We got up a little later 5 AM to hike at 6 AM towards Kearsarge pass. It is an off PCT Trail exit to the town of Independence. From there we will get a ride to Bishop for our zero and resupply days.
We camped by the lake, which in retrospect was not a good idea. It was very moist overnight. We have frost on all of our gear and tents, and it was the coldest night on Trail.
We hiked up past multiple frozen lakes, and climbed the snow covered mountain side towards the pass.
We reached the top of the pass and again met chopper, and another hiker, whose name I did not get.
We hiked down the backside of Kearsarge pass towards Onion Valley. We went straight down through the valley still in deep snow passing lakes along the way.
We reached the Kearsarge Pass trail head and found some trail magic in one of the parking lot food storage boxes. It was only a single package of cheese and crackers that I ate, but it was magical.
The road to the trail head was closed so we had to walk 5 miles down to where the closure was. The scenery was beautiful along the way with mountain ranges on both sides.
There were three marine reservists who had hiked up to the trail head the night before, and camped. They offered to take the four of us from the lower parking area to Highway 395 so we could hitch hike up to Bishop.
Usually getting a ride from the Trail area into a town from locals is pretty easy. Locals know who PCT HIKERS are and what we look like (dirty, smelly, unkempt hiker trash). However, this is memorial day weekend and the locals are staying home, While there’s a lot of travelers on the road a ride was not easy to come by. A hiker I had met in. Wrightwood was with a friend going north on a flip. He recognized me, pulled over, and offered us a ride. It was a single cab pick up truck. We put all of our backpacks in the back chopper squeezed in front, Roo, Tough, and myself crammed in the back with six backpacks and off we went.
I have a huge shout out and thank you to another Trail angel. When I went to Adam and Sarah ‘s wedding a week and a half ago Adams mother offered me a hotel room in Bishop. I cannot feel more blessed. Thank you Robin!
I grabbed a double lunch from Schatz roadhouse . I had a Reuben sandwich with coleslaw, a blue cheeseburger with garlic, Parmesan fries, and a snickers milkshake.
I checked into my room, washed all of my clothes, dried out my gear, took a long, needed shower started updating my blogs and went to sleep IN A BED!!!
Total non-PCT miles hiked today 12.1 (7.1 Trail, 5 Road)
Total PCT Miles 788.5.
