Date: July 1, 2017
Miles: 5.6 miles (9km), from mile 828.5 to mile 834.1.
Health: Tired. 

Hero image taken by DG . Check out his Instagram for more great shots!

I slept like a rock. I wake up to my alarm and snooze it couple of times. Then I hear Topo asking if I'm up. I reply yes and start putting my things in order.

Last nights campsite was too close to the water and the condensation has gotten my sleeping bag all wet. I have to dry it during the day on one of the breaks or I'm going to sleep cold the next night.

It doesn't take us long to get ready and soon Topo and DG head out. I leave few minutes behind them. The trail is easy, only few snow banks to cross. I follow the trail up the river and soon catch up to Topo and DG. They're marveling at the beautiful scenery opening in front of us.

We push on in a single line and soon DG stops and points right. There's a deer eating not 10 feet from us. The deer doesn't seem to care about us at all. We take our photos and leave him to continue his breakfast.

We meet few other PCT hikers camping along the way. No one seems to be in any hurry, unlike in the desert. And why would you? We're in a gorgeous valley, surrounded by tall mountains on all sides, with a river running through it. It doesn't get much more perfect than this.

We meet one group who are waiting for their friend who's helping their other friend to evacuate through the Bishop Pass due to broken rip bone while self arresting. Auts.

They've heard that the snow begins again at 10,500 feet and that the snowfields before Muir Pass continue for miles and miles. The Muir Pass can have over five miles of snowfields on a regular year. On a high snow year like this one, it's worse.

We look at the time, we started way too late this morning, and start thinking about our options. If we go up, the snow is going to be slushy by the time we reach it and we have no place to stop or camp for miles. With fresh feet it would not be a problem, as we would just push on until the snow ends, but none of us have fresh feet. Mine feel like led.

We start looking at the map and our options are to either push up and spend all day in the slow snow and hope to make it to a possible campsite. Or do a really short day and put ourselves right on the snow line and do the pass early tomorrow when the snow is still nice and hard.

As we keep climbing and gaining elevation, my decision comes quite clear. I'm too tired to tackle a huge slushy snowfield while climbing a pass. I look at the map and there's a possible spot right below the 10,000 feet no-fires line. That would allow us to have a fire, and also put us right below where the snow begins, making it easy to get to the pass in the morning.

Others agree on taking a shorter day instantly and as we get to the spot, we find a nice little forest just 5 feet below the no-fires sign. Perfect! I put all my gear in the sun to dry and lay down on the soft ground. I fall asleep and sleep for an hour.

When I wake up, I find the others doing the exact same thing. We are right next to a river that flows down from the snowfields up above us. The massive mountain walls surround us from both sides. It's a beautiful spot to spend an on-trail Nero, which today technically is. I don't mind as I really needed the rest, and spending more time in one of the most beautiful sections of the entire trail is something that I'm really happy about.

I do some laundry in the river, we collect firewood, and just relax all day. As the sun starts to set behind the mountains we light the bonfire and gather around it to eat and enjoy the warmth. We tell stories and jokes all night and then get to bed early. Tomorrow we'll tackle Muir Pass.

Date: June 30, 2017
Miles: 17.2 miles (27.7km), from mile 811.3 over Mather Pass to mile 828.5.
Health: Very tired and exhausted, but happy.

I woke up to my alarm but I'm still too tired to wake up. My legs still feel sore. I snooze my alarm few times until I hear Topo getting ready to move.

The night had been cold and the morning was cold as well. I tried to stay in my sleeping bag for as long as I could. Due to my slowness Topo and DG had to wait for me to get ready. It wasn't long but I hate having people wait for me on trail.

We headed out towards the Kings River crossing. The trail was still covered in snow and we had to find our own way through and over the big snow banks. We soon arrived at the Kings River.

The PCT crosses the Kings River twice. This is not an issue during a regular snow year, or at summer when the water is low, but now the river was a raging and overflowing monster. Needless to say we didn't want to cross it. And definitely not twice.

There's a way you can avoid crossing the river by staying on the east side and bushwhacking about 2 miles (3.2km) upstream. You have to cross small tributaries along the way, but not the main river. This sounded good to us.

We hopped over or used snow bridges to cross about six or seven tributaries and got back on the PCT with dry feet. We celebrated by having a second breakfast.

So far, the going had been quite easy compared to what it had been the previous days. But after the easy part, we entered a vast snowfield full of sun cups. And the sun cups would continue all the way up to the approach to the Mather Pass.

Mather Pass is one of the steepest passes we have to go over on the PCT. As it's considered formidable climb in the summer, and we had to climb it up in snow, we were quite terrified of what it would be like.

About a mile before the pass we run into two southbound JMT hikers who inform us that the pass is quite easy, with well made steps, and a path all the way to the top. They also inform us that after the pass we would be happy to find 12 miles of snowless trail. We didn't believe them on this one but secretly hoped it would be true. Hiking even a mile on a snowless trail sounded so good at this point.

We shared with them the strategy of not crossing the Kings River and headed on. Approaching the pass had been relatively easy, unlike yesterday. Soon we were looking up on the pass and could see Taylor and the Swiss climbing halfway up.

We started the climb and I was feeling really good. There was a well traveled path in the snow for most of the way up. Few spots were a bit sketchy and I hated the rock hopping in the middle. The microspikes feel really uncertain on solid rock faces.

I was so happy about my ice axe and microspikes as it was a really long slide down if you would slip. DG had lost his microspikes yesterday when he fell into the river, so he was having a tougher time climbing. At one point he got himself on a slippery rock face and started to slowly slide down with no way of stopping himself. He yelled for help and as I was the closest, I stuck my hiking pole into the snow and ran back to help him. We got DG back on the snow and after a small breather continued the climb.

