Off to Lone Pine – PCT 2017: A Hiking Story [17]
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Part 16 ‘Kennedy Meadows ‘Into the Mountains We Go!”
Day 52 (19/05) – A Side Adventure off Mulky Pass
I didn’t sleep well due to the cold in the later hours of the morning, but did still have sufficient hours in the end. It was Rex’s turn to get out of bed and retrieve the bear canisters from behind the tree. I joked about her having to get out of bed to get them, as she was pretty terrible at waking up. To be fair, she got up faster than I expected (normally she struggles in the cold).
The first obstacle and event of the day were getting over the (immediate) creek crossing next to the camp. We’d all jumped across without our packs earlier, but now, we had packs on which weighed us down. I am pretty confident with my jumping ability and went first – no problem! Rex decided she couldn’t do it with her pack on, and attempted to throw it over to me before jumping herself. I suggested she just hang it on my pole as I yanked it across, but she insisted on her method. She began to throw, but instead awkwardly realised she couldn’t get it across, and just kind of stepped over the creek from the momentum of the attempted throw. She only got one foot on the edge and was about to fall back into the stream, but I managed to grab her right at the last second and pull her back. It was hilarious and made for an eventful start to the day.
The three of us set off around 7:30am and began the long ascent up to the ridgeline back above 10000 feet (3048m). It was simply spectacular. The Sequoia pines nearby, along with the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra mountains, made for amazing views. Over the past few days, we had entered Sequoia National Park, so it made sense to see these pines around more often!
After several hours, we hit the snow again and didn’t even bother with microspikes as it was quite firm at this point. Throughout most of the day, we did without the spikes, as our trail runners had good traction. We joked about how people said we’d struggle to hike through the snow in the trail runners, but we were doing just fine! The combo with the microspikes was ideal for the current conditions.
We had fun ‘skiing’ down slopes again to get to a small stream off-trail, and decided at one point that we’d make our own path to the PCT that went around a different section. Snow hiking definitely opened up more possibilities for directions, without there being a trail.
We found an open area with snow melt running just under shallow snow. It was almost like a lake with thin ice, but on land. Corky and I were acting like kids, pretending to fall in, as it cracked off in sheets beneath our feet. I’d never walked on thin ice that cracked like that before, so I was having a lot of fun. Rex was laughing at us in the background. Sometimes the streams formed snow bridges about the flow, and we’d daringly walk across them. Amongst the childish fun, Corky fell through one of these snow bridges, and got soaked. Rex and I were laughing so hard, we couldn’t even ask if he was ok!
We eventually arrived at Mulky Pass, a location where we had planned to leave the PCT, and hike into the town of Lone Pine – our next resupply destination! This was not super common for PCT hikers to do, as many would continue until the next town, but with all the snow, it would have been a large food carry. We thought our plan was good for not running out of food, and also had the benefit of being able to access both sides of Mount Whitney – which we intended to summit. We headed down from Mulky Pass, snow skiing with microspikes on this time all the way to the bottom. The valley broadened into a flat, open area with a stream running through. It was spectacular!
Eventually, we arrived at Cottonwood Pass trailhead campground, which was closed due to having no car access from too much snow. We were the only people there, and it felt quite post-apocalyptic! The side of the road on the grass was our chosen camp here, and a glorious dinner was made. Glutinous hikers we were by now, eating huge quantities of pasta, before retiring to our tents. ‘Ahhh town day next – tasty food to come!’ I remember thinking as I drifted off to sleep.
Distance hiked: 20 miles (32.19 km)
Total PCT hiked: 744.5 miles (1,198.16 km)
Day 53 (20/05) – Getting to Lone Pine
We awoke around 6:30am to another ‘Sierra stunner’ of a day. The morning was cold, and I immediately grabbed the bear canisters, took a quick piss, and jumped right back into the sleeping bag. There was frost all over the tent, and even some of our water had frozen. The coffee and oats had warmed me up thankfully, and after the packing routine, we set off.
Grabbing some water from a spring near the entrance to the campsite, we then headed along the long road walk in front of us. In a normal PCT season (not snow-ridden), you can hitch from the campground to the small tourist town of Lone Pine, but the road was closed due to a washout from the heavy winter rains. To be honest, we hadn’t expected the campsite to be closed, and our plan of getting to Lone Pine was now more challenging, being over 20 miles of road walking. ‘Let’s just all get down to the valley below and see what happens’ we all agreed.
We had to walk at least 5 miles before reaching a section of gigantic switchbacks, that would lead down into the Owens Valley, where Lone Pine was. The first switchback was easy to cut across, but the hill was so steep and rocky on the next few, that we could only cut out the very ends of each turn. The final switchback was so long that the cut we made to the bottom saved us 2.5 miles alone – we didn’t mind, as these were not exactly PCT miles lost anyway.
The long descent of 5000 feet (1500m) put us back into the desert, and we immediately felt the warmth and dryness. Shortly after, we arrived at a horse ranch that was hidden in a valley that evidently had a creek running through it, providing a green, lush setting in the desert. Rex (our ever-efficient logistics person) rang the owner earlier along the hike, asking if she was able to provide a lift into town. The owner had agreed to help out if we arrived at the ranch ourselves – this thankfully had solved our problem of getting to Lone Pine! We met several other PCT hikers there who had taken some time off to help out at the ranch and resume the PCT later on.
After we got a ride in, the three of us booked into a motel for $27 a night. It was an old-school motel with colourful carpet and wallpaper, a sign dating back to the seventies. We immediately showered to ‘get royal‘, and went to the pizza place – decent pizza, but super expensive. We all had leftovers and took them back to the motel.
Not only that, but we bought some bottles of wine and shared them back in the room, before a swim in the spa was on the cards – it’s a hard life on the PCT sometimes! Numerous older guys there chatted to us about our adventure.
We then visited a bar with a live jazz band playing old rock music covers – the primary audience was pensioners, but it was entertaining enough over a few drinks before we went to bed.
Distance hiked: 13 miles (20.92 km)
Total PCT hiked: 744.5 miles (1,198.16 km)
Day 54 (21/05) – Lone Pine Zero Day
I didn’t sleep overly great, probably because I was catching up on blogging too late. It wasn’t an issue though as it was a zero-day and I could just go to bed early. I spent most of the day blogging, to catch up on some of the cool adventures we were having. It was a good time to do this, as there weren’t many hikers to socialise with in town. Lone Pine was off the beaten path a little, and most of our other friends had skipped the Sierra Mountains because of the more difficult snow conditions.
I did my shopping at the expensive little market there, totalling to $90 – the most expensive resupply I’ve done yet (and only for 5 days).
We had Chinese for dinner, which was the most ‘Western’ Chinese I had ever been to! Our waiter was an ageing man, with a Brooklyn accent (according to Corky) – but he was funny and full of one-liners and made us laugh several times. The food was surprisingly great! It was a pleasant experience for us all.
We grabbed some beers, and headed back down to the pool/spa and chilled out. Our last job was to minimise the packaging on our food, and somehow try to cram it all on our bear canisters. Let’s just say we all had more food than one bear canister worth! Not ideal for their purpose!
Distance hiked: 0 miles
Total PCT hiked: 744.5 miles (1,198.16 km)
Next Post:
Part 18 ‘Badass Mountaineers on Mount Whitney’
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