Day 59
Start: Bishop, CA
Finish: Kearsarge Pass and PCT intersection
Daily Mileage: 7.5
PCT Mile: 790.1
Cookie Monster, Lanyard, and I got done everything we needed to yesterday, but as always it was a rush even being a zero day. It’s not all fun and games in town, there is a lot of work to it, and it is very busy.
Bishop is a ways from the trail, so we got on a bus at 7 that took us down to where the road went into the mountains. The road only goes to the trailhead and there were a number of people there when we got off the trail, so I figured that the first or second vehicle to pass us would pick us up. The problem was, no vehicles passed us going up. We even set up to hitch at an area that had a look of desperation to it, but to no avail. Luckily, Cookie Monster had the contact info for a local who gave rides, and he was available. So 1:15 after we started trying to hitch our ride arrived.
As we were loading up, a Subaru passed heading uphill, but their car looked full. Otherwise, Subarus tend to be good targets for hitching.
Arriving at the trailhead, we had to retrace our steps from two days ago. We had to re cross Kearsarge Pass and go 7.5 miles back to the PCT. However, from this side of the pass, we had 2,500 feet of climbing to get back to the pass. We are carrying 8 days of food out of town and our new and heavy crampons, so the weight was high, and will probably be our biggest load of the entire hike. All we could do was put the packs on and start deliberately uphill.
There was no snow at first, and an easy grade which helped the elevation go by. When the snow started, I had to put on an audiobook. The climb, the weight, and redoing trail that I just did were all demotivators, and listing to something can help me through the tedium.
It wasn’t all bad though. Doing a trail from a different direction can let you see things that you didn’t before, and last time we did this trail we had the motivation of heading to town whereas this time we were headed back into this mountainous country.
We did take a slightly different route back to the PCT. There are two parallel trails, and the higher trail we did not do last time looked slightly more snow free from the pass, so we decided to go that route instead.
There was still loads of snow, and it was softening due to our later start, but it was doable and there was bootpath for much of the way. We crossed back above Bullfrog Lake and Kearsage Lakes with their fantastic mountain surrounds, and time we saw them from higher up with more of a view of the surrounds. It was nice to see those wonderful mountains again.
We were expecting to dry camp, so we had to fill up on water for the night. There might not be unfrozen water between camp and Glen Pass too, so I grabbed a full gallon so I would be set for the duration. However, that was even more weight in my pack.
We arrived back at the PCT, and I had scoped out an area where there were breaks in the snow from satellite views. We wandered that area and in short order found a dry patch to pitch in. We arrived at 3:30 which is later than normal here, but the snow didn’t really get too soft so it worked out just fine.
We are all still tired though. I don’t know if it is the elevation, the climbing, not getting fully rested in town due to running around, or the duration of the trip. We all napped or nearly napped. Off to bed early like usual. We’re 2 miles from Glen Pass and will hit it first thing tomorrow morning.