We had a small celebration at the top, took few photos and then had a small snack. As we still had ways to go, and the sun was melting the snow fast, we headed on soon.

Moving in the slushy snow was hard, even when going downhill. I soon pulled ahead as Topo and DG struggle in the snow more than I do. It took me about an hour and a half to get down to the lakes in the valley. I was running low on water and energy so when I found a nice, dry pile of rocks, I decided to take a break and wait for the others.

Topo arrived soon after me and DG little bit later. I wanted to eat my salted peanuts but I couldn't find them anywhere. Damn. I forgot them at the top of the pass. Some chipmunk is going to have a field day up there. Also, that's a big calorie loss when I'm already pushing food rations to the limit. I was not happy about that mistake.

Soon it was time to move again. The snow was getting softer and softer as the sun melted it more. It was getting difficult to walk and snowbridges were getting really sketchy to cross.

We wiggled our way around the lakes and got back to the river. The volume of water running through it was just unbelievable. We could barely hear each other over the roaring water.

We met one more group of JMT hikers and spoke with them for a while. Soon after that we got to a rocky hill that overlooked the entire valley down below. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We were so happy to see this view. There was no snow down in the valley. This must be what the first JMT hikers were talking about.

After more than enough photos, were started descending down to the valley. I've never been so happy to see switchbacks in my life. We had reached the famous Golden Staircase that would take us down to the beautiful Evolution Valley. There was no snow and we could finally walk on a real trail. Everyone was on such a good mood.

There was water everywhere though and at times we were walking in a shin deep river in the switchbacks. But we didn't care. Our shoes were already so wet from all the snow that there was no point of caring.

Once we got to the valley floor the trail continued mostly dry and I was so happy to walk on dry land again. Only hindrance were all the fallen trees. They were everywhere. We'd walk few hundred feet and there was another tree to climb over. We kept jumping and climbing over the countless trees and crossing all the creeks along the way. While hard, this was still better than being on the snow.

By now everyone was getting really tired. We had been on the move for almost 10 hours and our legs were getting sore. We spotted a good campsite four miles away and started pushing towards that. We walked across beautiful meadows and hopped over crystal clear streams.

Finally we reached our campsite and quickly set everything up. We gathered some dry wood and made a campfire to dry our wet shoes and socks. It was great eating our dinner by the warm fire after a long day. I cold soaked bacon flavored Idahoan potatoes and salami.

While we were eating, a young deer walked into our camp. She spend a long time just hanging around, not seeming to care about us at all. She went away for awhile but then returned. She was our evening entertainment. Much better than TV in my opinion.

We ate and dried out our gear and as the clock hit hiker midnight we all went to sleep. I'm so tired I fall asleep immediately. Today marks two months on trail for me. What a wonderful day it was. Here's to three more months!

Date: June 29, 2017
Miles: 11.6 miles (18.7km), from mile 799.7 to mile 811.3.
Health: I'm completely drained and so tired. Bushwhacking through snow all day is so tiresome.

My alarm goes off at 4:50am but I don't want to wake up, I feel so beaten up. I peek through my door to see if the girls are up. No movement. I press the snooze button.

I keep snoozing until 5:30am when I hear the distinctive sound of air mattress being deflated. KB does this every morning. She opens the valve while she's still on the mattress and uses her body as a weight to deflate it. Time to start moving.

It's not that cold outside but I don't want to get out of my sleeping bag. I finish all my other chores from within the warmth of the bag and only at the very end get out. We pack our packs and head over the suspension bridge one by one. It's both cool and strange that there's a bridge here. It's the first one we've seen and it takes us across a raging river so we're very thankful for having it here.

Right after the bridge there's an 800 mile marker. We spend few moments looking at it and then start our climb towards the Pinchot Pass. From here the trail climbs for the next 7.7 miles (12.4km) during which we climb from 8,546 feet to 12,107 feet. So we gain over 3,500 feet (1067m) of elevation.

Below 10,000 feet the trail is mostly clear of snow and just full of water. We cross smaller and medium size streams where water goes from ankle deep, up to the bottom of my shorts. Like yesterday, our shoes and socks are going to be wet all day.

On the way up we pass the Woods Creek Waterslide but I'm the only one who stops to look at it. We hit few snow fields, which are still frozen and slippery after the night, and then get to a forest. After what seems like forever we get out of the forest and have our first break. We've hiked for over two hours but only covered 3.4 miles. Damn that's slow.

The Sierra is completely different beast compared to the desert. In the desert you walked on a trail all day long and the distance you covered during the day depended on how fast you were hiking, for how long, and how many breaks you took. But making big miles was generally easy. Here in the Sierra, especially now on a record snow year, miles are extremely hard to come by.

We hardly ever see the trail, as it's under the snow, and we have to navigate on our own. River and stream crossings are another thing. We might have to walk for miles up or downstream to find a suitable spot for crossing safely. None of these miles are included in our daily mileage as none of that walking is taking us forward on the PCT. It's just extra mileage we have to do to safely move forward in Sierra.

Climbing big snow banks, sliding and slipping around on snow, wading in ice cold water. All this is starting to take its toll on my body. I've had trouble sleeping well in the Sierra and I think all that is catching up to me. I can't keep up with the girls and every step hurts.

We meet up with Topo and DG and hit the snow with them. From here, it's still over three miles before we reach the pass. I have to go and take care of some hole digging and others slip away. Soon I'm standing on an endless field of snow and sun cups and they keep going for as far as the eye can see. I don't see the others, or their footprints on the snow. The snow is still too hard to leave any prints on.

