It’s been a very long day, my longest yet, so I’ll probably be brief and try to sleep. I’m now just above Benson Lake over 30 miles from where I started at about 6 this morning. There’s been a lot of undulation and thankfully not many people.

I have passed Tammy, Salt Lick and a non-PCTer who was heading south and could remember quite a few names I recognised. It seems the front-runners aren’t that far ahead after all. I doubt I’ll catch them though, my left foot hurts from over doing it today, especially the harsh descent at the end. I finally pulled out my iPod today, unseen since Kennedy Meadows. It was strange to listen to New York Minute while standing amongst granite cliffs and giant trees but the songs got more appropriate later. Gnarls Barkley sang “Smiley Faces” as I was on the steep steps this afternoon, and then Polly Paulusma came on with “Some day”

While this journey’s long it’s joyful
coz you are here with me
I’ve been living for tomorrow
Forgot to live today
This sweet life is only borrowed
Got to give it back some day

p.s. I saw a bear early this morning. It watched me then sauntered away.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass

So I’m back at Tuolumne again having crossed Donahue Pass for the second time. I set off early and I set off fast, drinking breakfast as I walked and hardly stopping all day. A little after 8am I reached Thousand Island Lake and began the same trail I did with Lucky Joe during my week off. I was there much earlier in the day than last time and the rivers were noticeably lower, especially on the north side of the pass. No huge jumps or wading this time.

The trail along the Lyell Canyon took a long time, and so much of it with the river so close. It was cool, clear and calling my name but I pushed on to that ranger station and post office afraid I’d have to wait until 9 tomorrow to get my stuff. I made it with hours to spare. I could have swum but by that point I was too beat. I sat and ate and debated leaving again but 24 miles is enough. With all the food I have I am now prepared to get right through to Truckee. Hopefully picking up Blue Sky and Vortex along the way. That’s 213 miles in 8 days. Wish me luck.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

Tonight is my first night alone in the Sierras. I’m without my bear cannister too, I’ll come to that in a moment.

I was the first one to stir in the motel room. I got up and snuck out to get to Vons supermarket and do my resupply shopping. At the till a guy saw what I was eating and asked if I was a hiker. He turned out to be Sierra (a.k.a. Randy Gabler) PCT class of ‘77 and ‘84. We talked outside for a while and I got all sorts of advice from him especially not to be down hearted when the scenery doesn’t stay as good as the high Sierras. He’s quite the map fiend and had good ones to show places to hitch to, and not to, from the various road crossings ahead. He drove a bunch of us around, even bought Lucky Joe and I giant ice-creams (where I dropped Joe’s camera and was considerably more worried than when chasing off the bear*). When he left town he took my bear cannister, packed with enough food to get me from Tuolumne to at least Echo Lake, and he’ll stash it at the next ranger station for me. My pack is about 7kgs lighter because of that but it still feels heavy.

I walked down to Red’s Meadow from the Horseshoe Lake path through what was once lush green forest. The first part is now suffocated trees, killed by volcanic fumes leaking from some vent near by. The rest is a charred skeleton left by the Rainbow Fire a few years ago.

At the store I was met by the front of the herd. Almost 20 PCT hikers came and went during the hour I was there. I didn’t know any of them, or feel much connection to them. As I set off my mind was occupied with schedules and logistics. I was stuck between doing big miles and getting away from The Herd, or slowing down and enjoying it more. Lucky Joe has stayed an extra day to keep in contact with his family, but he’ll catch me soon. Blue Sky and Vortex are probably 50 miles ahead. With 25 mile days I’ll have time for some zeros before reaching Oregon. I needed an iPod to help me tune out of thinking, but I kept it stowed and plugged on.

The ridge to Agnew Meadows has been lovely. Once up here it is gently rolling, and there are great views across to the undulating JMT path I did 10 days ago above which rise the jagged Minarets still wearing a collar of snow. The sun was setting at one end of the canyon as the moon rose at the other. There is probably something to be said about the light leading me forward and night drawing in on my time in the Sierras, but I’ll leave that to the poets. Now I need to retreat into my bag and smell unlike bear food.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

* Not because Lucky Joe is scary, he’s great and totally forgave me, but I thought I had totally broken it, so I assumed I’d give him my camera as a replacement and have to go find another one or carry on camera-less, which would would be terrible given how beautiful this trail is.

I was up and gone before anyone noticed. With only three bars left to eat I had to get to Red’s Meadow for a proper breakfast, and I did. The walk was easy, all down hill, but very dusty. I saw a black bear about 50m away and when he saw me he ran, like really ran. I could hear his foot steps on the soft ground from that far away and he was a heavy one. I know now I’d have no chance of getting away from one of those.

