June 11th. This is just a
little note. I camped up by Poison Meadow, almost right at the
saddle/crest where it starts. This morning I woke up early at about
4:50am or so and looked out. Last night I settled down, ya know I
can't see anything it's dark and I couldn't see anything it was about
10:10pm or so. But I managed to pick a beautiful spot next to this
big foxtail pine that was half dead. This morning when I woke up for
the first time, I was looking due East and the sky was just this
fiery orange-red on the horizon with all of these stumpy gnarly trees
silhouetted, and it was really nice....but I went back to sleep. I
told myself to take a photo, but, nah.... I wake up to my alarm about
10 minutes later and the same thing is going on, I go back to sleep..
I woke up again at about 5:25am or so and the sun had just kind
 |
| Entering the Sierra National Parks! |
of
come up and it was rimming/haloing all these trees in this
yellow-golden light, ohh it was sooo beautiful. Then I look behind me
and all of the already gold-yellow-brown tree trunks were just on
fire with this color. And I'm sitting surrounded by all these trees,
the meadow probably 100 yards down to the left, the north. So the
light is just creeping in, the grass is super bright green, and it
was just a great way to wake up in the morning, even though I did go
back to sleep for another 20 minutes {Haha}. It was a good morning, a
good way to wake up compared to the way that I arrived last night, I
was like 'ugggghhh', almost hating life. So, the silver lining, there
it is. I'm probably 5 or 6 miles into hiking today overlooking this
massive valley with lower tree studded hills off to the west. I'm up
on the side of a ridge parallel to it that's studded with all these
yellowish-brown-orange tree stumps and snags and stuff. It's just
been a nice morning. I just passed Chicken Spring Lake at about
11,500 ft hence the heavy breathing, even here walking where it's
fairly level. But in the sandy soil it takes a bit to hike and talk.
But yeah, Forester Pass is coming up and Crabtree Meadows, so we'll
make sure to hit those and see what we can do today.
 |
| Cottonwood Pass Trail Junction 180 degree panorama. |
 |
| The basin west of Crabtree Meadows |
June 11th, Day 18. I went
for my second day in the Sierras. I accomplished 40 miles on the nose
and I stopped Vidette Meadows, just after Forester Pass – about 6
miles past. - at point 0374476E 4069086N. So lets see here, umm, I
don't even remember where the hell I stopped yesterday....(laughs) Oh
yeah, I stopped at the beautiful umm trees... Lets see, a recap,
umm... The morning was really pretty so I went slow, taking lots and
lots of photos of the pretty trees. By about midday, I knew I was
behind by at least an hour, somewhere about 3-6 miles. Annd I umm,
I'm, this is really disjointed today.... So I went through the trees.
By Chicken Springs Lake there were about 10 people camped out there.
I plodded along, not too terribly hard, then I came down to Rock
Creek and had a terrible climb up to Mt. Guyot. It's just long and
steep and you're at elevation and you have to gain all that you just
lost to get down to the creek. Then it levels out for a little bit and you have
 |
| Creek crossing at Crabtree Meadows. |
to do it again, climb to the ridge. About a 1/3 way up
the ridge, I got a spurt of energy, or, I don't know, something
kicked in and I hauled up the rest of it, which was awesome. I wasn't
going to say no to that. After that I was kinda zoned out for a
while. I hate that feeling, it's this zombie zone. I know I'm
walking, but I....I just can't explain it. Your eyes work, everything
works, it's just you're in some kind of haze or a fog and you can't
get out of it. I have found that counting steps does kind of bring me
out of it. It usually happens when the trail is pretty routine and
not difficult, where you don't have to really choose where you're
stepping and things like that. Especially when you're listening to
music, you're just gone. But I made it atop there and dropped down
into Crabtree Meadows, which was pretty much empty. The last time I
was there it was frickin' packed with people, granted we did arrived
towards the evening, and I arrived around 1pm. I met a girl called
Birthday Girl, some of her friends were up climbing Whitney, but
she's moving on because
 |
| Looking S on the Big Horn Plateau. |
she's low on food. Lets see, a little way
after I stopped and had some lunch in a big meadow with some
beautiful views. I kept pushing because I knew I had to make it over
Forester to try and make my miles. So, ups and downs, ups and downs.
I finally made it to the Big Horn Plateau, which was spectacular as
normal. I camped there in 2009. I dropped down to Tyndall Creek and
there was 5 miles from there to Forester which wasn't too bad. Just a
gentle up, and yeah, it was beautiful because you're above tree line
pretty much at that point and the snow... Oh my goodness, NO SNOW.
The first snow I hit on Forester was literally at the base of the
switchbacks and it was only about 15 ft and melting fast. I pushed up
the switchbacks, totally out of breath as you'd expect. I hit the top
at about 7:30pm and the sun was just casting the most beautiful
alpenglow on the tips of the mountains on the south side. The valley
on the north side was almost completely
 |
| Approaching Forster Pass - offcenter left low point. |
light still. So it was super
spectacular. I'm so glad I was up there at that time. I hung out
there for a little bit and took a bunch of photos and started my way
down. There was finally more snow, but by now means, like 5% of what
was there in 2009. About a couple hundred feet here or there that I
had to cross. But nothing! I actually wish there was more snow,
because walking all the switchbacks, on the rocks and on all the
terribleness, was, I feel slower actually than walking on snow or
even postholing. Because then you could at least go straight and go
down steeper things versus the trail and switchbacks that meander
frickin' everywhere. The rocks weren't very pleasant, because earlier
in the day, actually the night before, my left foot, between my
little toe and the next toe, a crack, split, cut or whatever opened
up, about ¾ inches long. At first I thought the pain that was coming
from there was that, but realized that, that didn't hurt at all and
there seems to be
 |
| Descending Forester Pass at sunset. |
a blister or something realllly deep under that
spot. I managed to lance it, one little pocket of it and some kind of
whitish fluid came out. I don't think it's infected and I'm not sure
how it would ever be infected. But it's SUPER painful. Ya know the
rocks, if you hit them in the right spot you just wince in pain. It
was getting dark, I hiked until 11pm. I got the flashlight out, just
going down switchbacks, finally into the trees, then to the bottom of
the valley and made it to where I camped next to the bear box. There
seemed to be about 4 or 5 other people stashed in the woods around
there, probably because it's only a few miles to the Kearsarge Trail
to take you to Onion Valley to resupply. So, we'll see about this
foot, because it sucks. It could be a deal breaker if it doesn't get
better. I'll have to keep looking at it and determine how well I can
walk on it because it is definitely hampering me.
 |
| Approaching Forester Pass(out of sight left side) in the evening light 180 degree panorama. |
Morning