I use the GPS to get a general direction and start slowly hopping over the sun cups. The sun cups form as the snow melts and forms small puddles on the surface snow. The water works as a magnifier and causes the snow under the water to melt faster. The cups can be up to waist deep. To move anywhere, you need to hop on the small bridges between the cups. The bridges are two to four finger wide. When you have to do this for miles and miles, it's really slow and tiresome.

I slip few times badly and fall into two large sun cups. I curse the snow and switch on my microspikes to get better traction. But it's only a minor help.

Soon I see couple hikers climbing a hill to my left and after double checking the GPS that it's the correct direction, I follow them. Climbing a steep hill covered in sun cups is just horrible. I feel like crying but it's of no use. I can't see anyone and there's nowhere else to go. I wish I had my regular energy and I could just power through these damn snow bowls.

Once at the top of the sun cup hill, I see Topo, DG, and Tailor and the Swiss. From here we can see the pass far up ahead and above us. I see KB, Dandelion, and Fireant halfway up approaching the pass. I'm so tired that I have to sit down and take a break before pushing on.

Others head up and I sit on a rock in the hot sun. The heat feels so good. I set my alarm 20 minutes on and close my eyes. I fall asleep immediately.

When my alarm goes off, I see that the others are already one third of the way up. I get my things packed up and head after them. From here it's all uphill to the top of the pass.

I can see the pass far up ahead, and others hiking towards it. They look so small, surrounded by all these massive mountains. Like little black dots in a vast, far reaching snowfield.

That little nap gave me some energy and before I notice it, I've gained the distance to the others and I'm only a little behind them. The climbing isn't too technical, but I'm still tired from moving uphill on snow. Once at the top I curse and moan and sit down behind a rock to take cover from the wind. It's time to eat to get more energy.

After the food everyone starts heading down on the other side. To get down, we first have to cross a field of rocks. After that, we get back on the snow. It looks like there's not much glissading today. I trail behind everyone and am the last to arrive on the next stop.

We break on a nice, warm rock and I need to eat more. It's good to eat as much as possible as it makes my pack lighter. The girls head out soon but I'm too tired to follow. I forget to tell them not to wait for me as I'm staying behind. I only remember this when they disappear from the view. 

I head down with DG, Topo, and Taylor and the Swiss. After more sun cups we reach a river we need to cross. We walk about 0.25 miles downstream and cross it from where it's wider. It gets only up to knee deep.

I squeeze the water out of my socks as my toes are starting to get cold and then continue descending down to the valley. There's still snow and small streams everywhere. I fall badly on one steep snow bank and almost hit my head on my ice axe. Frigging snow!

Everyone spreads out in the steep forest and I'm soon alone with Topo going down a muddy hill. We reach the last river crossing of today with Topo and see the girls on the other side. At the same time we hear yelling from downstream and see Taylor and the Swiss crossing over a rather sketchy looking log. The girls signal us to go upstream.

After a little miscommunication, as we can't hear each other over the sound of the river, we figure the spot they are telling us to cross from and get into the water. The water hits my groin and I have to get back up as I forgot my phone in the pocket of my shorts. New try. The water rushes fast but it doesn't have any power to it so it's an easy crossing.

I set all my gear to dry on the hot rocks and thank the girls for the directions. They want to push for four more miles, up to the approach for the next pass. There's a huge, powerful river between the pass and us, and the best option is not to cross the river. This means bushwhacking upstream along the river side and crossing the smaller streams, tributaries, that connect to it.

I don't have enough energy to do that so I tell the girls that I'm staying on the campground just down from where we are. Not only am I tired, but the girls are trying to push 17 miles per day to make it to Mammoth for the 4th of July, the Independence Day. I don't want to rush through Sierra with such speed. Or get to Mammoth on the busiest weekend and pay outrageous prices for lodging.

I have enough food that I can go slower and enjoy my time in the most beautiful section of the whole trail. 17 miles per day would be a lot without any snow in Sierra. With all this snow it's too much for me at this point.

I tell the girls that I'll see them in Mammoth and wish them safe journey. We hug and make plans to meet up when I get to Mammoth. The girls hike on as I stay with Topo to dry my wet gear.

We wait for awhile and soon DG arrives. We show him where to cross and wonder why he's all wet. Once he's over the stream, he tells us he tried crossing from upstream and fell in the river. While in the water, he lost his microspikes. That's bad news as he's going to need them tomorrow for getting over Mather Pass, the steepest pass we'll encounter on the trail.

DG has had quite a day. He forgot his hiking pole to the campground in the morning, along with his breakfast. Then he fell into the river and lost his microspikes.

We setup camp with Taylor and the Swiss and make fire to dry our gear. I'm going to get to bed early tonight and sleep. Tomorrow we're going to tackle Mather Pass and few bad river crossings. As I go to bed, I hope I gain some energy during the night, or it's going to be a long day tomorrow.

Date: June 28, 2017
Miles: 6.1 miles over Kearsarge pass, non-PCT miles (9.8km) + 10.9 miles (17.5km) from Kearsarge Pass Junction to mile 799.7.
Health: Felt tired in the morning but feeling great.

We wake up and quickly take down our camp. It's really windy and cold and I have to add more clothing on to not freeze. Pony and her group had already left before we managed to wake up.

I'm feeling really tired and not feeling like hiking at all. The thought of climbing close to 3,000 feet over a snowy pass with a pack full of ten days of food doesn't make my mood any better. But we're here to hike so we move on. It's 6am, still dark, cold, and windy.

