PCT Day 60/61: Mammoths and hot springs

• Date: 2023-07-05
• Pct day: 61
• Start: Mile 904
• End: Mile 904
• Distance: 5 miles
• Ascent: 854 feet
• Descent: 1916 feet
• Start name: horshoe Meadows
• End name: red meadows campground
• Wake up: 07:30
• Start hiking: 18:00
• At camp: 21:10
• In bed: 23:30
• Where I slept: tent
• Shower: hot spring
• Best thing: hot spring
• Worst thing: feeling nervous about the trail

Key moments

• Honestly, I’m really bloody tied so I’m just going to bed soon.
• The short-ish version is that I’ve skipped from Kearsage pass to Mammoth, skipped about 125 miles of the PCT as my mate Alex from Australia is here on the pct and I wanted to with a nice group I kind of know.
• So I’ll come back and do that other section from Kearsage to Mammoth.
• The permit is pretty straightforward to go that way - just an Inyo county permit, which isn’t limited, unlike the JMT permit.
• The day getting out to Mammoth was a bit hectic - the group was dispersed and we all separately arrived.
• Alex, Spliffy, and I managed two hitches up to mammoth. We stopped at one of them to drink a beer by the side of the road. Pretty fun that you can buy a tall can of Sierra Nevada pale for not much from just like a gas station.
• We linked up with Snooze, and who had been spending time with a close friend of hers.
• She also had a random act of kindness from an elderly man at a bar who saw she was hiking the PCT and offered to buy her a bunch of food and gear. So she was full of stoke, but also had an incredibly full bag. It was probably like 25-30kg, probably over 50% of her body weight.
• Alex and Spliffy and Snooze and I started hiking together, and Alex started to zoom ahead, which was a bit tricky since there wasn’t great tracks in the snow
• I felt like I was being left behind again
• We got to a lake that had warnings about camping there due to carbon dioxide (!?) levels.
• Spliffy decided to camp there, which was a worry, and we kept going on
• It was getting dark and Alex wanted to jump ahead of us to meet the rest of group at red meadows, where there was a hot spring.
• It was just snooze and I then, and I started to have flash backs to the chaos of last stretch of the sierras. I had assumed we’d all be trying to stick together, but Alex seemed super keen to go on ahead by himself.
• I kept slipping over on the wet snow and snooze said she might change my trail name from “friend” to “Timber” if I kept doing that.
• We saw a bear footprint in the snow. It wasn’t very old. That was cool. Sort of
• Snooze and I made it into camp, a spot that normally would be part of a resort but was shut, and had a bunch of natural hot springs.
• We set up camp, and all lounged in a hot spring under the stars.
• It was magic, and I got to see the others in the party again: Bear, a German doctor, Guardian, A Czech gentle giant.

Plan from here

• Continue into the Sierras

Animals sighted

• Bear footprint?

Gear thoughts

• Microspikes are worth it.

