PCT Day 41, 22 June 2022 (Wednesday)
Start Location: |
Wilderness Campsite |
Destination: |
Bishop |
PCT Miles Day 41: |
0.1 |
Cum PCT Miles: |
789.0 |
Non-PCT Miles Day 41: |
7.6 |
Cum All Miles: |
847.3 |
PCT Miles Remaining: |
1,863.6 |
|
|
Elevation Gain Day 41: |
0 |
Cum Elevation Gain: |
139,996 |
Today was about as nero (near zero) as nero gets, with only 0.1 miles hiked on the PCT. However, I did hike 7.6 miles over Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley Campground, where I hoped to get a ride to either Independence or Bishop. I am a day ahead of schedule, so I am planning on spending the night in Bishop, and then going back to Independence tomorrow. Today is basically an unplanned town day.
There was a surprise this morning. As I was packing up things inside my tent, I saw a white speck hit right outside my tent. It was either hail or a very compact snowflake. I’ve been out here over 40 days now, and this is the very first bit of precipitation. I didn’t know whether it was a sign of a much larger storm or just morning moisture.
I decided the best thing to do would be to get packed up and hike as quickly as possible up and over Kearsarge Pass and down to the Onion Valley Campground. I figured it would take me about 90 minutes to get to the top of the pass and about the same to get down to Onion Valley. Since I am now low on food, I didn’t want to take the chance of being where I was in a much larger storm and being stuck there for more than a day. I didn’t think there was a huge amount of risk in hiking through a snow storm for a couple of hours, even though part of it was going over a high pass.
As I started hiking, the sleet, hail, and snow started coming down more heavily. However, it didn’t seem to be accumulating or sticking on the ground. As I kept hiking, and gaining elevation, it started snowing even more heavily, and now it was sticking and accumulating.
I was concerned that if it started snowing very hard, the trail could be obscured. However, I still thought there was more of a risk of not going forward than going forward. It was a good decision. As I got near the top of the pass, the snow lightened. I was pretty motivated, and quickly made my way down the mountain. Soon enough I was at Onion Valley.
My next challenge was getting a ride down the 13 mile road to either Independence or Bishop. Onion Valley is a very busy trailhead. But I was there in the morning when the odds of getting a hitch down the road were much smaller than they would be later in the afternoon when people were finishing their day hikes.
After about half an hour, I saw a lady, Paula, running down the trail with her dog. She saw me standing by the road with my pack and asked me if I needed a ride. Of course I enthusiastically said yes. It turns out, she was actually going right to Bishop. So it was perfect. She was a local and very knowledgeable about the outdoors and hiking. The trail provides once again.
Bullfrog Lake from Kearsarge Pass Trail
New snow on the Kearsarge Pass Trail
Atop Kearsarge Pass
Interesting mosaic outside the Bishop Public Library
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