Day 58 – Onion Valley to Mile 794.5

Saturday, June 20. Mid-40s and clear going up to low 70s.

Up at 5:30. Packed up and waited in the hotel for the restaurant across the street to open for breakfast at 7:00. Trying a new pack load-out headed out of Bishop. Carrying about 40 lbs for six days’ carry to VVR (Vermilion Valley Resort).

Had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, then took the town bus to the bus stop for the hour trip south to Independence. Headed out about 10 minutes late at 9:00. About 12 hikers in the bus headed back to the trail this morning.

I’m looking forward to getting back on the trail. I’m not looking forward to another 6-day remote stretch with a big food carry. The remoteness gets to me sometimes. I am curious to see if/when we catch up with our friends. Our double zero put us a day behind. I really want to get to VVR so that these long stretches of wilderness are behind me. The biggest section in the Sierras after VVR is only 4 days between Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite and Kennedy Meadows North. 

My heart isn’t quite in this today, but that should change once we are back on the trail.

We arrived in Independence about 9:45 and met our same shuttle driver for the trip up to the trailhead. 

Long hard climb as expected. Passed a mule train that was coming down.

Summited Kearsarge at 1:30 and 4.8 miles. 

Stopped for lunch at 2:10 at my old camp spot.

Summited Glen Pass at 5:20. That was a very hard 2-mile climb. It took us almost 2 hours. Once we were over the pass, we were in the land of high alpine lakes.

YouTube Video From Glen Pass Summit

The descent into the lakes was also quite challenging. It took us about an hour, including several snow traverses.

We finally made it to camp at 7:00. There were a lot of hikers here. I pitched my new tent and really liked it.

Several more hikers we know came in just before 9:00. It’s going to be crowded tomorrow.

As we were ascending the pass, a rescue helicopter passed over us and into the valley. Once we summited, we saw the helicopter on the ground in the lake valley. We could tell they were loading an injured hiker.

About halfway down, we watched the helicopter take off and depart about 5:45.

YouTube Video of Helicopter Rescue

Once we got to camp, we found out that our friend Natalie hurt her ankle at 10:30 this morning, and she was the one being airlifted. She had been with us since day 1. We later found out that she broke her tibia.

Technical Notes:

• Three meat omelette: 800 
• Apple juice: 400
• Mango (3-4p, 30g): 100 kcal, 25g carb, 0g fat, 0g protein per 
• Skittles (2.17oz): 250 kcal, 56g carb, 2.5g fat, 0g protein 
• Cup noodles stir fry (8 oz water): 370 Kcal, 54g carb, 13g fat, 8g protein x 2
• Tuna: 90 kcal, 4-7g carb, 1g fat, 14-16g protein 
• Skittles (2.17oz): 250 kcal, 56g carb, 2.5g fat, 0g protein 
• Mango (3-4p, 30g): 100 kcal, 25g carb, 0g fat, 0g protein per 
• Cup noodles protein (8 oz water): 320 Kcal, 38g carb, 12g fat, 16g protein 
• Cup noodles protein (8 oz water): 320 Kcal, 38g carb, 12g fat, 16g protein 
• Jerky (2 oz): 140 kcal, 12g carb, 0g fat, 22g protein 
• Fritos: 320
• Water liters: 5
• Miles: 12.9
• Time: 8:50
• Up: 4337
• Down: 2956
• Calories consumed: 3800
• Calories burned: 3769
• iPhone battery used: 40%