The mountainous woman working at KMN yells out “If you’re taking the shuttle bus we’re leaving in 5 minutes!” I signal to Seven the wrap it up hand motion that it’s time to go. I leave Kennedy Meadows North at 8 AM on the shuttle bus. There was 9 of us on the bus and Seven and I were the first on and off the bus. We wanted to get out earlier but that’s the earliest option they had. We’re off the bus, no messing around and we are moving up the hill.
The climb starts at 9,000’ altitude and climbs over 10,200’ for the first pass of the day. A couple of sketchy snow section that we climbed up and around and then slid down the skree field to the trail. Tough on the knees and ankles, definitely going one by one to the trail. You don’t want to kick rocks down hill onto your buddy. Gravity is a bitch remember that.
Next it was some downhill trail to get the knees going for miles 4-6. 6% grade and it’s cruisy. We get to the bottom and take a quick second to eat a snack and sit by a waterfall. I eat a bag of sour patch kids and a honey bun. Who knew honey buns were 600 calories by them selves? Another 15 minutes go by and we start back up hill, today’s 4,700’ of gain and a lot of it is pointless ups and downs. As we climb 650’ more we run into two trail runners coming towards us. I kindve think I know them, then they get closer.
It was Renee and Tim from @thruhikers on instagram. They are absolutely awesome and I’ve been following them for like 4 years! They were out doing a trail run during their “Thru Sit” as Tim called it. I giggled, smiled and said “Tim wth is a thru sit? I’m interested.” They’re doing day trips between driving and sitting before their next actual long hike. That’s a solid way to do it. Especially to recover after their Fkts.
We chat for a bit, talk about each others hikes and snag a photo. Then we let them keep running, Seven and I move on and laugh and talk about how wild it is to see them here and how wild the whole trips been. He says “man this life’s like a movie.” And then, more ups and downs. We hit the last snow sections and then slip on some mud. Wow it’s slippery. We look at the map and say we’ll camp after Wolf Creek. Let’s make dinner and just chill, not bad for a half day.
15 minutes go by and we hit Wolf Creek, fill up our water bladders, filter water and then walk 500’ to grab a tent site. Ten minutes later 2 more hikers show up, then 20 minutes later 3 more, and then 30 minutes later 1 more. Wow there are too many people here. As I retire to my tent I heard people laughing, coughing or rolling around all night. Tomorrow we’ll put some distance on em and camp with much less people again.
Day 2
We get going before the sun, today’s a big day of climbing elevation wise almost 5,000’. As we start to climb up we get a few bars of cell service, bing my cell phone goes off. 198 emails, 175 of them bullshit, surprise. But hey at least Z Packs is going to send me a new backpack. That’s a huge W, my current bag I picked up in Acton mile 400ish and this one’s already falling apart. Like falling apart.
Another mile goes by and we hit some trail magic. A lovely woman Valerie was there giving out snacks and drinks. I enjoyed a bag of Cheetos thanked her for your help and then kept moving. After seeing here it was two more miles and we cross a snow bridge, it gives way under Sevens feet and he falls 2-4 feet to his knees. “You okay!?” I yell. “Yeah, fuck!” He responds. I laugh and start walking around the snow bridge instead. It was longer but worth it. He dusts his shins and self off and we keep it moving. Another few miles and we enter a section that looks like we are in Nevada. Beautiful red rocks mixed with mountains. Absolutely stunning area, probably my favorite section so far. Mammoth to Echo Lake
I start pointing out all the caves up on the rock, “I bet theres a mountain lion living in there.” I say. Seven nods and agrees. Hell I’d live in there, give me a solar panel and star link and you’ll never see me again.
As we finish and get to the top we reach a section of snow that’s on the side of a cliff. Far out warned us about this. Seven climbs up over it and sets the stage for me, I try and slide back down twice. The two pieces of dirt were too spread apart for my short legs. Luckily I slide back onto the dirt, I haven’t started the snow yet but I’m already slipping. My shoes are smoked and I have zero traction under them.
I take one more shot and get on top of it, oof this sucks. Seven points out where to put my feet and we buddy system this snow section. As we get across we look back and holy shit that was nuts. We walk another half mile and then grab a seat on a rock over looking the valley below. We both laugh about almost dying and say we’re no longer tired. The adrenaline wakes you up and you’re like a new person. From there we head down hill to a campsite that is probably the nicest we’ve been at yet.
