SHR Day 13 – 9.3 Miles, 3,377 ft ascent
Last night everything got wet from condensation. Our tent was soaked, our sleeping bags were damp, and even the tops of the bear canisters were sopping when I went to collect them. So, we seized the opportunity for extra coffee in the tent while things dried out.
We got to walking around 9am and quickly made it to old mine ruins. There were collapsed stone shelters, mine equipment, and even a bunch of mine shafts! It was really neat to explore. We did two passes today — Mine Shaft Pass and Conness Pass. The descent down Conness Pass was steep. We then headed to Secret Lake, which is on a shelf just below our next pass (Sky Pilot Col). We decided to call it a day early and tackle Sky Pilot first thing when we wake up. It looks intimidating. For dinner we had Creamy Tomato Rotini. Yum! -T
Day 14 – 8.7 miles, 3,159 ft ascent
Today was another fun but exhausting day. We started with Sky Pilot Col. The ascent and descent directly up/down from the pass were relatively easy, but then the descent continued with miles of scree and boulder fields to traverse. It was exhausting and took forever. We did only about two miles in four hours. The rocks weren’t granite, which we have gotten used to, so that didn’t help. When we got past the boulder fields, we descended further into a river valley and then up out of the valley towards our next pass. It included a bit of bushwhacking, but we followed some animal trails which helped. One of the animal trails we followed for a while included at least three bears poops (plus plenty of deer poop). We haven’t seen a bear since day 1 though.
Next up was Stanton Pass, our final notoriously hard pass with class 3 scrambling (Frozen Lake Pass and Snow Tongue Pass were the other two). We had a lunch of cold soaked sushi bowl at a nice lake before the final ascent. The ascent was relatively straightforward. The descent immediately below the pass was a little tricky. We definitely had to use both our hands and feet to make it down some steep sections. I’d say Frozen Lake and Snow Tongue were both harder (or maybe we’ve just gotten stronger and better at navigating the passes?!). We then descended into a lovely river valley and were exhausted, so we decided to set up camp early. It was a beautiful evening to relax and soak up the views. We have one final pass tomorrow before we finish the SHR. -R
Day 15 – 7.5 Miles, 958 ft ascent
We made it! We woke up early and finished off the last of our coffee and ate our final breakfast. The climb to Horse Creek Pass was very easy, so we thought the descent would be too… but we should know by now, north-facing descents are always harder than south-facing climbs! It wasn’t terrible, but it was steep and slow and we were ready for the restaurant at the finish!
The off-trail descent became an on-trail descent and then we could see a campground and marina below us. At about 12:30 we stumbled into the restaurant and loaded up on veggie burgers, fries, coffee, and soda. We discussed the dilemma of getting back to our car with our super-friendly waitress, Lauren, who offered to drive us into Bridgeport for the first leg of what will be a loonnngg trip back to where we started. We got internet in Bridgeport and discovered that we can rent a car from the Mammoth airport when it opens tomorrow morning at 9am. So, we hopped on a bus to Bridgeport and had restaurant ramen for dinner there. We decided to camp on public land walking distance from the airport, so we went to the grocery store to buy snacks (and a cake to celebrate), expecting to Uber out of town. Instead, we bumped into a thruhiker named Flash who offered to drive us to our intended campsite! We hopped in his car, got a ride to the middle of nowhere, and enjoyed our cake amongst endless Sagebrush. Yum! -T
Day 16 – 0 Miles, 0 Feet of ascent (but lots of driving)
We woke up, walked to the airport, and were heartbroken to learn that they didn’t actually have a car for us! Even though we reserved one online, the online system was lying (we did not read the fine print that said we need to reserve at least 48 hours in advance to be guaranteed a car). We have to work tomorrow and had no idea how we’d get home, so we decided to wait at the car rental facility to see if there would be a “no call, no show”. It turned out there was! We started driving and then drove a LONG way back to King’s Canyon, picked up our car, and started driving again to FINALLY get home at about 2:30 am. -T
Final Thoughts
Wow! The Sierra High Route was amazing. It was remote, it was beautiful, it was long, and it was MUCH more challenging than most of the hikes we’ve done. At the end, we had completely reset and were not ready to stop. We wish we could have kept on walking for another four months! Soon…
We really want to emphasize that this is not a route for beginners. Anyone attempting this should have considerable experience with off trail travel and backcountry navigation.
Video
We posted long videos to bring you along with us on the first and second half of the Sierra High Route on Youtube. The second video just went live today:
