mile 745.3

+ High: Finally entering High Sierra

- Low: n/a

Day 63, 6/3/2018

We used the morning to pack everything. First time trying bear canister. It’s a hot day. Kate and Lisa left after lunch. Tanya and I didn’t plan to walk that much so we stayed at the campground till 4 pm after the mid-day heat. Tanya first tried her new ULA backpack, has to reorganize everything, which was a terrible and traumatic experience for her.

We started from mile 704 and only plan to walk to 709.5 in the late evening. On the way, we saw a train of horses coming by. It was trail maintenance team.  Power tools are not allowed in the forest so the team has to carry all the hand tools and chop down fallen trees by hand. We really appreciate what they did for the trail. Otherwise, we will have to climb over a lot of debris along the way.

Water is everywhere now that we are in the High Sierra. We arrived at the tent site around 7. It was lovely and even had water running through the site. Several people came in late. Melissa and Jennifer, Eugene and his friends. Eugene mad a comment about us cooking at the campsite regarding the bear issue. Tanya had great faith in national park service 15 years of educating people not to feed the bears. I personally had faith in the bears not going to attacking me. So...

Day 64, 6/4/2018

Waking out around 7:15, it was a late start. The scenery has been changing since we entered the first part of high Sierra. The trail became really rocky. There are more greens and rivers, real rivers. We had second breakfast at mile 713.7 and couldn't help to stop again at mile 716.5 by the river and bridge. The view looks like an old Coca-Cola Ads from the Mad Men era. People were resting on the grass. Rooster and his horse, Horsie, came in a little later and joined us. I had a dry bath in the river. Tanya did a New Zealand style of washing, which means full clothes on going into the river. She claims that you get to clean yourselves and your clothes at the same time. I do not believe it for a second. All of us enjoyed the river and had a sunbath to dry our clothes. Weather is perfect. More people pull in after half an hour. This is the first time I met Jen, Lopside. She is also having a ketogenic diet as Tanya. They had a lot to talk about. We decided to stay a little longer to eat early lunch then head out around 1:30

The afternoon was a straight up walk from 7900 ft to 10575 ft. Very tiring. It was the first time I went over 10,000 ft but the view was just awesome. Today we learned to dinner at mile 724.5, right before our tent site and camped at mile 725. The altitude struck Tanya and she found it harder to climb. I was breathing a little heavy but fine with the height in general.

Great day, great weather, great walk, and a great view. I even finished an audiobook.

Day 65 6/5/2018

Started at 6:30. First 5 miles to the water point was easy. We had second breakfast there and reunited with Tim again. It was always nice to see familiar faces. Tanya and I decided to meet for lunch at mile 734.5. It was an outlook point of the Owens Valley. We needed to go over another hill at 10690ft high. It’s relatively easier but still a steep climb. The view of Owens Valley at the summit was incredible.

Owens Lake is white. The story is that the LA people came to Owens Valley and decided to stole all the water from Owens Lake to supply the LA metropolitan area. They drained the lake and the lake became dusty. After a while, people in Lone Pine suffered from poor air quality because of the dust from the lake and they suited the city of LA. Now LA has to spend millions of dollars every year to maintain a little bit of water in the lake so the dust doesn't get into the air.

Back to the trail... It was a really tough afternoon for me. I only need to walk 7 miles to get to the tent site but my body was just falling apart. I was so tired when I got to the campsite at Diaz Creek at Mile 741.5. This was the first time that I fully stretched and massaged my legs even before setting up my tent. I cleaned up myself again in the river while Rooster and Horsie came into the tent site.

We had dinner with Rooster. He said he started to walk in January. He basically trained his horse on the trail and now Horsie won't just hop away while Rooster is resting. I couldn't imagine how much work that would be to ride a horse through PCT. Rooster also can't go into a lot of towns for resupplies because of the horse. He started from Kennedy Meadows and plan to stop at Tuolumne Meadows, which is about 230 miles. He prepared 12 days of food for himself and the horse. It was heavy so he was walking the horse instead of riding it. But he only prepared his food for riding but not hiking. So he was really hungry. I donated my extra dinner to him. He was happy.

Day 66 6/6/2018

It was only 4 miles to the side trail to Lone Pine. We got to the parking lot around 10 and got a ride right after that! Lucky us! Steve was heading back home from his JMT hike (John Muir Trail, as famous as the PCT if not more) and he wanted to come up to the parking lot for the last time to see if he can give anyone a lift. That was really nice of him. He said he cried on the last day in the mountain. He didn't want to leave.

But hey... I need a break from the trail now. Lovely Lone Pine, I'm coming!