Woohoo! We headed into the Sierras with our friend Parmesan, who we met 5 years ago on the PCT. Even though it’s July, there is record snow, so we aren’t going to be strict with our route — we’ll go where the snow conditions and our abilities intersect.
Day 1 – Sonora Pass to East Fork Carson River
Last night we met Parmesan in Mammoth lakes and car camped with him and some friends. We woke up today excited to hit the trail. Our first big decision was what route to take. We were either going to start in the south (near Mt. Whitney), where there would be less snow, or start North of Yosemite where the snow was more of a mystery. We opted for the latter. We got a permit to hike North from Sonora Pass, and hit the trail. For all three of us, this is our first time being back on this part of the PCT since we thruhiked the trail in 2018. It is sooo fun to be back.
We bumped into some PCT hikers right as we started and enjoyed hearing about their trip. As we climbed up from the pass the snow wasn’t too bad, but about halfway through the hike we changed direction and it became a continuous snow-field for miles. That meant our feet got cold and wet — tomorrow I think I’ll wear my waterproof socks. As sunset loomed, we were all exhausted — partly from the challenging terrain, and partly because we are adjusting to the elevation (we’re at about 10,000 feet). We had trouble finding a place to camp that wasn’t on top of snow, but finally a small clearing appeared and we joyously called it a day. We had coconut curry noodles for dinner. Yum! -T
Day 2 – East Fork Carson River to Boulder Creek
Today we slept in and then took our time at camp drinking coffee and eating breakfast. We have a few potential exit points in mind and plan to hitchhike back to our car. We aren’t in a rush at all, which is very different from our usual thruhikes. We had snow off and on all day. More on than off. It was tiring and slowed us down quite a bit. We enjoyed many beautiful breaks. We saw one deer. We only saw one other person, a PCT thruhiker who started at the Mexican border. We called it a night early, just shy of 10 miles for the day. We had our creamy spaghetti for dinner, but it was very soupy. We have made this dinner many times before and thought we had perfected it. We finally realized that Tim forgot to put the beans in it when he assembled it at home. Oh well. It was still tasty–just missing some calories and protein. -R
Day 3 – Boulder Creek to just past Asa Lake Junction
We saw no other hikers on the trail today. In a normal year, we would be hiking in the middle of the PCT “hiker bubble” — when a huge number of PCT hikers are making their way north to Canada. This year, because of the snow, the trail is virtually empty. The solitude is nice… But the PCT hikers who avoided the snow were on to something. The snow has made the hiking a lot harder than usual! The trail hasn’t been very steep, so it mostly hasn’t felt dangerous for us, but it has slowed us down. One aspect of the snow that has been somewhat dangerous are snow bridges. In winter all of the streams are buried under many feet of snow. As the snow melts, the streams start flowing but they’re still buried under snow bridges. As the snow melts, the bridges collapse, and you don’t want to be crossing on one when that happens! Every time we approach what looks like it could be a thinning snow bridge we are very careful, making sure to avoid what could be thin areas.
Once again we only did about 10 miles. The low mileage is only half because of the snow. The other half is because we are taking it easy and just enjoying being out here. We took plenty of breaks, we took a long nap after lunch, and we stopped to camp pretty early and had a campfire. During the day we saw some bear prints in the snow! Prints are melting fast in the July heat, so the bear must have been there no more than a few hours before us. Too bad we missed it! We have been hanging our food, as required, but we had wondered if the bears were actually up this high in the mountains right now due to the snow… The answer is yes! For dinner we had a brand new recipe — mushroom risotto. Yum! It didn’t disappoint at all. -T
Day 4 – Just past Asa Lake Junction to above Kinney Lake
Today started with a long, snowy climb. It was exhausting, but we were rewarded with great views and cell service at the top. We crossed Highway 4 today, the first road we’ve crossed since leaving Sonora Pass four days ago. We took a break there for a bit to watch the cars go by. We saw no one else on the trail again today. We got to camp early again. There are two deer that we seem to be sharing the campsite with. We made sure to secure our hiking poles and other salty things, so they don’t make off with them overnight. (We have seen deer licking our pee, and stealing a hiking stick before.) We also hung our food fbears and rodents. It was another great day on the trail–a lot of snow, but a lot of nice views and memories from our 2018 thruhike. -R
Day 5 – Above Kinney Lake to Lily Pad Lake
This was a great day on the trail! We descended to lower elevation and the snow was much less of an obstacle than it has been. We still spent a lot of time traversing across snowfields, but we also spent a lot of time hiking fast on dry ground. After lunch was the biggest obstacle of the whole trip: a dangerous snow traverse on a steep slope over a deep ravine. The traverse is marked in our maps, so for days we knew it was coming. When we arrived it didn’t look terrible, but it was sketchy enough that we put on our microspikes to cross it. I went first, and it was slow moving. The slope got steeper as we went farther out. I cut steps into the snow with my feet so I wouldn’t slip down to the rocks below. Parmesan was behind me, and Renee was behind him. They were both nice and encouraged me to take my time and be careful cutting the steps, and together we made it across. Once we were past the several-hundred foot drop and almost to snowless ground, I thought it was a good idea to run the 8ish feet down to it. Sure enough, I tripped and went head-first into the rocks. I caught myself and only got dinged and scraped up a bit. Mostly, the only thing I seriously damaged was my pride, because after navigating the difficult part fine, I shouldn’t have made a silly move like that and hurt myself. After we were all back on stable ground we took two short breaks to let the adrenaline settle down. Renee says it was fine for her since she was in the back and had big footsteps cut out for her, but for Parmesan and me we definitely had some calming down to do. We then walked on to a beautiful campsite on a lake with frogs singing in the background. We sat around on the rocks and ate dal and rice for dinner. Yum! Then we had a campfire. This was a wonderful day! -T
Day 6 – Back to civilization
We started the day by hiking only a few miles to Blue Lakes Road. From here, we thought we’d start the hitch back to our car, which we left at Sonora Pass. Unfortunately, it turned out the road is closed to traffic due to snow, so we had more walking to do. We headed downhill in the direction we had hoped to hitch and quickly bumped into a few bikers. They told us it was only 3 miles to the closed gate, so we knew we could walk it. We got lucky when we arrived — the first car picked us up and gave us a ride down the mountain. That was our last luck of the day. Getting from Blue Lakes Road back to Sonora pass involved several highway changes, which meant several different hitches. Since we were away from the trail, cars passing by didn’t think of us as hikers and were not very interested in picking us up. In the end, we spent seven hours hitchhiking and needed seven different rides before we made it back to our car. What an adventure! Finally we hopped in and started the long drive back home. -T
