Day 54
Start: Chicken Spring Lake
Finish: Guyot Creek
Daily Mileage: 10.9
PCT Mile: 762.9
I awoke to frost inside my tent. It has been a while since that has happened on this trail, but not at all surprising considering I was camped above 11,000 feet and surrounded by snow and ice.
Another early start to take advantage of the rock hard snow. The snow was mostly continuous at the start, and I used a mix of boot path and GPS to follow the trail. Cookie Monster, Lanyard, and I have fallen into a rhythm that I lead and break/find trail since I’m usually faster. I go ahead and find my way, keeping them in sight behind me. I love breaking trail and finding my way, and also going my own pace, so it works out perfectly for me.
We climbed a ridge above Chicken Spring Lake. It was steep at times owing to the lack of switchbacks, but it was a fun climb. There were more views of the lake, but they did not compare to being at its shore with the immense granite bowl surrounding it. Also, the lake turned from blue to almost white due to the hail we had last night. The initial blue was the most beautiful.
We stayed at elevation above 11,000 feet for a while traversing mountains. The trail varied from snow free to buried for long stretches. I continued my fun with the route finding, and nothing was dangerous, just snowy. There were also occasional views of the surrounding mountains and meadows. The mountains are getting bigger and more prominent, and are quite the view over the lower snowy plains.
After traversing, we entered Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and came to a large flat area. The flat was also snowy and more fun finding the trail through as it occasionally showed up between snow drifts. I saw a lake slightly off trail and we went to investigate and were rewarded with a stunning view of a small lake with jagged mountains behind it. It reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Torres del Paine in Patagonia, it appeared so rugged. Obviously not as extreme as in the Andes, but it had that feel to it.
The trail turned down, and we dropped below 10,000 feet. We had planned to camp at Rock Creek at the bottom, but it was 11 and still early. We needed to do a shorter day today to set ourselves up to cross Forester Pass in a morning when the snow is good. Going another 15 miles today would have made tomorrow super short.
Since it was still so early, we decided to push on another couple miles to the next creek to camp, splitting the difference between the two days. That led us down Rock Creek to our first ford in the Sierra. There was a potential log bridge other hikers were using, but we took a look at it and forded the creek instead because it was too sketchy and high risk.
The sky had been clouding up, and around this time we started hearing thunder. There was a nice steep (for the PCT) climb that I tore up, and was soon at the creek. I found some flat spots, grabbed water, set up my tent, and shortly thereafter it started sprinkling. We all retired to our shelters and it sprinkled and thundered for a couple hours before it stopped and we could reenter the daylight for dinner and planning.
The snow and route finding here is great fun for me, and it is also not as much snow as I had been expecting, especially considering we are very early in thru hiker season.
Though the trail is staying mostly in forest, there are occasional views of fantastic granite mountains rising above treeline and holding onto more snow. So far the Sierra is living up to my expectations.