I'm last to leave and slowly stumble my way forward. I feel pathetic. The trail is still clear of snow but I know what's coming. We climb to the second lake and then to the third. Then we start climbing on a rocky path and I see Dandelion and Fyreant stopped a little ahead of me. Dandelions hiking pole broke on the climb and she's trying to order a new one while we still have cell reception. That sucks, as we're just heading out for seven to nine days into Snowy Sierra, where you'll definitely need your poles.

We continue on and soon reach what would be switchbacks, but are now a face of snow going straight up. From here on, we'll be on snow all the way up to the top of the pass. We take out our microspikes and the ice axes. The snow is still icy and I have to really jam the axe to the snow to get a good grip.

There is no trail or route, it's more like an "choose your own adventure". Everyone takes their own route and soon we all disappear searching for the fastest or easiest route up. It's a steep climb and I'm moving slow, mainly thanks to the heavy pack.

The climb goes faster than I though and we soon reach the last climb up to the pass. From here there's a clear route carved to the side of the mountain and we start climbing it in a row like ducks.

We reach the top and the climb was much easier than I thought it would be. I was really dreading the climb so this suits me well.

We don't spend much time on the top, we've all been here before. It's time to climb down on the other side and get to the PCT junction. All this work and climbing and we've not moved a single mile along the PCT. Resupplies in Sierra take a lot of time and effort.

We choose the upper road back to the PCT, and after few switchbacks, find ourselves back on the snow. And the "choose your own adventure" continues. We hop on and over frozen sun cups and fallen trees, trying to find the trail. Every once in a while we see a glimpse of the trail, only to loose it again. Moving forward is painstakingly slow and requires a lot of work.

After wasting way too long in the snowy forest, we find the trail again and start working our way through the ice chutes blocking the trail. We eventually get to the one where Pony had to self arrest two days ago. Luckily no one slips this time. 

Then we get down from the rocky path and get back in to the forest. And we lose sight of the trail again. Everyone starts working on their own paths. I'm the first one to reach the PCT junction and stay there waiting for the others. KB is first to arrive and we start eating second breakfast. Soon, Dandelion and Fireant show up too. The sun is already up and we sit on the warm ground. I just want to stop here and sleep.

We get back on the trail, talking about stopping at the next water source to get more water. We literally take ten steps over a snow bank and arrive at a stream. Great, how didn't we see it here. We stop again to filter water.

From here, we have only few miles to our second pass of the day, Glen Pass. We slowly push through the snow and get to the approach to the pass. The snow gets deeper so out come microspikes and ice axes. After about a mile of gradual climbing, the mountain turns straight up in front of us. We see a group ahead of us, climbing what looks like a very steep wall of snow. This is where the switchbacks would be, but now it's just a wall of snow. We follow the footsteps of previous groups and start climbing.

We climb slowly, making sure not to loose our footing as it's a steep slide down to the lake below. We hop over few rocks and get to the steepest section. I don't want to look down.

Thankfully the climb is not long and we're soon up on the top of the pass. We sit down in the sun and the rocks nicely block the wind blowing at the top. We eat and rest. I feel like I could fall asleep here but it's too hot in the sun. Fireant and I try to both sleep behind the same rock, but it's too hot and we both complain about the sun. There's no shade and we're above 12,000 feet so the sun burns quite mercilessly.

Pony's grew catches up to us. We thought they were ahead of us. We need to start going as we still have two big river crossings to do and the rivers get deeper and stronger as the day goes on and the sun melts more and more snow.

What follows is an epic glissading party down the side of the mountain. For the next few hours we hike down and glissade every change we get. On one long glissade Fireant looses her ice axe midway down. I catch it going down but foolishly start celebrating midway and loose it again. Dandelion catches it and brings it down. Other than the cold snow hurting my buttocks, glissading is my favorite thing out here.

We soon reach the Rae Lakes down below and start going around them. We have to cross a stream between the lakes and get quite wet while crossing it. The water is freezing but we can't stop to dry ourselves, we have two more rivers to cross. 

We reach the first river and its flowing quite nicely. The water looks about hip deep. I cross it with Fireant as the current is quite strong. While midway through, Dandelion breaks her second pole, right at the strongest current. I go back in to the water to lend her my pole so that she can cross safely.

It's already quite late but we decide that we want to get ourselves on position to cross the next pass early in the morning. This means we need to cross one more river and it's going to be flowing nicely thanks to all the snow that has had time to melt all day.

We hike on with wet gear. My socks and shoes haven't been dry for the past five or six hours. On the way we cross some smaller streams. It doesn't matter as our shoes are already full of water.

The lower in elevation we get, the less there's snow, and we soon find ourselves walking on a trail again. There's still snow but at least we can see where the trail leads.

We reach the last river and cross it easily. It has a strong current but not a lot of water. We have still few miles to do to make it to the approach for the next pass tomorrow so we keep moving. Water splashes from my shoes as I walk.

I look at the watch and it's almost 8pm. We've been on the move since 6am. Moving in the snow here is slow and tiresome.

The scenery is just absolutely gorgeous. It has been like this all day, but I really like how it looks here at the bottom of the valley.

On the way down we see two deer just eating right on the trail. They don't seem to mind us and follow along with us for a while. Right before the campground we see a bear ripping a tree trunk apart. We make our presence know to her and she soon moves further in to the forest. My second bear on trail so far. I'm so excited!

Our camp is just minutes from where we saw the bear. Thankfully there's bear boxes here. We dry our gear over the fire and then head to bed.

We had an epic day today. We hiked 17 miles in snow covered Sierra, no easy task. While doing so, we climbed two mountain passes, Kearsarge and Glen. We crossed two rivers and countless streams. And on top of that saw a bear. I'm smiling from ear to ear as I slip inside my sleeping bag. Tomorrow is going to be another rough day, with possibly two more passes to go over.

Date: June 26 – 27, 2017
Miles: 0 and 2.6 non-PCT miles up Kearsarge Pass.
Health: Feeling rested.

Our zero day in Bishop is spend mostly resting. I go out in the morning to get breakfast and then to visit the gear stores in town. I'd like to find new shoes, something other than the Altras, but every model and make I try is too narrow for toes. My feet have swollen so much that I can't fit normal shoes anymore.

I'm also looking for a new hat. I know that it's hiker trash and all that to hike in a beaten hat, but this is something I wanted to do even before the hike. I just couldn't find a good hat in San Diego so I've hiked in my "backup hat" up to here.

I find one that feels great and protects my head better than the trucker style hat I've worn so far. But as I ask others for opinion, I hear that they don't recognize me without the old hat on. Bummer. Also, I'm not sure if I like the style of the hat I'm trying on. After way too much pondering, I decide to do a compromise – I buy the same Patagonia hat that I already have. This way I'll have a new hat, but everyone will still recognize me. And maybe I don't look like a hobo as I get into towns from here on out.

As I get back to the hostel Dandelion notices that the hats aren't the same. They're almost the same but with different print. Even better. But how did I miss that even with looking at the hats side by side?

We eat in our hostel room for dinner and while others watch TV or organize their gear, I spend the rest of the day and evening trying to get blog posts out. It's getting harder and harder to stay updated as the days and resupply distances get longer and longer. Also I find that now that we get to towns I have million things to do and organize and that leaves very little time for blogging.

Going out from Bishop, through Kearsarge, will be our biggest food carry so far. I'm taking ten days worth of food, meaning my pack will be extremely full and heavy. Especially with all the heavy Sierra gear.

There's no way I can fit all my food in my bear can so White Rabbit and I buy a pack of Opsak smell proof sacks. It's not bear smell proof, but it's better than nothing.

As we're about to leave I notice that I forgot to take my bounce box to Post Office and it closes at four, not five. Luckily I hear Fyre is staying for one more night so I ask her if she could drop my package to the Post Office tomorrow and she agrees. Thank you Fyre!

We're getting a ride with Legend and KB, Fireant, Dandelion, and I hop on. As we're driving towards Independence I hear that Fyre is not coming tomorrow, and that actually she's skipping this section and possibly flipping north of Sierra. I feel really bad as I didn't know this and would have liked to say proper, or at least better, goodbyes to her before we left. I keep hoping that our paths will still cross.

As we get to the trailhead and I shoulder my heavy pack, I feel down. The mountains look huge and ominous, the air is cold and windy, and leaving Fyre behind brings the whole groups morale down. We don't speak much as we ready our gear.

Right as we're leaving I remember that I forgot to pack toilet paper with me. Thankfully Legend hands me a small roll that should help at least a little. I take a little more from the pit toilets at the trailhead after we've done the road walk up to the trailhead.

The climb back up looks steep, and knowing how long it was, I'm not looking forward to this part at all. The worst is, these aren't even PCT miles. We're doing all this just to get resupplies for the next section. We'll join the PCT hopefully sometime tomorrow after climbing over the pass. Tonight we're just hiking up to the first lakes, just below the snow line.

As we get up to the lake we find Pony and others already camping there. We find a nice shielded spot close to them and setup our cowboy camps. Sunshine, Dandelion, Fireant, and I squeeze behind a flat rock, hoping the rock would give us some protection from the wind.

As it's already dark, we just quickly eat something and then get into our sleeping bags. Tomorrow we need to climb back up on the pass we just climbed a few days ago.

Date: June 25, 2017
Miles: 2.9 miles (4.7km) + 7.6 miles over Kearsarge Pass (non-PCT miles), from mile 786 to 788.9.
Health: Tired from the long day yesterday.

I woke up late in the morning, still tired from the all the snow and climbing yesterday. KB and Fyre had left earlier and I left with the others from the camp. Down at the valley the trail was a bit easier to hike but we still needed to climb over snowbanks.

After a while we hit a junction and the trail turned up. We climbed for about an hour and then reached the first junction to Kearsarge Pass. Kearsarge Pass isn't part of the PCT but most people climb it to get to resupply to either Independence or Bishop. I was running low on food and needed to get to Bishop where everyone else was also going.

The first junction takes the lowest path to the pass, the Bullfrog Trail. As we had heard it was covered in snow and party soggy due to the overflowing lake, we were taking the second trail that goes above the lake. So we climbed some more and reached the second junction.

From here the trail was already under snow almost constantly and way finding became harder. As the others were struggling with snow or finding the path, I went ahead alone. I thought that I would wait for them at the next junction as I needed to take care of some hole digging business.

As I finally found the next junction I couldn't actually reach it as it was under water. I could see the trail sign poking from the water, which was kind of funny. I waited for a while but as I saw or heard no one coming, I moved along as I didn't want the snow to melt too much. I still had a long way to go on snow.

Soon the trail reaches the area where I could see the lake below. Finding the way, or actually even walking here was extremely difficult. I was constantly losing the direction, or slipping, or having to go around different obstacles. Being on a steep slope didn't help either. I was tired and frustrated. I was standing on a ton of melting snow, being burned by the hot sun, trying to navigate an obstacle course, while climbing a mountain. I was moving so slow.

Even though the Kearsarge Pass trail was only 7.6 miles long, looking at my progress so far, it would take me all day to get over and down to the other side.

Just as I was having a mini meltdown I heard a familiar voice, Pony? I saw her behind some of the trees taking a break. She was with Neal and Cooper. I asked to join them for the break as I was exhausted.

