Hiking Whitney yesterday was pretty cool. My main motivations for doing this side trip were: a) finding out how my body would react to the elevation and b) if you're within a few miles of bagging te highest peak in the continental US AND you're in decent shape, you should take advantage of the situation. I have to admit I didn't carry a pack up there. I stuffed my breakfast and a few essentials in my pocket, and Dwight carried water and our lunch in his pack. We left the rest of our gear at Crabtree Meadows and put our remaining food in a bear locker there. The only effects I noticed from the altitude was sluggishness and unusual leg fatigue (as if I'd done a track workout) on the ascent. My favorite part of the day though was not reaching the top of Whitney--but hiking by Timberline Lake early in the morning. The lake surface was clear as glass and perfectly reflected the surrounding mountains and trees. It was so peaceful there. But that was all yesterday...
Today our big task was hiking over Forrester Pass--our first and highest pass (13,400 ft) in the high sierras. We'd heard most of the snow was melted so we left Kennedy meadows sans ice axes and crampons.
The hike enroute to Forrester was beautiful--a struggle to put into words. The mountains here are so dramatic and the views so sweeping--it often seems like you might be in movie set where the background is a painting. In mid morning Dwight stopped at a narrow stream--less than 10" wide and a few inches deep that meandered through a large meadow eventually pooling into a small, clear pond. It was beautiful in every direction and I was snapping photos of it all. Will any reflect the true beauty of this place?
We were within a mile or so of the base of Forrester Pass around noon. I was feeling so energetic today which I attributed to our short hiking day yesterday...or was it just the scenery that was pumping me up? Anyway, the temperature dropped near the pass. It was cloudy and windy and we ate lunch in the crevice of some rocks to get out of the wind. I put on my rain pants and rain jacket for warmth. We had gotten a bit of rain and light hail yesterday--but it didn't amount to much. It looked like it might do the same today.
After lunch it didn't take us long to reach the area near the base of the pass. We are above treeline and are basically nearly encircled by a group of granite mountains on a terrain that is all rock and large intermittnat patches of snow. The snow seems to be over a foot deep in places--and soft enough that we sometimes posthole walking across it.
Eventully we lose the trail. It's covered in snow and we can't seem to find foot prints from those who have come before us. Around us there are any number of mountains between which could be the pass. The map shows the trail to the right side of one of several now frozen lakes. In retrospect it shouldn't have been that confusing, but we wandered all over the aea for nearly 2 hours trying to find the trail over the pass. This involved a lot of scrambling over and between boulders and cautious jaunts across patches of snow including areas where you could hear running water beneath the surface. I actually thought it was fun--but we weren't working well as a team to find the trail and Dwight was getting increaingly frustrated. Also, we heard some rolling thunder and it was spitting light hail.
We eventually went back to where we lost the trail and reviewed the map for the umpteenth time. Dwight had a notion about where the path should be and just started heading in that direction--with a plan to give me a hand signal if he found it. Meanwhile, No Car and Recline (a hiker we just met earlier in the day) arrive on the scene. Both think the pass trail is dead ahead of where the trail dissapeared in the snow and head off in that direction. Meanwhile, Dwight now looks like an ant on the horizon-too far away to see any hand signal he might be making. No Car is pretty sure Dwight is not on trail but thinks he might eventully cross paths with it. So, panicked, I follow No Car and Recline--who have found the trail up the pass within 1/10th ml or so of where Dwight and I first went astray. Luckily, Dwight's rock scramble does eventually cross the trail and we meet up again halfway up the pass. The path up was largely clear of snow-and what snow there is is easy to get!
around.
We all take a celebratory break at the top of the pass, snap some photos and start heading down. There are several patches of snow obscuring the trail which we either
follow footpints across or go around by scrambling downhill until we can locate the next switchback. The trickiest part was a steep 50 yard snow crossing about which Recline later said: "The only thing I could think about was--one slip and I'm dead".
I think we only did around 18 miles today--not including the wandering around. It was exhausting, challenging, at times frustrating--but still my favorite day yet on the PCT.
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