Bishop was good to us. After Timmy left for LA, we went to natural hot springs, bowled (Matthew won), and had a Chinese feast. But while we were hanging out it was easy to see the storms hovering in the mountains. By late afternoon on the day we were set to leave the skies started to clear showing fresh layers of white snow draped across the mountains. Not good.
It was still raining as Matthew drove the champagne Mazda 3 up to the trailhead. For those of you who have never had the priviledge of spending time in the Eastern Sierra on the 395, there's a 5,000+ foot climb by road to get from the valley where Bishop is up into the Sierra. There are no small foothills like on the Western side, just enormous mountains. (On the other side of the 395 are the White Mountains including the Ancient Bristlecone Pine National Forest. It's gorgeous with epic views of the Sierra, and has a tiny number of visitors in comparison.) The 3 has had its struggles with these roads over the years but it persevered.
After a fantastic weekend with Matthew and Timmy in our favorite mountain town, it was not easy to walk out of the comfort of the 3 into freezing rain and fresh powder. We nearly didn't, but the rain abated and we got on our way.
Thanks to the storm and coldfront, it turns out the snowline crept downwards since we had gone over Bishop Pass two days before. We figured we should get as close to the Pass as the light and snow permitted so that we could hike some PCT miles the next day. (There is an 11 mile spur trail over Bishop Pass back to the PCT.) After a little more than a mile we hit snow, and decided to keep walking. Just past Long Lake we ran into a group of high school or college age kids who were setting up camp in a snow field. They seemed surprised by and unprepared for snow. We continued onwards and found a little nook under a tree without snow to set up our tent.
New snow!
View from the tent
The spot
As soon as the sun dropped behind the mountains the temperature dropped by double-digits. Jenny was not amused. In moment of far from Leave No Trace, bear country best practice... we ate chili cheese bread from Schatt's Bakery for dinner. In our tent. So much for knowing what we are doing.
The next morning was slow going. It was so cold the night before that our tent poles froze. There were several inches of soft snow covering the trail of footprints in the hard snow, which made for tough navigation and walking. We kicked steps up the steep slopes up to the pass, and then post-holed our way through the powder down the other side. By the time we made it past the snowline, we were so tired that we took an impromptu nap on a rock in the sun. Soft snow makes for great skiing, and really tough walking.
Cold!
Bishop pass!
The next day we climbed over Muir Pass. There were miles of snowfields in either direction. The snow was compact enough that we made relatively quick progress. At the top we were rewarded by a break in the John Muir Hut, an incredible stone hut built by the Sierra Club in 1930. Evolution Basin and lakes on the other side of the pass are one of the most beautiful set of lakes in the Sierra. At the moment, they were frozen until we made it down to Evolution Lake itself, where we had a leisurely hot lunch.
Frozen Helen Lake
Midway up Muir pass
Snow fields for miles
Top of Muir pass! The hut!
Cool roof of the hut
Frozen lakes heading into Evolution Basin
Hot lunch, cheese and kindle
Drying things out
Evolution Lake!
Meadow!
Snow melt!
A side note -- a huge thanks to Carolyn Vinnicombe and Dr. McDougall's Right Foods (www.rightfoods.com) for sending us delicious hot meals that we ate for lunch in this section. As far as thru-hiker fare goes, they are individually on the lighter side. We doubled up the portions for lunch. Pad thai and peanut noodles were our favorites! We had hot lunches every day through this cold section.
Once we dropped into the valley we approached Evolution Creek, the first ford that got some serious hype amongst hikers. Apparently a week before we arrived the main crossing was just about impassable and the alternate on a calmer section of water were chest-high. Given our vertical challenges we were a tad concerned. We chose to do the alternate and were very pleasantly surprised to see that the cold had kept the snow melt to a manageable thigh-high. It was cold, but completely doable.
Before the alternate
The trails crossing
Fittingly that night we camped below 10,000 for the first time in the Sierra, and were able to have our first campfire of the hike. There were fire restrictions throughout the desert, and you can only have a fire below a certain elevation in the Sierra.
Valley we camped in
After the campfire we didn't have a pass the next day, which meant for the first time in a while we could wake up after 5am. I slept until 11am. It was glorious. We didn't start hiking until 1pm, and finished our measely 10 miles before 5pm. We set up camp by the beautiful Sallie Keys Lake before Selden Pass. There were dozens of trout in the stream coming out of the lake, taunting me for not bringing a fly rod with me. It felt like a real vacation.
