Bishop Pass

Seven and I went our separate ways, a hung a hard right at the junction of the PCT onto Bishop pass trail. Bishop Pass trail leads back into the town of Bishop surprise surprise. After 3 nights of feeling awful, I’m heading into town to see a doctor.

First 1.5 miles up this trail from the PCT are picturest as you climb endless switchbacks, at mile 1.8 there was a couple of great campsites to my left next to some running water. .1 from here was 2-3 ankle deep water crossings, I kept my feet dry for the first the second I got wet and the third was a pretty strong waist deep river crossing.

At the crossing there was a bunch of logs built up but I chose to go straight through, water was fast but the footing underneath was solid. Once past that it was more switch backs up through beautiful Dusey basin with expansive canyon wall views. When I hit 1.9 miles exactly from the PCT junction sign on the right side of the trail deep in the woods there was benches (planks on top of rocks) and four or five tent sitses right next to the water.

It was kind of hard to see, but if you ever hike this trail and want to pull up and sleep and tackle the pass in the AM this is a decent spot to.  I camped here but across the trail I didn’t see these sites until I was just walking around at camp. After waking up I get moving again, I figure I’ll hit the rest of the climb before the suns hot and I definitely want to be over the other side of the pass before the snows soft.

After another few miles I see camp sites at mile 3.2 and 3.9 and from there I am now in the home stretch to the pass. As I’m walking I see another hiker Scout Master doing the same thing I am. “What’s up bud how’s it going?He responds “man what a beautiful fuken section!” I cannot agree more there.

We hike another couple miles and there is snow the last section but it’s nothing sketchy, I lead the way around snow patches and up mountain skree. We get to the top and once you summit and go over the pass the switchbacks down we’re honestly sketchy, the snows melting fast so they should be clear soon but we had snow. Scout Master and I skitched down the rocks and then took one snow pass over, from there it was smooth sailing 4 miles down to the parking lot.

On the way down we ran into another hiker Rollie, we all says man were glad to run into each other. It’s dumb to do dangerous shit solo. We talk with some local day hikers and hang in the parking lot waiting to catch a hitch. A nice woman picks us up and says she hiked the trail with her daughter (Monkey) in 2012. Thank you Momma Bear for the ride into town. All said and done I left camp at 5AM and was hitching in 5 hours after 13 miles. Done and dusted, all with surprise surprise the dreaded Covid.