Days 7-9 on the SHR: We won’t starve!

SHR Day 7 – 13.1 Miles, 2,555 ft ascent

Our stats from today make it look like we took it easy… we did not. Last night we slept well at 11,000 feet under bright stars and the glowing Milky Way. Then we woke up, got ready, and started a hard day! We climbed to 12,365 feet to go over Feather Pass. The descent was hard until we hit snow, and then we were able to move a lot more quickly. After that we did White Bear Pass. This descent was hard too, and instead of snow toward the bottom there was a boulder field that took a long time to cross. We’re walking north, so we are usually climbing the south-facing slope and descending the north-facing slope. That means the descents have mostly been harder than the ascents. We had done 7 miles at 2:30 pm at an average speed of less than 1 mile per hour. We found ourselves at a gorgeous lake called White Bear Lake and decided to swim, eat lunch, and take a break. Renee even took a nap! 

We decided during our break to detour on trails around the next three off trail passes. We miscalculated how fast (slow) we would be able to do them, and we don’t have enough food with us to extend the time until we resupply. We’re bummed that we will miss a few passes, but we are looking forward to doing Silver Pass on the PCT instead. After starting the detour we took an unmaintained trail down to lower elevation and met the PCT. We found a place to camp next to Bear Creek and enjoyed Unstuffed Peppers for dinner. Yum! -T

SHR Day 8 – 23.1 miles, 5,928 ft ascent

Today was a great day on the trail. We walked over Silver Pass on the JMT/PCT. In the evening we met back up with the SHR where it drops down to the JMT/PCT. We were having so much fun hiking that we didn’t stop until sunset at around 8:15pm. It was a hot day, but the evening hours were cooler and quite peaceful. The evening is maybe the best time to hike because the temperatures cool down. We were tired when we finally set up camp but nowhere near as tired as yesterday when we did much fewer miles and much less elevation gain. On-trail hiking is much easier than off-trail hiking! We missed about 19 miles and 3 off trail passes of the SHR, replacing them with about 25 on trail miles and 1 on trail pass, but we are well set up to not run out of food now. We have about 14 miles to go to our resupply stop off Reds Meadow Resort. We’re hoping we can make it there tomorrow. We only have one pass before Reds Meadow (and that pass is partially on trail). 🤞 

We didn’t see as many hikers today as we did when we were on the JMT/PCT the day we did Muir Pass. Most hikers we bumped into were JMT hikers heading southbound. In the evening we met Rambler (aka Tictok) who was doing a PCT flip flop. Turns out he thruhiked the PCT southbound the year we thruhiked the PCT northbound (2018). -R

SHR Day 9 – 15.4 Miles, 2,730 ft ascent

Today was going to be an easy downhill stroll into our resupplying… or so we thought. It actually had two passes and plenty of brutal ridge walking, but dreams of restaurant food made it fly by. We went over Duck Pass and Deer Pass in terrain we have become used to, but then spent much of the day walking through fascinating volcanic terrain including colorful mountains, feather-light pumice stones, and lots of volcanic rock. 

We got to the Red’s Meadow general store just after 3 pm, picked up our resupply box, ate garden burgers with chips, bought more chips and drinks, and then went shopping to top up our snacks for the stretch ahead. While shopping and eating, we had a lot of fun chatting with PCT and JMT hikers, who were also resupplying at Red’s Meadow, and learning about their hikes. The restaurant closed before we were ready to eat dinner, so we had to eat what the general store had for sale… Backpacker’s Pantry brand beans and rice (!?). It was nothing like what we make, but we wrapped it in tortillas and topped it with Fritos, so it did the job. We did some chores (including finishing up our next YouTube video) while our electronics charged, and then headed toward bed. We are camping in Red’s Meadow campground tonight and we’ll get back out there first thing in the morning. -T

Video!

Here’s a video of the first 118 miles our trip, from the start to Red’s Meadows.