Day 52
Start: Olancha Peak
Finish: Sharknose Ridge
Daily Mileage: 14.5
PCT Mile: 737.5
With snow ahead, we weren’t sure what time to start in the morning. PCT hikers can start at 3am to make the most of snow solidifying overnight before it becomes soft and postholey in the afternoon. We thought that we would just give a normal start a try and see how things went.
We left at 6:30 to finish climbing the mountain we started yesterday. Prior comments indicated that there was snow soon after we camped, but it was dry for the climb. Comments are sporadic and can only be shared with cell signal which there isn’t really in the Sierra, so most info we have is at least a week out of date.
I felt good on the climb, and wasn’t feeling any pain or discomfort in my quad. It felt 100% this morning. I must have just pinched a muscle or nerve with cranking down on my hipbelt yesterday. I’m glad that resolved itself with no issues.
At the top of the climb, we entered a forest above 10,000 feet. The forest provided the shade need to prevent snow from melting, and we had our first stretch of trail through the snow in the Sierra. Snow cover was about 50%, so sometimes you could see the trail beyond the snow patches and still follow along. However, many places that became impossible due to the amount of snow cover, and we just had to wing it.
There were footprints (even some bear prints), but they were inconsistent and came and went. Sometimes we were able to follow them for a while, but they often disappeared leaving us to navigate back in the direction of the trail. Not too hard though in open forest, and the incline wasn’t steep.
One part I enjoyed in particular was a stretch of trail that switchbacked down under the snow. We easily walked straight down the slope, avoiding the unnecessary back and forth dry trail would have had us do to keep the grade shallow. We skipped several switchbacks this way.
We dropped down over time, and the snow disappeared, letting us take our traction off. Crossed several flowing streams for water and continued across a flat in a partial meadow. The meadow had great rock formations before we got back into the trees the rest of the way to our lunch spot in Death Canyon.
We got to Death Canyon around 10. We had decided the night before that we would either stop there or go another 5.6 to the next campsite with water. There were many campsites in between, but they were all dry, and we aren’t carrying enough fuel to melt snow. Little reason to carry water up 2,000 feet if we could just walk a few miles extra through snow to get to a campsite with water. Hiker logic.
We continued on, targeting the next wet campsite. The trail climbed a ridge that started at the valley floor and gradually ascended. The ridge had many monolithic rock outcrops that were very scenic, but what most impressed me were the trees. At the beginning there were some type of cedar I hadn’t seen before. They looked ancient and as if they had been through hard times but persevered, with live portions of the tree growing around dead portions. They also had an amazing aromatic cedar smell to them walking past.
The day was once again warm and the climb a good grade, so I set a slow pace up. About half way there was a view point where we could see more of the Sierra spread out in front of us. We had a high vantage point, and the light granite mountains of the Sierra were covering everything we could see with no signs of humanity. It was an excellent spot well worth a break.
Continuing on, we started to get into a little snow. It was sporadic though, and not a big deal. There wasn’t very much snow until we approached the top of the ridge. At times, the trail was obscured, and I did some bushwhacking because it wasn’t worth bothering to find the trail proper when I had a point ahead I knew it crossed.
I arrived at a saddle and was surprised and amazed with the view in front of me. It went out east of the Sierra and there was an enormous lake covering most of the view 7,000 feet below. It was surrounded by development and desert, and drew quite the contrast to the mountains we were walking in.
Continuing upward, we finally completed our climb of the ridge through mixed snow and dry land. We stopped at the highest point which had cliffs overlooking the lake since we only had a mile left to our campsite. We took a break and soon there was a whump noise, and a fighter jet barely cleared the ridge 1-200 yards away from us upside down. It immediately dove down the valley that opened up in front of us, keeping low to the terrain, and diving way below our elevation. It was so sudden and I did not expect to look over and see an inverted plane so close. They had been flying around a lot the last couple days since there is an air base nearby.
After enjoying the rest of our break with a little more silence, we finished out some easy and mostly dry trail to our camp on a large flat in the woods with partial snow cover. However, there was a snowmelt stream, so it all worked out.
We ended our day early today around 3. It would have been earlier if we hadn’t taken the last break. The snow softened a lot in the afternoon, which makes it more difficult to cross. We didn’t really posthole at all, but it still makes for more challenging travel. We will probably be starting early and stopping early in the snowy terrain to avoid the struggle as much as reasonable. It was pretty manageable today though, and there was a lot less snow than we were expecting.
Clive decided to push on since he is carrying less food and may not make it to town in time if he stuck with us. In 2 days we have now lost 2 people. However, we should be good with Cookie Monster, Lanyard, and myself.
The scenery was great again today, but I think we are only getting a taste of the Sierra. We will be getting deeper tomorrow, and at higher elevation. We hit 10,600 feet today, and are camped at 10,400. So far I’m doing good with the elevation, but the trail has had us at elevation for a bit now, so it was good acclimation. Looking forward to whatever tomorrow will bring.
