

Mt. Whitney trail: 16 miles

I’m sitting on the ground at 10:45pm the night before this, filtering water after I spilled half a liter. I’m running on 30 min of sleep and the group I am summiting with is heading out in 15 min. I shove all the stuff I don’t need under Brads vestibule (I had to take my tent down because I need my trekking poles for the hike, which are what hold up my tent) and head to the meeting spot. I have with me my sleeping bag, 3.5 liters of water, charging equipment, and lots of warm clothes. I switched my camera’s polarizing filter for the UV one and tightened my shoes a little tighter while I waited. Once they got there, we were off so fast. I stayed behind Big Owl the whole time. It was pitch black with no moon so I couldn’t tell where we were going or anything beside us. We hiked up and up; it was so cold I had every piece of clothing in my bag on my body. We didn’t stop except to change clothes or chug electrolytes, but I felt alright with the climb. Towards the top, we made our way through a long rock garden and we took it pretty slow, but we were still making very good time. No one passed us at all. I looked down the mountain and you could see lights from other hikers making their way to the switchbacks. I started getting dizzy from the altitude and just wanted to get to the top so I could sit in my sleeping bag. It was bad enough with all the false summits in the dark! We made it to the top around 4:00am, so very early for sunrise. The shelter was full of snow so it didn’t provide much help from the wind. I got in my sleeping bag and scrunched down in between two rocks for wind protection where I was joined my Big Owl and Lifeguard of either side. Jeffery Pine somehow got his hammock set up at the top. We sat like that for about 30 min before I heard my name, and the whole gang had made it up the hill! We still had to wait until after 5:30am for the sun to rise over some clouds, but man was it worth it. It was by far the best sight on the trip and I’m not sure if anything else will compete. It felt great to complete my first 14er with such a great group of people. I was just so happy up there. Probably the happiest I’ve been on trail. It was sad to leave, especially since the sun warmed me up enough to walk around and take pictures of every single angle off the mountain. But the downhill hike was almost as rewarding as the top view. We got to hike down in the daylight and see what we had walked through to get to the top before the sunrise. It was beautiful in every direction! I took so many pictures and videos I probably doubled my memory card capacities. And I got to walk downhill, which was a breeze. I stopped to eat a cliff bar because I realized I had only eaten a Snickers. We really took our time down the hill, taking it all in. We stopped by a lake toward the bottom and had good laughs about Whitney! (Krista thinks it’s an ugly mountain, I said well you stand on it and get a better view of all the other better looking ones around it) It was funny to see where we started, where we climbed up the mountain, and where we summited all from the spot at the lake. It was just this wide open area. I was so hungry by the time we got back. My nap was longer than the amount of sleep I got last night. Lunch was banana nut oatmeal and some much needed Mio with caffeine to wake me out of my grogginess. We hiked about 5 miles to the campsite near a creek. The good thing is we have lots of places to fill up on water and it’s always cold and refreshing, the bad part is we usually have to cross those water sources. I put my camera equipment and other electronics in a dry bag before I cross each time. I haven’t called in yet and they aren’t that deep, but it’s well worth the effort to do each time. Dinner was a treat I was saving for having summited Mt. Whitney and carrying on on the PCT later in the day. I had my favorite: Mountain House chicken and dumplings. We leave at the same time we usually wake up in the mornings to get over Forester Pass. Hikers say the most dangerous part of the pass has melted, but once we make it over to the other side, we will most likely be post holing on the way down. 

Day 58

Trail miles: 11.9

Total: 767.0

I am writing this at 3:00 pm because I don’t think anything else will happen today. We are eating dinner now and heading to get as much sleep as possible before waking up around midnight to summit Mt Whitney for sunrise. The climb is about 8 miles and hopefully won’t take more than 5 hours. We are camped at the bottom of the mountain close to the ranger station about a mile off the PCT. We’ve heard there is no snow so we won’t pack microspikes. But we will bring sleeping bags because of how cold it is and if we have to sit there to wait for sunrise. 

Last night should have been the best sleep, but it was my worst. I pitched my tent on the flattest spot so far on trail, but I laid there for hours listening to multiple full podcasts before I fell asleep. The uphills were steep today. I don’t know if that’s what made me nauseous, or if it was the large breakfast cookie I ate, or the altitude. I didn’t really feel better until I drank a bunch of Mio. Not sure what that means. We hiked into a really beautiful area below Mt. Whitney with a nice cold creek through the center. We had 2 creek crossings today, one of which I hear Krista totally fell into. It makes me laugh hearing her and Brad retell the story. The camp in area has so many tents spread out. We ran into a bunch of people we knew who are a day ahead of us. I headed through all the tents to Big Owl about our start time and it was so weird to see everyone asleep in the middle of the day. Or trying to sleep. Hopefully I can get some sleep now, if not I’ll just relax and rest my body for as long as possible. Alarm at 10:00 pm! Oh and we are camped far from the others and not using the pit toilets because we heard there might be neurovirus going around.

Day 57

Trail miles: 19.7

Total: 755.1

Today I got up and was able to watch a beautiful sunrise over the valley. It’s a good thing the sun rises around 5:30 so I’m still able to leave at 6:00. The morning pace was real today and I kept stopping to eat. I need to make sure the next time I resupply, I am packing denser foods so I am not hungry all the time and I can fit everything into the bear canister. Especially breakfast foods, because I need that to get my day going. I caught everyone at the water source, and since I had enough water to skip the spring, I began up the 8 mile hill with them to the lake. Brad is now my training coach on getting me up hills faster, so for the next four miles, I was doing a 3mph pace. I was dying. After the spring and rest, I tried to keep up again but I only last a mile or so before I took a break. And then I took another break. I was so out of energy and it was because we were waiting to eat lunch at the lake. By the time we got there, I couldn’t do anything but cold soak my beans for lunch. I felt so much better after eating as much as I could. Half of the beans were my own from a cowboy caviar recipe and the other half was from a fellow hiker. I put in on a wrap with lemon pepper chicken and ranch dressing. Not bad. Or maybe I was starving. Everyone jumped in the water, which had pretty much just thawed fully like a couple weeks ago, so it was freezing. The sun kept going behind clouds so I didn’t think I’d warm up enough to have it be worth it. And hearing everyone’s thoughts after I’d say I made the right choice. A lot of people washed clothes too, which didn’t dry because of the lack on sunlight. After filling up with 3 liters, we had 4.5 miles to camp. Not horrible, but the little bit of uphills really slowed me down. Somewhat because it was so sandy it felt like walking up a beach dune. Camp is very nice and spacious! We are all spread out and the trees creat good wind protection. I literally just popped my head of my tent to check for widow makers. We’ve been away from trees for so long. Anyway, no danger. Dinner was meatloaf with fried onion bits! I could eat those by themselves. Early night again so I’m watching Netflix, but I may head to bed real soon, because I am wiped. Oh and we passed the boundary for Sequoia National Park! Our first one on trail.