After a small break we all headed out. It was so much easier to navigate with more people. Soon we found the trail again and we met few people coming back who told us it's going to get sketchy.

The trail was on a narrow path along the mountain wall and at times completely blocked by snow. We had to cross these steep fields slowly with microspikes and ice axes as our help. After few fields it looked like we were done with those and put away our snow gear.

We go around a corner and hit another snow field again. As we're getting on it Pony asks if she should take out her ice axe again for this one. We tell her that that's why she's being carrying it and she takes it out.

Cooper and I go over first and Pony's third. I take photos of her as she's in the middle of the snowfield. Just as I take on photo and lower my camera I see her slip. She's right above the rock field below, on the worst spot to slip. I grinch as she starts to slide down the steep snow face. But as soon as her stomach hits the snow she's in self arrest position and stops her slide like a pro. We all watch in with our mouths open. That was close. 

She's now stopped but we still need to get her out of there. Pony gets herself up, traverses down to the rocks safely and me and Cooper help her back on the trail. Pony's a little shaken up but safe and unharmed. Boy was it good that she took out her ice axe for this crossing!

Pony handles the situation like a boss and after a round of hugs we continue.

Soon we start seeing the switchbacks up above but can't seem to find a way to get there. We have no option other than to climb straight up on loose rock. Once we reach the switchbacks we just walk the rest of the way up and we're at the pass. Couple of high fives are thrown and then we stop for a break and lunch.

The views from the pass are great but it looks like we still have a long way down. After eating we start traversing down on the snow. Me and Cooper hit a big glissade and notice that Neal and Pony are some way behind. We push on as there's no way finding needed on this, we're just going downwards.

We hit so many glissades that my shorts are completely soaked. While this is all fun, it's really hard moving around in all the snow. My legs are still tired from all the climbing and going down isn't any easier.

Pony and Neal catch up to us and we glissade down together. Cooper and I push ahead again and soon reach a lake on the level where the snow finally stops. We stop in the sun by the lake to dry our completely soaked shoes and socks and wait for the others.

Others soon arrive and we climb the rest of the way down. There's still a lot of water on the trail but not as much snow.

And then we see the trailhead and parking down below us. The hitch down from here is going to be a hard one. The road has been closed due to flooding from all the snowmelt, and there's no reason for anyone to climb all the way up here. As we climb down we watch as some of the few cars parked below leave, hoping there would still be some left once we reach them.

Once we finally reach the trailhead we need to road walk down a bit over the closed, flooded road to where all the cars are parked. There's no one there so we try to find shade and sit and wait for someone to show up. We have no reception so we can't even call anyone.

After about an hour of waiting we see a minibus driving up and only a driver inside. This is sure our ride down. We send Pony, the only girl in our group, to investigate. We can't hear them but from the body language we can tell it's not going well. She comes back and the minibus turns and parks a little down from us. No luck.

As we're about to lose hope another car comes up and it's an trail angel Pony knows. He's here to give rides for hikers down the mountain to the town of Independence. We're happy to just get down from the mountain as getting a hitch from Independence to Bishop is much easier.

We drive down the long winding mountain road and watch as the thermometer rises as we get lower and lower. We soon hit over 100 degrees (40c). Ugh.

We get dropped of at the center of Independence, to the place were Subway used to be. Now there's a sandwich shop there but that too is closed. Independence looks like an extremely small town and doing resupply here would not be easy. We buy ice cream and sodas from the small grocery store and then start hitching again.

The sun is so hot that you can't stand too long in it. Pony and I hitch but Neal and Cooper stay behind for some reason. We get a ride but Pony needs to stay with the boys. I hop on and we agree to call when we're all in Bishop.

After an hour long drive I get to Bishop and try to call Pony. My phone isn't working. What? I can't send any messages, call, or access internet. What's going on? I'm alone in a new town that I know nothing about and I can't contact anyone or research anything.

My only option is to start walking along the Main Street and hope for the best. I don't have to hope for long. I meet a fellow hiker that I've met many times before and she tells me that the Hiker Hostel isn't far away, and that there's wifi there.

I make my way to the Hiker Hostel and find Dandelion, Fyre, KB, and Fire Ant there. And many others. I get the wifi password and start to investigate. I find out that AT&T has closed my plan due to an 25cent unpaid bill, on the same day that they've automatically charged the monthly $60 fee from my account. Why didn't they charge the 25cents at the same time? And where has that 25cents come from?

I get a message to Pony through wifi and she informs me the address of our hotel. It's a little of from the main street but it's cheap.

After I'm certain I have all the info on my phone, I head to the hotel and call AT&T. I need to pay a $10 extra amount as that's the minimum amount they can charge from my account. Great. But no I have my phone operating again.

After doing the usual laundry shower routine we head out for some Mexican food. I talk with Blis and as he's in town as well and we haven't seen for awhile.

We join other hikers in the restaurant and I end up ordering an 2.5 pound (1.2kg) burrito. I'm almost able to finish it all in one go. Hiker hunger.

Blis joins us as well and after the restaurant me and Blis go for a beer. It's good seeing him again. He's heading out tomorrow but we make plans for me to hopefully catch up to them on trail. As it's already well past hiker midnight we head to sleep.

Date: June 24, 2017
Miles: 19.8 miles (31.9km), from Crabtree Meadow over Forester Pass to mile 786.
Health: Feeling great but tired. Two days of big climbing, river crossings, snow, and elevation.

I love this trail. I love everything about it. It's already day 56 and I don't want it to end. Also, I passed the day 55 and didn't quit the PCT (if you're wondering what that's about, check day 20).