At Red’s I went and claimed my food bag from the bear-proof box near the ranger station then waited around as other hikers drifted in. I queued with a crowd of kids from the Youth Conservation Corps (in the valley building a viewing platform for Devils Postpile) to use the free hot-spring showers. They were good and I got mostly clean. Tourist was getting back on the trail after being sick for nearly a week.

Along with Mosey the four of us checked in at Motel 6 and set about the usual town duties of food, laundry, resupply, internet and putting one’s feet up. It was as we wandered along main street looking for ice cream that someone spotted Tourist. She looked exhausted. The kind of exhausted when I’m afraid to say much in case it’s the wrong thing and she’d burst into tears. I didn’t and she didn’t, Angelhair took her pack and walked her to the motel where she is now quarantined. She had been traveling with a bunch of others that got really sick, including Neighbor-J who actually got air-lifted off the mountain, and hadn’t made it more than a couple of hours that morning.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Muir Pass to Reds Meadow

It’s day 66 and I have passed the 33% mark on the trail. Lucky Joe and I were with Angelhair and Rigatoni (together known as The Noodleheads) and we made a little sign with sticks so others would know how far they have come. And we have come far. I’m sleeping on a hillside 898.8 miles from Campo and I walked all this way by myself. I appreciate all the people that have helped me along the way so far, and I’m looking forward to meeting more later.

Crossing Silver Pass was a slog, they all have been, and after that we still had considerable ups and downs today. Resting at the top I put my feet up and Angelhair noticed we had the same shoes, and socks, and even spare socks drying on our packs! That deserved a photo.

Later at our lunch Rigatoni pulled out one of the most useless, but funniest, items I have seen any thru-hiker carrying. He had a fully laminated menu from Denny’s and got Lucky Joe to read out some of the main courses, especially one that had ground beef sprinkled on chicken. That ain’t right.

I’m surprised my feet are holding together, they really don’t look good. I’m down to just three energy bars for tomorrow’s dash to Red’s Meadow where I hope to find the food I stashed and an open diner for breakfast. I discovered today that Lucky Joe actually gave me his last cookable dinner the other day (we skipped VVR so I was a day short) so only ate cold food tonight. He said he was ok with it because he brought far too many snacks. Good guy.

Well it’s cold and dark up here, again without tent but we’ve been down in valleys for a few days, this may affect my ability to make an early start.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Muir Pass to Reds Meadow

Though I initially doubted the wisdom of adding 4 non-trail miles to my day I did go to visit the Blayney Hot Springs just across the San Joaquin River from the Muir Trail Ranch, and it did wonders for my feet. Fording the river was a simple, but freezing cold affair, then follow the path and the barbed-wire fence out into the middle of a meadow to a hole full of warm water. My feet really did feel good so I tackled the big climb of the day, up to Selden Pass, without trouble and arrived in time to see Wounded Face before he hobbled down the north side. Poor guy has to get to VVR for a rest and some foot care.

On the way down Lucky Joe and I had to cross the other much-hyped creek of the Sierras, Bear Creek. The water was swift but with my shorts rolled up they hardly got wet. We had more trouble with insects than water. The mosquitoes were swarming like nothing I’ve seen before so it was a rush to put shoes and socks back on before heading to the hills. We actually managed to run short on water today, not an easy task in these stream-laden hills. But there wasn’t one where the data book said so we had to do 3 more miles than we expected and consequently we’ve racked up 28 miles today, a big number for this part of the trail and great for how bad my feet were last night.

P.S. I think I spent too long without a shirt yesterday, my shoulders are a little crispy. No fun when you have to lug a backpack all day.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Muir Pass to Reds Meadow

Today is the longest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere and boy do my feet feel it. My socks have suddenly started wearing out all over and it means a lot more rubbing on my skin, which hurts.

Getting up to Muir Pass was tough. Not that there was any snow worth mentioning, it was just a long way up. Helen Lake, just before the top, was still mostly frozen. Standing on the rocky edge and looking at my feet it was so clear it was hard to tell where the water started.

On the way down, when I could see miles of the trail in front of me, and I knew anyone coming from the south would stop at the hut for a while, I was able to partake in the days festivities until stopping for lunch meant I could be surprised at any second.

Once again the descent from the pass was what wore me out. I trundled on past the deep blue Evolution Lake, snapping only a few pictures of its far granite wall. Crossing Evolution Creek was a simple affair. This and Bear Creek are often talked of as the big crossings but with this year’s low snow it hardly even splashed above my knees.

