Day 53
Start: Sharknose Ridge
Finish: Chicken Spring Lake
Daily Mileage: 14.5
PCT Mile: 752
After my bear can fell off or nearly fell off my pack 3 times so far with it strapped to the top, I figured out how to get the can inside of the pack without even moving something else outside. The bear can now sits much lower and the pack is a ton less top heavy. Such a great improvement in carrying it.
We left at 5:45 this morning, moving our start time up a little bit for less slushy snow in the afternoon. We were still doing the same miles, just targeting getting done earlier.
We cruised along in the morning on pleasant and easy trail through the pine forest we have been travelling here. It is an interesting forest since the trees are sparse and there is no undergrowth whatsoever. I don’t think I’ve seen a forest like this before.
We went around the north side of a mountain and hit more snow where we briefly puzzled over the multiple boot tracks, and then made our own way through the snow cutting a switchback to go more directly where we were headed.
Then a lot more easy and enjoyable dry trail through the same forest. I could see through the trees and could occasionally catch a glimpse of rocky peaks, but our surrounds were mostly obscured, unfortunately.
Continuing on, we were climbing again and alternating between the south and north sides of mountains. Whenever we flipped north, we hit more snow. For a while it was like speed bumps with drift after drift to cross. Not too challenging, but it just took more energy.
Then we had a big north side traverse around rocky Trail Peak. The trail was almost entirely snow, and we were able to mostly follow boot path which stick close enough to the trail. The snow began to soften as the day progressed, and got slushier and gave way with some of our steps. This doesn’t bother me much as it is just part of snow travel and doesn’t slow me down too much. It does also take more energy though.
The day continued to alternate between snow and dry ground, but we made good time throughout. At one point we came to a marsh that the trail took a wide berth around. As everything was covered with snow, I led us straight across the meadow, cutting a large corner. Snow cover gives you the artistic license to interpret trail the way you would like to, and I enjoy taking advantage of that.
From there it was just a couple more miles to camp. We were continuously climbing for the second half of our day, so all faces were getting snow covered, when they wouldn’t have lower down. This slowed us down, especially as the snow just kept getting softer. However, we still made good progress and crossed Cottonwood Pass.
We then shortly reached our camp destination of Chicken Spring Lake. Reaching the lake was quite a surprise. We had been buried in forest almost the entire day, and we were dumped out into a huge rocky bowl with a cerulean blue lake iced over. The mountains making up the bowl had great shear rock, and it is perhaps the most scenic spot I have yet encountered this trip. Truly fantastic, and a very worthy camp spot!
Chicken Spring Lake is at 11,300 feet, our highest point so far on the trail. It is in a large bowl and south facing, so we thought it might have melted out some. That wasn’t really the case, though we did find a couple dry camp spots though near the lake to set up.
There was no open or flowing water not covered in snow or ice, so I made my way to some boulders on the lake’s edge and used my ice axe to chop a hole in the ice. I’ve been using my ice axe for about anything but its intended purpose, but at least it is being useful.
After gathering water and setting up, some weather began to roll in. A couple raindrops began to fall and we took shelter in our tents. The rain quickly turned to hail which went on for a while, then rain, then some thunder came along, then more hail, and more rain to round it out over the course of a couple hours. We were all good in our tents though, so everything worked out and we were still able to get together after the weather cleared out and the blue skies returned to plan for tomorrow.
Today was nice and pleasant hiking through forest, though I want to see more of the mountains in this unique area. We got our first good taste of snow travel in the Sierra and it went well and wasn’t too challenging. However, Chicken Spring Lake where we are camped really made the day, and I would have been happy with the day to only see this fantastic lake. It didn’t even have to be warm or melted, snow and ice suits it perfectly well.