Tuesday, June 16. Clear and mid-40s going up to 65.
After lunch, we still had a minimum of 7 miles to reach a decent campsite for the night.
I need to mention that Margarita was having bad altitude sickness issues since the ascent of Forrester earlier in the day. This became important as we need to be at our exit point for town tomorrow morning by 11:00, and we still have to get up and over Kearsarge Pass between now and then.
Second water crossing. Brad and I used a log.
We hiked down from Forrester most of the afternoon. We descended below the tree line and followed a raging river for several hours.
YouTube Video of Rushing Water
We reached a campsite by the river around 3:00 and had a conference. Margarita was still feeling badly, and we did not want to leave here alone. But I needed to get in contact with our shuttle driver and make sure he would pick us up at 11:00 so we could catch our bus at noon tomorrow. I also wanted to get to the trailhead early tomorrow in case the shuttle was early. I didn’t want him abandoning us. I decided to push up to the Kearsarge summit, and the others would follow starting early tomorrow. Hopefully, Margarita would be feeling better by then.
I started the ascent to the junction for the side trail to Kearsarge Pass around 3:15. The 2.5-mile ascent to the junction was brutal. Steepest thing we have climbed in days! I made it to the junction at 4:44 and left the PCT for the 7.5-mile journey to the trailhead at Onion Valley.
There was no water on the ascent, and I only had 1/2 a liter. My goal was to hike to a small stream about .7 miles from the Kearsarge summit, get water for dinner, and find a place to camp. I hiked about 2.8 miles through some beautiful scenery in the Kearsarge valley to my water source.
I passed by Bullfrog Lake and got an amazing view down onto it.
I found a crappy tentsite at 5:45. It took 30 minutes tonight to make my tent work. The zippers in the tent are really bad!
Not a bad view from my campsite though!
There are several lakes with excellent fishing down in the valley below.
YouTube Video of Kearsarge Pass Lakes
I had a nice dinner with an amazing view. This was the first time that I camped alone on the PCT so far.
Side note. One of my battery banks is not working well. It went from 3/4 to zero in two minutes yesterday. I charged my phone on Brad’s battery earlier today so I have power to contact shuttle and others tomorrow on the descent. I did contact the shuttle driver via satellite device this evening and he confirmed an 11:00 pickup and understands our hard schedule for the bus at noon.
I got up around 10:00 pm and checked out the stars. The Milky Way was a clear ribbon across the sky. We are so remote that there is almost zero light pollution!
Really looking forward to one or two zero days starting tomorrow.
Technical Notes:
- Protein Shake (10oz): 330 cal, 19g carb, 13.5g fat, 36g protein
- Banana Chips (18p, 30g): 150 kcal, 20g carb, 8g fat, 1g protein
- Tortilla: 140 kcal, 24g carb, 3g fat, 4g protein
- Tuna: 90 kcal, 4-7g carb, 1g fat, 14-16g protein
- Fritos: 100
- Banana Chips (18p, 30g): 150 kcal, 20g carb, 8g fat, 1g protein
- Peak Refuel Curry Chicken 850
- Fritos 210
- Skittles (2.17oz): 250 kcal, 56g carb, 2.5g fat, 0g protein
- Skittles (2.17oz): 250 kcal, 56g carb, 2.5g fat, 0g protein
- Water liters: 5
- Miles: 18
- Time: 12:12
- Up: 4190
- Down: 4121
- Calories consumed: 2520
- Calories burned: 4197
- iPhone battery used: 40%
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