Day 57
Start: Kearsarge Lakes
Finish: Bishop, CA
Daily Mileage: 6.9
PCT Mile: 789.7
It was another cold night in the 20s, our tents were covered in frost, and my bag was slightly damp from condensation. However, it didn’t matter today since we were headed into town for a zero and we can easily take care of our gear.
We got a leisurely 6:30 start, and continued through almost continuous snow along a number of lakes and the stream connecting them. The tree cover was intermittent, allowing fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, like we had at our campsite last night.
The trail began to switchback up to Kearsarge Pass and it was still covered in snow, though we could see dry trail above us. We went mostly straight up since that was the quickest and easiest way. We had to stop for breath since we were getting back to higher elevation with the pass at 11,600 feet.
We gained the actual trail, and it became easier to finish off the climb, though it was occasionally covered in snow and let us cut switchbacks.
Attaining the pass, we could see the great mountains on both sides, and the valley leading down to the desert where we could reach a trailhead. It was all downhill to town from there. However, we still had to go down 2,500 feet and it was all snow at the start.
There was a traverse with good bootpath that let us make good progress down from the pass. The snow was beginning to soften, but not enough to make the descent challenging. The trail made a lot of switchbacks that were covered in snow, but there was always bootpath showing the way, though steep at times.
At one point, Lanyard and I stopped to wait for Cookie Monster to catch up, and he didn’t show. We waited for a while, then I started climbing back up to see if he had gotten hurt, calling out his name. After I had nearly climbed to our last stop, he messaged me on my inreach that he hard gotten ahead. Not sure how, but I did some pointless climbing.
We resumed our downhill and flew down the rest of the trail. As we descended, the snow lessened and eventually disappeared, and then dayhikers appeared; always a sure sign that the trailhead is near.
We arrived at the trailhead, and shortly a photographer gave us a ride down. We could go to either Lone Pine or Bishop. The photographer was going most of the way to Bishop, so the decision was made for us.
We got dropped off at a BBQ joint, had town food since we were starving, and then quickly got another hitch into Bishop.
We are staying at a hiker friendly hostel which is pretty nice and will be taking a zero day tomorrow since we have another hard stretch of the Sierra ahead of us.
The mountains were great, but we were all ready for a break in town after a week of high elevation and much snow.
2 comments
Really enjoying your trek from KM to Kearsarge Pass. I’ve been following along in my journal. You’ve definitely had more of an adventure with more snow cover than my hike in ‘08. We hiked down to the TH for Independence/Bishop on June 8, so about 2 weeks later than your crew. The pics show a lot more snow cover than we had. Inagine you’ll be back on trail before reading this comment, but second your idea of crampons for upcoming passes.
This was an average snow year and I am in the Sierra earlier than normal, so I imagine there should be more snow. I’m sure you understand this, but something I’ve also learned is that every year is different thru-hiking.