Forester Pass & the Township of Bishop – PCT 2017: A Hiking Story [19]
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Part 18 ‘Badass Mountaineers on Mount Whitney’
Day 59 (26/05) – Forester Pass
“What are we thinking!” I think to myself after waking at 1am, as Rex and I began changing into our hiking clothes… basically, all the clothes we had, as it was cold!
We were ready to ‘defeat’ one of the biggest names in the Sierra – Forester Pass, the highest point of the Pacific Crest Trail at 13,153 feet (4009m). The logic behind this ‘great idea’, was that we wanted to hike in ideal cold, crispy snow conditions, where traction control actually worked. Throughout the day in the sun, snow conditions became tougher, so getting hard sections done in the morning was important.
We hiked in a row of headlamps. It was pitch black obviously, and our headlamps provided the only light in our desolate dark destination up the mountain.
After reaching the base of the ascent, we picked our route, and began to climb straight up. There would normally be switchbacks over the rocks – but obviously now, straight up was the easiest option. Snow changes everything – to walk on hard snow at an angle is usually much harder than to just use your toes and grip on with microspikes or crampons. It was a super steep icy climb, but the extra traction in the early morning made it easier. Upon reaching the section below the top of the pass, we could walk on the higher exposed switchback, making things a little easier.
Eventually, we arrived at the famous snow chute section. Thankfully, it had been carved out using an ice axe by previous hikers and was very accessible. We had one final climb before finally reaching the top of the pass. Here, we all had a break and grabbed some victory photos there at the pass.
The north side of Forester Pass (where we were next headed) was a protruding ridge that you follow for a long time before needing to descend off it, into the valley below. The other guys were all ahead and got down easy in their crampons, but Rex and I were much slower in our microspikes, and had to take sure-footed small steps. If it was later on and the snow was softer, we could just glissade down on our butts, but it was too icy for that at the time sadly. I had to assist Rex again in her step taking getting down providing verbal encouragement, whilst also trying to hide that I myself, was almost struggling just as much! Rex and Corky did end up glissading during the final stretch, which must have hurt a little.
Now in the daylight hours, the group (myself, Rex, Corky, Akhuna, Rubberball, Grim, Thirsty and Bobby Hill) all pressed on into the valley with Grim navigating the way. Grim and I tended to be the main navigators in the lead. Grim liked to hike blindly at times, and sometimes I made deviations to his routes – but overall he did a good job. We pressed through forests that had been totally crushed by avalanches in the winter – it was a scary sight sometimes! Still early morning, it was freezing, and the sun had not unearthed its warmth in the valley at this time.
Today, the plan was to hike out, and hitch to the town of Bishop via the closer town, Independence. Whilst we could have resupplied and stayed in Independence, Bishop was a more favoured town to visit.
After the valley, I took over all navigation and lead the group off the PCT trail and along the Kearsarge Pass junction, leading us to the town of Independence. We were post-holing bad at this point as it grew late in the day and were all exhausted. A smart person would say we should have camped there to avoid exhaustion, but the motivation to get to food and beds was strong among us!
Kearsarge Pass was now only 5 miles away. By now in the afternoon, Akhuna was struggling to start the ascent and he and Rubberball were potentially going to stay behind. We waited some time for their decision whilst they rested, and then moved on up the upper exposed switchbacks and over the crest of the pass.
On the other side of Kearsarge Pass was a loooooong snow slide which we had decided to take to get off the steep ridge – anything to avoid kicking in steps in the snow! Grim, Bobby Hill and Thirsty all went down fast and it looked fun! My excitement was swallowed, seeing Rex have an anxiety breakdown, and end up in my arms crying. However, it didn’t last long, and she immediately sat down in the snow without saying anything, and slid down the slope. I followed after – damn… was that fun! I really was living the dream in the snow!
Akuna and Rubberball eventually did catch up to us – which we didn’t expect! The final section was a posthole (where your feet break through the surface into the deep snow) trudge walk down the other side of the pass to the carpark. Most of the way we either glissaded down the slopes or ‘slide walked’ (where you kind of fast walk and slide during each step). We came down the hill toward the carpark where we met Rattler, the Australian I met in Kennedy Meadows. He had just been doing the mountaineering course, but said he wish he just did what we did and didn’t waste his money, as we got to do a lot more and climb Mt Whitney too.
We walked straight into a hitch – a total of 9 hikers, 8 backpacks and three family members all in the car! Hoorah! They dropped us off at Independence gas station, where we bought some items before attempting to hitch a second time to Bishop. It took about half an hour – but Rex, Corky and myself caught one with an ex-PCT hiker and we were on our way.