Today was going to be another big day. Not only did I need to catch up to KB, Fyre, Dandelion, and Fire Ant, I also needed to cross three major river crossings and climb first of the high Sierra passes. Forester Pass, at 13,200 feet (4,023m) was not only the highest point of the PCT, it was also notorious for the ice chute you needed to cross to get to the top. With all the snow this year, we had no idea what was waiting for us as we approached the pass.

Before reaching the pass though, we needed to cross the first three big river crossings – Wallace, Wright, and Tyndall. We had heard that the rivers were overflowing and full, and that crossing them was dangerous. My decision yesterday to not hike out of Crabtree Meadow with the rest of the crew meant that if I didn't catch them before the rivers, I might have to either cross them alone, which is not safe, or wait for someone to cross with. I knew there was no one going out in the morning so I had to the catch others or face the crossings solo.

I tried to guess the time the others would leave in the morning, and as I thought they'd be about 3 miles ahead, it would take me a little over hour to catch them. So I set out to hike around 4:30am thinking this would give me hour and a half to catch them. I hiked back the few miles to the PCT junction. As I looked at the map at the junction I realized I had made an error. If the others had went to the spot where they said, I wasn't an hour behind, I was over two hours behind. I had to speed up.

I tried my best to keep up as fast of a pace as I could but I soon ran into something I had also forgotten to calculate, snow. Instead of a clear trail to hike on, I found myself climbing snow drifts and snowbanks blocking the trail. I was moving way slower than I needed to. It soon became obvious I wasn't catching the others before the river crossings.

As I arrived to the Rock Creek, not the largest but still overflowing creek that I needed to cross. I saw no sight of the others. As I was alone, I wanted to make sure it was safe to cross and spend some time looking for a log, or something else to cross over with. After looking for awhile I just decided to cross at the trail. It was where the stream was widest, and had least flow. The water came only a little over my knees. This wasn't bad. I hiked on with wet shoes, trying to keep a steady pace to keep warm as the sun wasn't properly out yet.

Not long after the Rock Creek I reached the Wallace Creek. Now this had a little bit more umph to it. The water was flowing harder and it was much deeper. After looking little bit upstream I found a safer spot and crossed the creek there. The water reached my shorts but was not too bad.

I was hoping that the others would have taken a pause to dry after the creek but there was no sight of anyone. Maybe they had gone straight to the next crossing as it wasn't that far away.

Soon I reached Wright Creek but saw again no sight of the others. The creek seemed really aggressive and deep at the PCT crossing, and there was no way I was getting in that stream alone. As I was reading the stream crossing report three hikers that I've never seen before showed up. Before I could find the info on Wright they informed me that there was a log someway downstream.

We all hiked down the river trying to find the log but saw none. At one point we came to a spot where the river split into two and there was a small island between. While the others kept going, I stayed to investigate as this would probably be our best bet if we couldn't find the log. As I crossed the knee deep stream over to the island I saw a log on the other side crossing the deeper, more aggressive side of the river. I yelled for the others and they came back.

I went to the log and crossed it thinking the others would be soon behind me. As I turned around, I saw them changing their gear on the other bank. Wondering what they were doing, I left as it seemed it would take them sometime to even get their packs back in order.

That was two of the three rivers crossed, plus few extra ones. Next up was Tyndall. From what I've heard it was the worst of the crossings for today.

I soon reached a large snowfield covered in sun cups and after hiking in it for awhile, I got frustrated and looked at the map. I saw that getting a bit higher I could get out of the snow and still follow the trail. I got to the higher ground and saw others footprints. Of course I wasn't the only one to figure this out.

As I was walking along, the mountains ahead of me seemed to get larger and more ominous. We were approaching the High Sierra. I kept looking at the notches at the mountain range and trying to find the V-shape that Forester Pass was known for.

As the trail started heading down towards a valley I saw a person hiking towards me. Strange, we haven't seen that many southbounders yet. As the person got closer I recognized her. It was a European Hiker I had seen at times. As she got closer we started chatting and I wondered why she was going to the wrong direction. She told me that she had gotten to the creek and that it was too much for her to handle and she was heading back. I asked her about Sunshine and others but she didn't know them, and hadn't seen anyone fitting the description I gave her. But she told me there were plenty of people at the camp before the river, waiting to cross. That gave me hope. Maybe the others were there and we could cross and then climb Forester together.

I headed on while wishing her luck. I needed to boogie as the river was still an hour hike away. As I started to go down to the valley I started hearing the sound of rushing water. That sound wasn't coming from a small creek. I really hoped that the others were down there.

The trail was again covered in snowbanks and was slow to hike on. If I wasn't trying to locate the trail, I was climbing head high snowbanks, hopping streams, or trying to find routes around fallen trees.

When I finally reached the camp there was no one there. Only the sound of rushing water. And lots of it. I walked down to the PCT crossing and there was no way anyone would cross the "creek" from here. Water was so deep and moving so fast that the second you'd step in the water you'd be swept downstream.

The water report mentioned that there was a possible crossing few miles upstream. I started climbing the river bank upstream and saw lots of other footprints in the snow and mud. That was reassuring.

After about an mile the creek split up in two and in the distance I saw four people sitting on the opposite side. As I got closer they waved me over and showed me where to cross. The point was wide and I had passed quite a few tributaries on my way up so there was less water here than on the PCT crossing.

I took out my second hiking pole for extra support and crossed the river. The water was cold and I felt the current a little bit, but it was very easy crossing. As I got over I thanked the others and ignored their comments about drying my shoes. I squeezed some of the water out and then continued to the direction they pointed the trail would continue at.

