June 6, 2017
Total miles: 6.8 miles
Start: mile 768.9
End: mile 775.7
Total elevation gain/loss: 1559.1/1126.3 ft
The stats simply don’t convey what a difficult day today’s hiking was. I could pound out that distance in no time in the desert. Here though, that’s a different matter.
We slept in a bit (until 4:30!) because it was cold and we didn’t want to hit our first river crossing of the day too early. Also, we figured we were in for an easy day, so why push it? Silly us.
June 5, 2017
Total miles: 10.7 miles
Start: mile 758.2
End: mile 768.9
Total elevation gain/loss: 2589.6/2066.9 ft
I wondered as we started hiking today whether we should have continued on yesterday. Was I making something out of nothing? But we pretty quickly hit a steep, snow covered downhill section and I was happy with my decision. With the firm snow and my microspikes, I was able to make easy work of what would have likely been a frustrating descent yesterday.
June 4, 2017
Total miles: 11.2 miles
Start: mile 747.0
End: mile 758.2
Total elevation gain/loss: 1239.5/1551.2 ft
What a difference a cold night makes on snow conditions! We were up early this morning (4am alarm… but hit snooze a couple times) and greeted by frozen condensation in our tent. By the time we were up and walking, the snow was firm. I’m loving my microspikes! It make walking on the firm snow super easy!
June 3, 2017
Total miles: 16.1 miles
Start: Death Canyon Creek (mile 730.8)
End: mile 747.0
Total elevation gain/loss: 3389.1/1619.1 ft
I was woken last night at 3:45am to the sound of the group nearby cheering. I guess they were ready to hike. I rolled over and in no time my own 4:30am alarm was going off. Time to get up.
More snow topped mountains in the distance
I loved the roots on this overturned tree!
View of Owens Valley. There was a large snow patch at the top of the climb, but not on trail.
A small patch of snow.
Another cool shell of a tree.
June 2, 2017
Total miles: 20.3 miles
Start: mile 710.5
End: Death Canyon Creek (mile 730.8)
Total elevation gain/loss: 4165/2553.5 ft
We were woken last night by the wind, which came as a surprise because it was calm last night. We’d staked our tent in a fairly sandy area and Michael realized that one of the stakes had come out during the night (which he was able to fix without getting out of bed). It wasn’t until our alarm went off that I realized that the stake near me had also come out. No wonder our tent had become so loud in the wind. It was flapping around and we’re lucky it hadn’t simply collapsed on us!
More burn zone
April 30, 2017
Total miles: 20 miles
Start: mile 185.7
End: faucet at mile 205.7
Total elevation gain/loss: 738.5/7937.7ft
We slept in a bit this morning because we didn’t want to hit the snow on Fuller Ridge too early. We’d heard that it was best to let the snow and ice soften a bit and I was glad to oblige. Despite feeling utterly exhausted last night, I had a difficult time sleeping. It probably didn’t help that we were camped on a bit of a slope. Oh well.
Snow patch leading up to creek crossing. You could see where someone had slid down in the snow… into the creek.
April 29, 2017
Total miles: 14.3 miles (2.7 mile roadwalk, 2.6 mile Devil’s Slide trail, 3.2 miles PCT, 5.8 miles up and down San Jacinto)
Start: Idyllwild
End: mile 185.7
Total elevation gain/loss: 5717.6/2066.9ft
Today kicked my butt. The mileage may not be as high as some of our other days, but it was a tough one.
We left the comfort of our awesome cabin by 6:30. First up was the road walk to get us to the Humber Park Trailhead. With my pack heavy with 5.5 days of food and microspikes, I quickly dumped out one of my bottles of water. The guys at the outfitters said there was a faucet at the trailhead, so why carry the extra 2 pounds?
We saw a couple yeti crossings.
Only one hiker crossing though.
two backpacks, no plan 