Physical condition

• very tired

Quotes of the day

• make a decision based on what you can see

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

• PCT Days 58-60: Triple Zero rests in Bishop + Aspendell - Date: 2023-07-02 - 2023-07-04 - Pct day: 58-60 - Start: Mile 784 - End: Mile 784 - Distance: 0 miles - Ascent: 0 feet - Descent: 0 feet - Start name: NA - End name: NA - Wake up: NA - Start hiking: NA - At camp: NA - In bed: NA - Where I slept: Bed - Shower: yes - Best thing: Hanging out with Allison and Greg and Teddy - Worst thing: Feeling so tired and unsure of what the trail would have ahead. I didn’t keep a journal on these days, so here’s my best recollection as of 30th July 2024. (Ahem, 22nd October 2024. Boy I need to finish this…Ahem, 23rd Feb 2026. Oh dear). Key moments - It felt nice to stop. Take a holiday from the holiday. - It was hot. We had dropped a lot of elevation. Hate to imagine what the desert would be like right now. - I enjoyed lounging around the hostel, playing guitar. - I wrote a song about my time in the Sierras. I really liked it. I can’t remember how it goes. But I did play it for Pulse (Serena). - Pulse didn’t realise how hard a time I was having in the sierras. It’s funny how much you can hold inside and think is obvious. - It was one of those songs that flows out of you so easily. Now it’s gone. I always thought I’d remember the music I write, but I guess it is ephemeral just like a lot of things in life. - Turns out, Pulse, that one was just for you, I guess! - Our group, the “Glissades” (said in a fancy accent) had a breakfast together at the hostel to discuss next steps. I noted that I would be staying in town for at least another 2 zero days, probably more. I felt broken. I was going to work my own way out from here, and I wasn’t sure what was in store for me. - My friends Alex, from Wisconsin, and Harry, from NZ, were going to head out in another day or two. I think if they were staying a bit longer I would have headed back in with them. - But my feet had tiny painful holes in them under the balls of the feet. My spirit felt pretty crushed. I had a tiredness that reached down to my bones and felt like it risked reaching my heart and my soul. - I arranged a couple of days here at Bishop at the hostel, “The Hostel California” (THC), and I was going to spend a couple of days at my friend, Allisons’s place. - Oh man, I was so very excited to see someone that knows me. - I spent an afternoon at Allison’s place near Aspendell, which is near the PCT on Piute Pass. Got to meet her husband Greg and their dog, Teddy. The debrief of the Sierras would start here but it would go on for a few more days. - I reached out to another friend of mine, Alex from Australia, who was actually going to be at Mammoth Falls in a few days, which is the third “leg” of the Sierras. He said I’d be welcome to join him and his trail family for the next section of the Sierras. - A plan started to form. I would take another couple of days off, resting up at Allison and Greg’s place, and then meet my friend back in Bishop, skipping a section of the Sierras between Kearsage Pass and Mammoth Falls. - It felt strange to skip a section, but honestly, there weren’t many hikers going back in to the Sierras. - I remember seeing a pair of hikers who bailed on the Sierras up ahead after they told a somewhat harrowing story of them standing on a snow bank, hearing a faint roaring sound coming from…somewhere…and then they booked it past the sound, realising it was coming from underneath/beside them from the snow. A section of the snow blasted out and a literal jet of water came through as a new stream was somehow born out of the mountain side. - Then later on he was in a wet slide of snow that just dropped about 6Ft straight down. Thankfully it was “just” a bank collapsing and he happened to manage to stay on top of it. - Yikes. - A mountaineer at the hostel made the point that we weren’t “Thru hiking” anymore, but we were “Thru-Mountaineering”. - So I rested up at Allison and Greg’s place, and had a marvellous time hanging out with them, they cared for me, cooked amazing food, and I have incredibly fond memories of watching 1984 Dune and Highlander (There can be only one!). Some truly terrible, but also incredible movies. - Allison and Greg dropped me off at a grocery store, and 45 minutes later I had done my resupply. - I got back to the hostel and hung out with Alex and co, I remember having a nice video call with Katie where I introduced them to each other and Katie gave him the “Make sure you take care of him, alright?” chat. Which felt nice. It was so very nice to talk to Katie, to hear her voice. I wanted her there so much. - I was heading back in with Alex and co. Plan from here - Head back in to the Sierras with Alex and Co Physical condition - Feet had little holes in them right under the ball of my feet. Toes hurt, had lost a little bit of feeling in them from the crampons crushing my toes in trail runners. Thoughts and Observations and other things - I was so, so, so tired. - One of my hiking poles got bent on the last stretch, but then Spliffy and Guardian (two of the folks I’d be going into the Sierras with) just straightened it out for me when they heard I was going to but a replacement pole. Legends. - I saw Bri and Sparrow again - they were wearing mountaineering boots and absolutely crushing the sierras. I met them at Tehacapi, they were this awesome hiking pair who met at the southern terminus and were crunching 30 mile days almost from the start. I loved seeing their friendship, Bri would have been early 20s, Sparrow was late 50s. They were just buddies doing the trail. - Harry (trail name: Luxury) packed a 1Kg jar of peanut butter into a zip loc bag so he could fit it into his bear can. I did not think this would go very well. He had it double bagged. - I took Alex (from Wisconsin) out to breakfast for an early birthday present, and then gave Luxury a ecard to give him for his birthday with $20 in it, to cover the costs of the Garmin texts, plus a beer. - When I took Alex out to breakfast I also managed to bump into Lost Keys and Cliffbar, who I last saw in the desert, just before the aqueduct. They were doing the “Owens Valley” low route, which didn’t go through the Sierras but instead stuck to a lot of roads and other trails in the heat of the desert. It was faster, but it sounded hella hot. I never thought I’d see them again. - Some of the bad things - The thought of skipping a section was annoying kind of nagging feeling, but it felt like the right decision. Quotes of the day - The older you get, the more you need the friends you knew when you were younger. #pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023

PCT Days 58-60: Triple Zero rests in Bishop + Aspendell

• Date: 2023-07-02 - 2023-07-04

• Pct day: 58-60

• Start: Mile 784

• End: Mile 784

• Distance: 0 miles

• Ascent: 0 feet

• Descent: 0 feet

• Start name: NA

• End name: NA

• Wake up: NA

• Start hiking: NA

• At camp: NA

• In bed: NA

• Where I slept: Bed

• Shower: yes

• Best thing: Hanging out with Allison and Greg and Teddy

• Worst thing: Feeling so tired and unsure of what the trail would have ahead.

I didn’t keep a journal on these days, so here’s my best recollection as of 30th July 2024. (Ahem, 22nd October 2024. Boy I need to finish this…Ahem, 23rd Feb 2026. Oh dear).

Key moments

• It felt nice to stop. Take a holiday from the holiday.

• It was hot. We had dropped a lot of elevation. Hate to imagine what the desert would be like right now.

• I enjoyed lounging around the hostel, playing guitar.