From here the trail started climbing up and I saw only endless snowfields ahead of me. I soon found a faint trail on snow. This made progress a bit easier but still hard. While moving forward was difficult, the views more than made up for the hardship. On every side I was surrounded by snow covered beautiful mountains and far ahead stood a massive range that looked impassable.

Looking at that range, and the map and compass reading, Forester Pass was somewhere on that range. As I slowly hiked closer, I saw the familiar V-shape on the range with what looked like the ice chute of the Forester Pass. That's where I was heading to.

As I got closer I noticed a lone hiker not far ahead of me in the snow. I soon noticed a familiar backpack, Fyre. I saw her stopping and soon caught up to her. She told me she was having trouble with the snow and I agreed. Moving anywhere in the snow, and at this altitude, took so much energy. The clock wasn't even noon and I was already tired. And we hadn't even reached the pass yet.

As we hiked on with Fyre I saw another lonely figure ahead of us. Fyre told me it was KB. She was way ahead of us and I knew we wouldn't catch up to her.

We kept hiking on in the snow and at one point I turned around to check how far we had come. As I turned around I saw massive storm clouds in the valley where we had just few hours earlier crossed Tyndall. That wasn't good. I kept my eye on the storm front to see where it was going as I hiked on.

By now Forester Pass was straight ahead of us but we still had ways to go before we were at the approach point. I was running low on energy and the storm behind us looked like it was following us.

We soon got to the plateau before the pass and there at the base we saw KB sitting on one of the rocks. We pushed there with Fyre. KB had seen the clouds as well and us approaching and had stopped to wait for us.

We analyzed the situation and all the signs pointed to the fact that we should not attempt to go over the pass today. It was already late afternoon and as a general rule, you shouldn't cross passes in the afternoon. There was also the storm that was still close by. And the snow had already started to get very soft, which would make climbing up the solid snow face of the pass harder and more dangerous.

We decided that this is where we needed to stop. None of us were happy about the situation but there was very little we could do. I started scouting for water and a place to camp. I wasn't happy about the prospect of camping on snow at such high elevation. And stopping our day this early meant we couldn't make the miles we had counted to do, and possibly affect our food situation.

As we were all watching the storm, we noticed it hadn't moved at all for the past few hours. And as we looked over the pass we saw nothing but blue skies. Slowly we started talking ourselves over from staying and went "ah, let's just get over this thing".

I think we all knew this was a bad decision, but we still went for it. We scouted the mountain side for the route up and started following the footsteps of others. As all the switchbacks were covered in snow, our only option was to climb straight up. About halfway up we saw the path carved in to the granite and that's where we headed.

The climb turned almost immediately straight up and we had to climb on all fours. I kept punching my ice axe as deep in the snow as I could as the slushy snow would not hold well if I fell. My microspikes held just and I kept thinking this would be a good spot for crampons.

KB reached the granite path first, then I, and then Fyre. We took off our microspikes and hiked up the path that had been carved on the wall of the mountain. After few switchbacks we reached the famous ice chute. From up here it didn't look as intimidating as it did from below.

There was a nice, wide footpath on the ice chute and KB went over first. Fyre and I soon followed. That was easy. Few more steps and we made it to the top.

While the climb and the approach were definitely hard, they weren't as bad as I had imagined. The actual climb over the pass took only half the time we anticipated.

We took few celebratory photos at the top but then the storm clouds moved. The storm clouds that had stayed back started moving towards us again and we heard thunder. That was my cue and I started climbing down on the other side. KB and Fyre stayed at the top to cook ramen.

As I got a little ways down I saw the lightning flash and soon the rumbling sounds echoed on the mountain walls around me. Not good. We had made it over the pass but we still needed to get down from the mountain. There was a valley down below about seven miles away where we would be safe. Another lightning. And then it started hailing. 

I looked behind and could see Fyre and KB traversing down. As the thunder got closer and as I was standing on an exposed ridge line, I started running. I glissaded down when I could and ran the sections that were too flat to glissade. As the lightning continued I kept telling myself "I don't want to be here, I don't want to be here" while running in the hail storm.

When the hail and lightning stopped I didn't. I ran all the seven miles down from the mountain and didn't even stop when I got to the forest. I passed few other hikers whom I've never seen before.

Once in the forest the snow got harder to move on again. I reached a creek that had a log crossing. I tried getting on the log but it was so narrow and slippery that I felt it was too sketchy and backed away. As I backed away I noticed a lonely hiking pole sticking in the ground. I looked around and yelled but no one was around. Strange. Someone must have forgotten it here.

I took the pole and started to climb upstream to find a better crossing place. Not far the stream split in two and I could cross both with barely enough water to reach my shins. Much better than the sketchy log.

I know that Dandelion, Fire Ant, Otter and others were ahead of me so I tried to catch up to them. But no matter how many camp spots I passed they were never there. They must have really boogied down today. I was getting really tired and having my feet wet all day was starting to feel tiresome. I wasn't sure how far I could go on.

At one point I met three other hikers. I asked them if anyone had lost their trekking pole and sure enough, one of them was the owner. He thanked me and I continued on.

After passing two more camping spots were I was sure Dandelion, Fire Ant, and Otter would have stopped, I was feeling really tired. I looked at the map and saw there was one pretty good looking spot about a mile down. That must be where they stopped.

I hiked the last mile and as I got closer to the spot I saw smoke. Fire. That meant there were people camping there. But it wasn't them. As I knew the hikers, and as I was already pretty worn out, I decided to abandon the decision to catch the others and stay here.

I set up my shelter, got to the fire to dry my socks and shoes, and made my dinner. After a while Fyre and KB also appeared. What a day.