Trail = snow melt
Log crossing in front of Sally Keyes Lake
It turns out it was the coldest night we have had. We slept with all of our layers on. The fly to our tent was frozen with condensation, our Gatorade water bottles were frozen solid, and even our bear can lids were too frozen to be opened.
Frozen bear can lid
Cold in the morning
Selden Pass itself was easy enough, but there were creek crossings galore. At the end of the day with the sun down behind a mountain, we had three crazy crossings: a bona-fide waterfall cascading over the trail, a raging creek and to add insult to injury a partially frozen creek with a log that didn't make it far enough across for us to use. Each time we crossed a creek we took off our hiking boots, gaiters and socks to keep them dry, and we put on our Crocs. We were mostly frozen by the time we set up camp. We cooked in our vestibule. Again. Oof.
Looking down from Selden Pass
Crossing Bear Creek
Waterfall over the trail!!
The next day we went up and over Silver Pass, the last of the High Sierra Passes. There was a lot of snow still. Jenny led us in rousing renditions of "Silver Pass" to the tune of Silver Bells. We began to hit a pattern of limited snow on the south side, and interminable snowfields on the north face. Every once in a while we were lucky enough to find fields we could glissade down instead of playing the "please don't post-hole" game.
Heading to Silver Pass
Last of the passes!!
Hmm
Bridge!
When we thought we were done with the snow and down in the valley, the trail took us up over an inconvenient mountain and down to Virginia Lake. Trapsing down snow fields to the frozen lake we realized that the trail required us to cross the lake, twice. In the summer there are lovely little rocks to hop across. This time of year: rocks about a foot below the surface of the water to hop across. Delightful. We could have walked around the lake, but instead we walked through it. We have some regrets about that decision. The wind picked up as we walked through the water. We decided to listen to podcasts afterwards, which helped us hammer out 8 miles in 2.5 hours to get to our next campfire. In addition to our normal fare of RadioLab, This American Life, Planet Money and all Gimlet Media podcasts... I enjoyed a Myths and Legends rendition of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves while Jenny listened to a cringe-worthy Meyers Briggs podcast filled with oversharing.
We thought we were out of the snow! Tully Hole!
Mountains!
Virginia Lake!
Underwater stepping stones
We got out to a road early the next day and got a hitch from a delightful couple, grandparents from Florida who were celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. We got dropped at Base Camp Cafe, a hiker-friendly spot in Mammoth Lakes only to see dozens of Porsches. It felt like we had stumbled into an alternate universe. A feeling that continued when we used our bountiful hotel points to stay at the Westin in town and were upgraded to a suite replete with a fireplace. Good thing we booked the place a few weeks before because the town was sold out between the annual Porsche enthusiast convention, motor-cross events and a half marathon.
Confused
Warriors (sad times), bubbly, fire and all the food
Hot tub provisions: Tecate tall boys and limes
Now that we are only a month out from our wedding, we spent the last 48 hours finalizing plans (catering, RSVPs and the general fun times of planning weekend celebration for 120 people in a remote mountain town!) and luxuriating in our last fancy weekend as an engaged couple. We made the mistake of going to the grocery store hungry and came out with raspberries, strawberries, grapes, 5 kinds of cheeses, chips and guac, grapefruit juice, 4 kinds of beer, champagne, mint oreos, mint chocolate, kombucha, and kettle corn. It's all gone. I kid you not. And it's not like we didn't eat meals as well. We did.
Last night, while hanging out in the outdoor hot tub after dinner we heard some folks up on a balcony yelling down towards us. We thought they were telling us not to drink beer in the hot tub. It turns out they were pointing out a bear cub inside the gate of the pool walking towards us. The bear was not afraid, and kept going around the pool towards us. We got up quickly and went inside. With bathrobes on, we told the front desk that there was a bear in their pool area. The first bear we have seen on our trip. Go figure.
We are about to start a big section from here to Echo Lake, south of Lake Tahoe. We will have a small stop to resupply in Tuolomne Meadows in 35 miles, and then we had 150 miles of nothing but trail. There is still a lot of snow between here and there, so we decided to keep our ice axes and microspikes just in case.
We are at mile 906 now. Next time you hear from us we will probably be around mile 1,130 when we get off at Barker Pass to hopefully spend a night with Jenny's brother Tim's family. Until then, we will dream of their hot tub and Moscow Mules.
Mile 900!
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