The hostel we arrived at in Bishop was awesome and already had a few other hikers there. When I arrived, Pirate was giving Red Moon (a very emotional hiker who had skipped ahead) a gear shakedown, as he was ready to quit the trail. I helped convince him to get back to it and he felt better.
Rex and I went to the post office to receive our packages. I had my bounce bucket, which I didn’t need and posted it ahead to Mammoth for no charge – and a care package! This was from a veteran 2016 PCT hiker – Bailey (or Mystery). I had met Mystery online (likely a Facebook PCT group), as she too was travelling in Patagonia around the same time. We had been both hiking in Patagonia, but were in different areas at the same time, and were never able to sync up sadly. Still – we chatted a lot online about everything hiking and kept in touch.
One iconic feature of a former thru-hiker is the need to want to ‘give back’ to the trail community. Mystery’s generosity was immense! I stood there peering into one of the most exciting packages ever sent from her. When you’ve been hiking for a week; receiving a box of assorted goodies and a personalised note is downright heartwarming for a thru-hiker – ‘this is the work of a trail angel!’ I thought to myself.
After our chores, we sought out some delicious food from in town, before cleaning up and going to bed. I bought some chicken buffalo wings, and Rex made some small pizzas.
Distance hiked: 22 miles
Total PCT hiked: 789 miles
Day 60 (27/05) – The Township of Bishop
Rex and I had gotten up early to go to the cafe. We were both blogging our trips, and required some internet time to update them. They had some nice cold brews (iced coffee) here, and the day was nice and warm – a stark comparison to the cold snowy conditions in the previous day. Whilst blogging, I also grabbed one of the homemade breakfast burritos there, which was damn good. We chilled here for a couple of hours before returning to the hostel.
The usual chores needing doing – laundry and resupply being the most important. We combined our laundry loads and set off to do shopping via bikes from the hostel. Rex took a day pack, and my bike had a storage holster thing on the back. It was awesome to ride a bike again. The last and only time I remember riding a bike in my adulthood was one day in Salzburg, Germany! After our shopping in town, we returned to the hostel where I commenced my laborious task of sorting out my food resupply. The food needed to last 8 days (with an extra day or two just in case on top) – there was enough to fill two bear cans!
Pirate, Grim and I were having many games of table tennis, and things started to get quite competitive! We all weren’t too bad, but I think Pirate was the most victorious in the end.
Red Moon cooked a huge gourmet spaghetti bolognese for us all and we feasted like champions. I liked Red Moon, he meant well, but he was hiking the PCT due to personal family issues and hardships, which works for some people, but I feel unless you really enjoy hiking, it’s not going to last. Hopefully, he can push on though, he seems to want to, but I doubt he’ll get all the way.
I tried to stay up late, but ended up going to sleep again around 7:30pm. I couldn’t even reach hiker midnight! Hiker midnight is a trail term used to describe going to bed at 9pm, as we’re always so exhausted!
Distance hiked: 0 miles
Total PCT hiked: 789 miles
Day 61 (28/05) Another Zero Day in Bishop
Again, Rex and I woke up early and went back to the coffee shop to blog. Rex also had her parents make postcards with a photo of her on the front. They were thank you cards to all the trail angels who had helped her/us on trail – it was a really sweet thing to do, and to receive one would be rewarding.
We were going to build snow shoes today, as the store ones were too expensive and heavy, but it was Sunday and the smaller hardware/craft stores were closed. That idea kind of fizzled. Instead, went to McDonald’s to buy milkshakes for ourselves and friends and attempted to get served via bikes in the drive-thru – that didn’t work apparently!
Rex and I combined a salad mix, pesto sauce and roast chicken to make a delicious dinner. It feels weird to kind of eat healthy – almost… wrong! It was like my body needed more fat always. It had been amazing just being able to eat whatever the hell I want on trail, knowing I was in good shape the whole time. When your food shop – if a label says ‘low calories’ or ‘low fat’ – it’s often regarded as unhealthy for us thru-hikers haha.
*UPDATE: missing hiker near Mount Whitney from the previous blog post #18.
Unfortunately, they found the girl… dead… She had fallen through a show chute on the edge of a waterfall not far from the trail, and only a few miles from the carpark – not far from our camp at Mirror Lake. We never saw her body. I was scared when I went back over some of my photos in the valley in case I saw her. Here is an article explaining further.
Distance hiked: 0 miles
Total PCT hiked: 789 miles
Next Up:
Part 20 ‘Glen Pass & the End of the Family‘
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