My Blood Is Red, My Toes Are Blue, But I'll Hike this Pass To Get The View!

As of yesterday I have officially hiked 900 miles, achieving my first 200 miles in the Sierra's. Talk about some tough terrain!! My average mileage has greatly decreased, while the amount of effort put in as drastically increased. The first stretch from Kennedy Meadows to Lone Pine was pretty chill and easy other than starting to adjust to the higher altitudes. We ended up triple zeroing in Lone Pine because one pad the guys in our group got sick and we hoped he could still hike out with us. However after three days he still wasn't feeling up to it, so we set out without him anyway.

Filtering water:)

Town food!!

  

View from Lone Pine

Parking Lot Dinner

Our next stretch was from Lone Pine to Bishop. This was definitely tougher as we had some of our first passes, which included Forester Pass (the highest point on the PCT at 13,200). During this section we also did the 17 mile side trip to climb Mount Whitney, which is the tallest mountain in the continental US! It was challenging for sure, but so worth it!!

The night before we hiked out from Lone Pine, we went up to Alabama Hills to check it out and then just cowboy camped among the rocks.

Lunch break on a small snow free patch

Chicken Spring Lake

In order to cross this creek we used a log that was balanced between two rocks, then had to use another log to get off the rock.

A nice gentle river crossing right before Whitney

To climb Whitney, our hike started at midnight. The first couple miles were pretty easy, before we reached the snow fields. Because it was still early in the night, the snow wasnt at it's hardest, so we did a fair bit of post-holeing over the next couple miles. Then we reached the switchbacks. The switchbacks would be free of snow at parts and then completely covered in others. To avoid some of the sketchy areas, we choose to cut straight up the switchbacks on the rocks. These rocks were pretty loose, so you had to be careful not to send rocks flying down to people below you. You got pretty good at figuring out which ones would be stable though. Once the switchbacks were done, we had two miles to the summit. With the majority of the elevation gain done, the last couple miles should have been cruisy. However....we were now had some really high elevation and starting to really feel it. Most of us experienced some nausea, light headedness, and shortness of breath. We slowly made our way to the summit, reaching it around 5:30am just as the sun was rising!!! It was gorgeous, incredible, breathtaking,....and also freezing cold! We grabbed our pictures, enjoyed the view for a bit, and then started our decent.

Wild Turkey caught up to me in Lone Pine and we were able to summit Whitney together! (We summited Katahdin together on the AT)

Froth Squad!!

Two of our group had to turn back partway through the switchbacks due to altitude sickness.

(Butters, Ghost, myself, & Juicy)

We stopped for a snack partway down when we could finally think about eating and feeding our now starving stomachs 

Some of the snowfields we crossed

Back at Basecamp:)

Just starting to get our feet wet in river crossing experience.

Juicy

Butters

Flex

Snack Machine

Crossing the chute right before Forrester Pass

Forrester Pass!! Highest point on the PCT

More post-holeing

Frozen Alpine Lake

Snack Machine

Too much to explain what's all happening...yet it needs no explanation.

In order to get into Bishop to resupply, we had to take a 9 mile side trail over Kersarge Pass.

While in Bishop I met Dirt Diva, who had previously hiked the PCT and is an Ultrarunner!! She gave some of our group a hitch into town and then came back later to drive us to the store!

In Bishop, Flex decided to head back home, Juicy decided to take some time off trail, and Ghost (who had injured her ankle) was going to get back on where she got off. A couple of guys, Avalanche and Snake Charmer, had caught up to us near Forrester, but on the way into town Snake Charmer rolled his ankle and needed to take time off. So our group heading out of Bishop was now Avalanche, Butters, Daniel, Snack Machine, and myself. This next section would be an eight day stretch and the toughest. Hiking out with that much food was...well...not light...ha. We got up around 3/3:30 every morning so that we could start hiking by 4. This was so we could get up and over the pass before the snow got slushy. Hiking slushy snow is so, so much harder... Knowing how frustrating, slow going, and difficult it is to hike in soft snow, was my motivation for getting out of bed at 3 into the freezing cold night.

Home is where ever you hang your hat:)

Coming down a steep section of Glen Pass. Whoever made the footsteps was tall.....and my quads burned for days.

Spiking up again after taking a break on top of Pinchot Pass

Snack Machine excited to be on top of the pass:)

Bumblebee & Silence

A super cool couple we hiked around for the first part of this section. 

Butters has the ability to sneak in naps whenever and wherever

Snack Machine coming up Mather Pass

Her viewers...

This day we lost enough elevation that we actually had a snow free trail for awhile and it felt and looked like summer!!!! It was a really nice and needed reprieve.

Snow melt

John Muir Pass had a nice shelter on top!

Again...napping in some strange positions.

After John Muir Pass, we dropped pretty low again to about 9500 ft. Because we wouldnt be doing a pass the next day and most of it would be snow free, we got to sleep in!! We enjoyed a night of "relaxed" camping. We made a bonfire, slept in, and didn't hike out until around 9.

Crossing Bear Creek, which is one of the most dangerous crossings. Thank goodness for fallen logs!! Also...thank goodness for limbs on this log, because it was covered in ice when we crossed and there would be absolutely no way we could have crossed it without having the limbs to hold onto!

Waterfall crossing!! And our showers for the week.

Again...naps:)

Anyway...I could photobomb this post a whole lot more, but it's taking too long to upload and I've had my quota of phone time...lol

I am in Mammoth Lakes today yet, as I have new shoes at the Post Office, which doesn't open until Monday morning. The plan is to hike out tomorrow late morning for another 6 or so days. Partway through this next section, we are planning on taking a side trip into Yosemite Valley!!

Until next time...