• I wrote a song about my time in the Sierras. I really liked it. I can’t remember how it goes. But I did play it for Pulse (Serena).

• Pulse didn’t realise how hard a time I was having in the sierras. It’s funny how much you can hold inside and think is obvious.

• It was one of those songs that flows out of you so easily. Now it’s gone. I always thought I’d remember the music I write, but I guess it is ephemeral just like a lot of things in life.

• Turns out, Pulse, that one was just for you, I guess!

• Our group, the “Glissades” (said in a fancy accent) had a breakfast together at the hostel to discuss next steps. I noted that I would be staying in town for at least another 2 zero days, probably more. I felt broken. I was going to work my own way out from here, and I wasn’t sure what was in store for me.

• My friends Alex, from Wisconsin, and Harry, from NZ, were going to head out in another day or two. I think if they were staying a bit longer I would have headed back in with them.

• But my feet had tiny painful holes in them under the balls of the feet. My spirit felt pretty crushed. I had a tiredness that reached down to my bones and felt like it risked reaching my heart and my soul.

• I arranged a couple of days here at Bishop at the hostel, “The Hostel California” (THC), and I was going to spend a couple of days at my friend, Allisons’s place.

• Oh man, I was so very excited to see someone that knows me.

• I spent an afternoon at Allison’s place near Aspendell, which is near the PCT on Piute Pass. Got to meet her husband Greg and their dog, Teddy. The debrief of the Sierras would start here but it would go on for a few more days.

• I reached out to another friend of mine, Alex from Australia, who was actually going to be at Mammoth Falls in a few days, which is the third “leg” of the Sierras. He said I’d be welcome to join him and his trail family for the next section of the Sierras.

• A plan started to form. I would take another couple of days off, resting up at Allison and Greg’s place, and then meet my friend back in Bishop, skipping a section of the Sierras between Kearsage Pass and Mammoth Falls.

• It felt strange to skip a section, but honestly, there weren’t many hikers going back in to the Sierras.

• I remember seeing a pair of hikers who bailed on the Sierras up ahead after they told a somewhat harrowing story of them standing on a snow bank, hearing a faint roaring sound coming from…somewhere…and then they booked it past the sound, realising it was coming from underneath/beside them from the snow. A section of the snow blasted out and a literal jet of water came through as a new stream was somehow born out of the mountain side.

• Then later on he was in a wet slide of snow that just dropped about 6Ft straight down. Thankfully it was “just” a bank collapsing and he happened to manage to stay on top of it.

• Yikes.

• A mountaineer at the hostel made the point that we weren’t “Thru hiking” anymore, but we were “Thru-Mountaineering”.

• So I rested up at Allison and Greg’s place, and had a marvellous time hanging out with them, they cared for me, cooked amazing food, and I have incredibly fond memories of watching 1984 Dune and Highlander (There can be only one!). Some truly terrible, but also incredible movies.

• Allison and Greg dropped me off at a grocery store, and 45 minutes later I had done my resupply.

• I got back to the hostel and hung out with Alex and co, I remember having a nice video call with Katie where I introduced them to each other and Katie gave him the “Make sure you take care of him, alright?” chat. Which felt nice. It was so very nice to talk to Katie, to hear her voice. I wanted her there so much.

• I was heading back in with Alex and co.

Plan from here

• Head back in to the Sierras with Alex and Co

Physical condition

• Feet had little holes in them right under the ball of my feet. Toes hurt, had lost a little bit of feeling in them from the crampons crushing my toes in trail runners.

Thoughts and Observations and other things

• I was so, so, so tired.
• One of my hiking poles got bent on the last stretch, but then Spliffy and Guardian (two of the folks I’d be going into the Sierras with) just straightened it out for me when they heard I was going to but a replacement pole. Legends.
• I saw Bri and Sparrow again - they were wearing mountaineering boots and absolutely crushing the sierras. I met them at Tehacapi, they were this awesome hiking pair who met at the southern terminus and were crunching 30 mile days almost from the start. I loved seeing their friendship, Bri would have been early 20s, Sparrow was late 50s. They were just buddies doing the trail.
• Harry (trail name: Luxury) packed a 1Kg jar of peanut butter into a zip loc bag so he could fit it into his bear can. I did not think this would go very well. He had it double bagged.
• I took Alex (from Wisconsin) out to breakfast for an early birthday present, and then gave Luxury a ecard to give him for his birthday with $20 in it, to cover the costs of the Garmin texts, plus a beer.
• When I took Alex out to breakfast I also managed to bump into Lost Keys and Cliffbar, who I last saw in the desert, just before the aqueduct. They were doing the “Owens Valley” low route, which didn’t go through the Sierras but instead stuck to a lot of roads and other trails in the heat of the desert. It was faster, but it sounded hella hot. I never thought I’d see them again.

Some of the bad things

• The thought of skipping a section was annoying kind of nagging feeling, but it felt like the right decision.

Quotes of the day

• The older you get, the more you need the friends you knew when you were younger.

#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023