Day 62
Start: South Fork Kings River
Finish: Big Pete Meadow
Daily Mileage: 20.0
PCT Mile: 833.8
Cookie Monster, Lanyard, and I did a 4:30am start since Mather Pass faces the morning sun and it is supposed to be a challenging pass. The moon was nearly full and out when we started, but we still used headlamps since you could still miss the smaller details that are important like holes indicating a melting snowbridge.
We were camped in a small bare patch in fields of snow, and the bare patches quickly disappeared as we climbed. Then the trees disappeared and we were in the land of wide open snowfields. We followed the spirit of the trail, and headed straight for the approach to Mather Pass once it came into view.
Once at the pass, we could see one bootpath heading towards a boulder field. There were many theories on how to approach this pass in the Farout comments, some said do the boulders, some said stay on snow, and there were other approaches entirely. We arrived at the approach at 6 to ensure we could see the options and best decide for ourselves which to take. The only visible option was the path to the boulders, so we put on our crampons and headed towards that.
We downclimbed the boulder field and regained the bootpath. It was pretty steep at times but not too challenging since the way was already prepared for us. We quickly made it to the summit of the pass without incident. That was good news since this was supposed to be a challenging pass. It would have been significantly more difficult without the footsteps of others to follow.
Once again, a new horizon was opened up for us with many new lakes and mountains for us to explore on the way down. The back side of the pass was steep, but it was feasible with crampons and traversing a little, and was uneventful.
We made our own way around the lakes and across the terrain with what seemed like fewer other footprints than we are used to following.
As we neared a steep part of the descent where you need to be on trail, footprints were almost entirely missing. They appeared to have been absorbed into the field of suncups. We could still navigate just fine, but it is a bit disconcerting when you know you should see footprints to confirm you are on the trail but you don’t.
In any case, I just took more time making sure we were on the trail and we came to a steep dropoff with a panoramic view of the valley ahead of us, surrounded by incredible and tall mountains. It was quite a site, and a spot deserving of our lunch break, especially since we were almost out of the softening snow.
After lunch, we were on real trail that was almost snow free. It was countless switchbacks going down, down, down. At first I was happy to see actual trail and switchbacks that we could actually use, but they got old pretty quick. I was actually tired from the switchbacks when I finally ran out of them at the bottom.
We were then dumped out into normal forest with normal flatish trail with no snow. What a concept. I got on the trail and turned on the afterburners just because I needed to make some speed to see that I could still do it. The jungle gym of blowdowns and avalanche debris hardly slowed me as I pounded out the miles.
I do my best thinking when hiking hard, and I started wondering, why am I out here? Am I enjoying this trail, or just doing it as a challenge. Big parts of it in the Sierra here definitely seem more like the challenge with low enjoyment factor, getting up early, racing the snow before it softens, frost, cold, wind, etc. Why am I here, and why am I doing this to myself?
I couldn’t quite answer those questions on the hike down to the bottom of the valley where we regrouped. We decided on a plan for the rest of the day to hike 5 miles up the other side of the valley for a head start on Muir Pass tomorrow. I figured this would be a slog due to my mindset having settled on this just being a challenge. So I put on my headphones and an audiobook and got into the climb I assumed would be mind numbing.
As I started climbing, the river I was following up entered a meadow, and the most incredible mountains appeared on the other side. They were huge stone monoliths soaring into the sky with cascades of meltwater tumbling down them, and the whole scene had a softness to it like it was a painting in a children’s storybook. This valley was one of the most incredible places I’ve hiked in my 10,000 miles!
Since I’ve hiked so much, I think it takes more to impress me, and it is harder and harder for me to get emotionally engaged with my surroundings. This valley just blew me away and hit all the right buttons for me. I took off my headphones because they seemed sacrilegious, and in any case they were no longer needed and the scenery was all that I needed to drive myself forward.
I took way too many pictures of the mountains, rivers, cascades, and forest, trying to capture the essence of my feelings, but I’m sure they won’t do it justice. If they did, why would anyone hike, you could just look at pictures.
It also gave me a lot of time to reflect on my trail experience that I had been questioning just a few miles before. I am out here for this. I am in the Sierra before the normal hiking season seeing and experiencing things that most other hikers never will. Vast snowfields where you make the trail where you want it. Extreme flow in the streams and rivers from the melting snow. Trail completely buried. Dealing with the rawness of the environment which is part of the normal lifecycle of the Sierra. Only a few hundred or so NOBO hikers experience this in the Sierra, and it is a much different Sierra than others see.
I am also pretty lucky to be able to be out here. I arranged with my job to take leave to do this hike which took years of hard work. I was able to save up enough for the trip, and have support from my friends and family, and most importantly my girlfriend. I can’t do this hike if it is to simply tick off the miles and claim to have done it. I need to be more open to the unique experiences it can offer.
So, I had an amazing last 5 miles of the day with the scenery and reflections. One sad note was that Lanyard is taking a side trail out. There is a bridge out ahead that doesn’t have a good alternative. We are going to do a scramble that has mixed reviews on difficulty and little concrete information on it, and she decided that wasn’t for her. Cookie Monster and myself are continuing on and will attempt it in a couple days. We also met several other hikers today who are doing the same thing. Worst that happens is that we look at the scramble, decide we don’t want to do it, turn around, and hike back out. We have enough food for either way, so we at least want to try it.
We had a long day today, 20 miles which is a lot in the Sierra, even with some dry trail. Tired, but ready for Muir Pass tomorrow!
