The Adventures of...: Days 52-53

Day 52, 9-ish miles, endpoint PCT mile 793

Today was short but challenging. We left the Kearsarge Pass trail, got back on the PCT, and began winding up the mountainside towards Glen Pass. The trail took us past streams, granite cliffs, and frozen lakes. I would have enjoyed it more if not for the elephant of a pack I was carrying on my back on the uphill. I was cursing our decision to go slow, take extra days, and consequently pack extra food, with every step.

There was only a little bit of snow on the ascent up to the pass, and the views from the top were the usual Sierra awesomeness. We are starting to get spoiled with all of the amazing mountains we see every day out here.

The downhill down the north side of the pass was where things got tricky for me. We immediately started down a long snowfield; my heavy pack and the already warming snow was a bad combination. I went down almost immediately, which was a bad sign. Further along the snowfield, I postholed so bad my foot was completely stuck and I couldn't get up out of the hole. Josh had to help lift me up from behind, otherwise I might still be caught up on that mountain, one leg buried in the snow.

As we dropped in elevation, the snow began to thin out but the going was still a little tough. The back side of the pass was quite rocky, and we had to navigate several long stretches of loose rock fields. When finally, finally, finally we were back on solid dirt I was so happy. The trail dropped us down to Rae Lakes, a pair of beautiful subalpine lakes framed by the mountains we had just been on.

We planned to do a side trip and explore off Rae Lakes to an area near a geological formation called Fin Dome, but some dark clouds began rolling over the mountains towards us. We decided to call it good and set up the tent in case it started raining. And it did. Pretty soon dark skies were all around us, the rain was coming down lightly, and thunder was loudly booming from all directions. We stashed everything safely away in the tent, put on our rain coats, and went out to enjoy the thunderstorm.

After playing in the rain, we decided to take advantage of our early finish time and took a nap inside the tent while the rain and thunder continued. When we woke up at dinnertime it was no longer raining, but the skies were still cloudy and the air cool.

Tomorrow will be another short day, this time with no mountain passes to contend with.

Trail views

View from Glenn Pass.

Glenn Pass.

We came down from there... didn't take any good pictures coming down because it was too steep.

This was the easy part.

The clouds cleared just before bedtime.

The Painted Lady and Rae Lakes.

Day 53, 11 miles, endpoint PCT mile 804

We left the scenic Rae Lakes basin this morning but didn't get far. In addition to those lakes, Arrowhead Lake and Dollar Lake were within two miles, so we moved slowly while Josh took lots of photos. We dropped from about 10,300 feet in elevation to 8,500 over the course of five miles. The trail meandered down into a beautiful valley until we reached our low point at a swinging suspension bridge.

From the bridge we changed course and began the uphill march towards the next mountain pass, Pinchot Pass. We hit mile 800 (!!!) and started following a fast-moving river flowing in the opposite direction down the mountain. The river was by our side for the next several miles as we trudged uphill. It sometimes tumbled over rocky outcroppings to create cool looking waterfalls. We finally got to our goal spot a few miles from the pass summit and made camp.

Tomorrow we will tackle the pass, then take it easy for the rest of the day. The scenery today was amazing; it will be cool to see what is waiting for us on the other side of the pass.