Mile 719 to 735.

We started out with a 4 mile morning climb from our camp at 8,620 feet along Cow Creek up to 10,500 feet. The trail hugged seasonal streams and passed through piles of white bolders and tall pine trees as we slowly climbed. Some of the group members were feeling the elevation more than others so we were a little slower and more spread out than normal.

With each rise and bend in the trail, we thought we were on the verge of a great, but the grand vista kept eluding us on our way up. I remembered to look behind me and say a low line of cloud in the valley behind and tree clad mountains below us.  It’s good to remember that the best view may be behind you.

After about two hours of slow deliberate climbing, we finally crested onto a view worth waiting for. We climbed a snow patch onto a crag of rocks and before us lay the mountains we had been chasing for the past couple of days. Bedazzled, Vipr, Fun Dip, and I climbed the rocks and sat staring at what would be our home for the next couple days. We are excited to finally be here after so many miles.

During our break, we all got out our crampons and practiced walking over the snow patches. It was a good little practice session and we all had fun playing in the snow. However, it was soon time to move on and cover some ground before we broke for lunch.

As we walked, Vipr commented on how she is always surprised how extreme mountain temperatures can be. One minute your delayering and sweating through your shirt as you climb a slope and the next you’re freezing as you sit in the shade with the wind nipping at you nose. We certainly experienced all those sensations as we made our way to our lunch spot at mile 731 in Death Canyon Creek.

At lunch, we had a serious discussion. The other day, Bedazzled remarked that she was surprised that we had food in addition to what was in our bear canister. It seemed obvious to everyone that we would since we needed to carry 10 days of food and the bear canister can only carry about 7. We had talked about how all our food wouldn’t fit in Kennedy Meadows before we left.  Bedazzled then revealed that she had for some inexplicable reason sent all the food that wouldn’t fit in her bear canister a head to Bishop by post. This was a cause for alarm since that would mean she didn’t have enough food for this section which is not only extremely physically demanding but also at altitude with temperatures well below freezing. None of us wanted to change our plans, since everyone else was well prepared, but you are only as strong as your weakest member. Hoping to nip a disaster in the bud, we did an audit of Bedazzled’s food at lunch. It was a tough call. Personally, I think she actually had enough food to make it, but it is better to play it safe and leave a margin of error so we made the very unfortunate decision to take a side trail to next day to Horseshoe Meadow and then try to get a ride to Lone Pine so she can buy more food. It is better to do that than have a group member without the necessary food to keep their energy levels up and maintain their body temperature. The rest of the group will also need to buy an extra day of food in Lone Pine to make up for the lost time.

With the decision made, we set off on our second climb of the day. This time it was 1,600 feet of elevation gain over four miles to 10,600 feet. We climbed better than the morning, but started to feel the elevation again above 10,000 feet. We did get some nice views out to the east, and I beleive I saw into Death Valley National Park, which was serendipitous because during my December 2015 trip to the Park, I decided to hike the PCT.

When we got to water at mile 735 we decided to camp. The mosquitoes were out in full force and after making ramen and some hot chocolate I retired to my tent. Tomorrow we will hike 9 miles to Horseshoe Meadow and try to get into Lone Pine. The plan is to come back in the evening and try to hike a couple miles so the next day we can hike to the base of Mt. Whitney and launch our summit push the following day.