Now I’m camped much further down the valley, exhausted and sore, debating whether or not to go to the hot springs tomorrow. They sound great but can I add 4 miles and soaking time to my day?

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Muir Pass to Reds Meadow

A snippet of last night’s conversation.
Me: So the passes are 9 miles apart and there is 2000ft down and back up between them.
Lucky Joe: Then we have breakfast.

We set off from just below Pinchot Pass at 6:30 this morning (I ate breakfast in my sleeping bag), crossed the pass and were plugging on down into the canyon for quite a while. The two groups that I saw yesterday were each packing up their tents, still in the shade, as we went by.

The walk across to Mather Pass wasn’t all that steep but I was dragging along for most of it. At the pass we found some familiar faces. Fester, Bounty Hunter, Filthy Figaro, Germinator and Neptune who were all suprised that we had been behind them on the trail. We exchanged trail gossip including news that Sandles had got a ’staph’ infection in her blood. Sounds really bad. By noon we were on our way down and having fun glissading on one of the very few snow patches left on the trail. I managed to pull off a very cool grind down a large rock, no snowboard or anything.

Further on down we stopped to swim in Lower Palisade Lake before stomping down the knee-busting Golden Staircase and the valley below to complete the day’s 4000ft elevation loss. We’ve all made a tiny start up the next canyon on the way to Muir Pass, possibly the only one with notable snow remaining. I’m next to the ranger station here, camping near Chet, a guy claiming to be only the third person ever to do the Sierra High Route solo (though I met someone coming on at Independence also doing it this year). It’s 240 miles of which 30 are on trails. Looks like quite a rough hike. Time to hide in my bag and wait for daylight.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Glen Pass to Mather Pass

After a week of doing other, equally enjoyable, things I have finally gotten back to the Pacific Crest Trail and you can move my little marker 16.7 miles closer to Canada.

After stopping briefly to chat with OJ and April before they hiked over to Independence, Lucky Joe and I crossed Glen Pass without any trouble. We’d heard previously that it and Muir had the most snow and if that is ‘the most’ then this year’s Sierra is a cake walk. It was a long descent to Wood Creek, past the lovely Rae Lakes, and the haul up the other side was pretty tough. I met 6 other north bound PCTers today, but on first impressions they didn’t seem nearly as much fun as the ones I already know. We’re camped at 11,332ft, according to Lucky Joe’s watch, and can see Pinchot Pass from here.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Glen Pass to Mather Pass

Walks With Son writes:
I returned SunWalker and Lucky Joe to the trail at Onion Valley on Monday afternoon. They took their packs and marched off towards Kearsarge Pass, weighed down by food for the days ahead, but lightened by the knowledge that they were getting back on the PCT at last.

This left me with several days to spare before my flight back to New Zealand on Thursday. My flight dates allowed for the possibility of hiking with SunWalker either before my conference or after. As it worked out I had a perfect hike from Kennedy Meadows to Trail Pass and my wish to enjoy a section of the PCT in the Sierras had already been fulfilled. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the trailhead so I hung around for the afternoon. I helped a group of hikers who were heading in to follow the PCT south to Whitney but got caught out when their car couldn’t manage the road up from Independence. Thru-hikers Thunder, Dalton and Gabby went past me and up to camp on the trail to the pass. Eventually it got dark so I slept in the back of the SUV. In the morning I was getting ready to leave when I decided on impulse to hike a little way up the trail for a better view of the valley. My feet felt better so I decided to go as far as the first lake. Without a pack, or even food and water, the going was easy and I just kept going. I met Snow Berry and Easy Rider coming down for resupply at Independence

Two and a half hours later I reached Kearsarge Pass. The hikers I has assisted the previous afternoon were there after spending the night beside one of the five lakes on the way up.

Also at the top were PCT people Iceman, Erik the Black, Gazelle, Ricola and OJ. On the way down I met Mauka (sp?) and Abby, the Pooler Bears and Disco Dan going back to the PCT. Further down I met Breeze, Sage, Max and Hard Rock heading up. Near the bottom of the trail I was overtaken by Farmer Pirate and Lupin Lady

Back at the trailhead I gave some of the PCT hikers I’d met on my little walk a ride down to Independence and then felt sorry for Jugs and Big Cat standing by the road in the sun trying to get back up the hill so I made one more trip from Independence to Onion Valley. Lieutenant Dan rounded out my day of hiker name dropping before I got back in my car and headed up highway 395 to look around the Truckee area which SunWalker should be reaching in about three weeks.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Kearsarge Pass