I set up my camp next to the edge and rocks and see a thunderstorm rolling in. Forecast says some rain but nothing major, we eat dinner quickly and hang out. We share a joint and a bottle of fireball. It’s one of our last nights hiking together. As it gets late, we get into our tents. The storm rolls in and makes for some nice background noise and beautiful skies.
Day 3
We leave camp today late, Seven wanted to get up at 7. I negotiated leaving camp at 6:30AM. We only have 3,500’ of elevation gain today so we don’t need to beat the heat
I get up early and walk around camp, I probably get two miles in before he’s up and ready. I can never sit still, even at camp I’m always exploring or walking around aimlessly. I look at stuff, the trees the rocks the sky. We’re hiking together mainly as it’s one of his last days on trail. Otherwise we usually hike solo and meet up through out the day or for tougher terrain. He’s getting off trail for good after going home for a wedding.
That crazy Canadian communist (jokes people) hit the 2000km mark like a boss, and is choosing to spend some time at home for the summer enjoying the rest of summer. Man it’s been real, just some random kid I met in Mexico has become one of my best friends over the last three months.
Anyways we get going from camp, make it look like we never existed there and see PigPen hiking in front of us, a girl from Minnesota currently living in Maine but out here crushing it. We hike with her for a few miles before she can’t keep up. She’s nursing a broken rib after falling down Mather Pass. I even say to Seven let’s slow it down, we’re only doing 20 miles today and we’ll get to camp too early.
We hit the base of Carson Pass and hear it’s full of snow from a woman coming SOBOA, at this point I’m mentally done with snow. I no longer have my snow gear and these shoots are serious. If you fall you are most likely going to die. On the way to the top we cross a beautiful skree ridge line with views all around. It was a small reward before the snow.
At the first snow crossing I cut under it and the climbed straight up the rocks. I skipped the entire traverse this way but it was hard climbing up. Seven says he feels no issues doing it and crushed the snow.
After another mile we hit the next snowy traverse, even worse than the first one. I again skitch around it, this time up and over it. I climb maybe 100’ above the snow through the skree field and then back down around the snow onto the trail. Seven waits for me and then takes the snow passage. He again crushes it.
From here it’s an easy 3 miles down hill as we hiked into the Carson Pass visitor center. The two women there tell us there is free drinks, WiFi from Starlink and snacks for us PCT thru hikers. Hell yea I crush a Coke. I then sign the trail register and sit down for over an hour and chat, they were absolutely amazing and super friendly.
As we are hanging around there more hikers arrive. Pigpen, Felix from Sweden and two others from Switzerland. We camped with them all the other night where there was too many people. Kellie the information worker tells us they have post cards. I grab a few and write some messages. She says she’ll mail them tomorrow. 99c each with the stamp. Correctly priced in my opinion.
Seven looks at me eyeing his backpack and says “Mouse are you ready to roll?” Yes sir let’s go. We bang out of there thinking another 4 miles and after hiking 1 mile I say “Fuck!” I totally forgot to put my sister address on the post card. Haha I wrote her name but no address. I couldn’t remember the zip code, went to get my cellphone and oooops, dumb me she won’t be getting that one.
2 more miles go by and we filter water in a nice stream, the mosquitos are bad, let’s keep it moving we both say. Another mile goes by and we grab a camp site in an area next to Showers Lake. There is a ton of nice camp sites here and there’s one other guy already set up.
We pitch our tents, set up our sleeping gear and cook up some dinner. Seven has Beef Strogonof for the first time and he said it came out pretty good. We don’t need to get ready for tomorrow really. Tomorrow is an easy day getting to town. Only 8 miles to Echo Lake where we will grab a hitch hike into South Lake Tahoe. I’m going to stay in Lake Tahoe for a few days before I hit the Oregon Coast Trail for 2 weeks with my sister.
Day 4
I wake up to Seven packing up his tent. His tent! How the hell is he up and packed up before me. This is a first in over 1200 miles, I yell out. “Yo Seven over under 12 minutes for me to pack up?” He says “under” 10 minutes later we’re walking.
We have .5 a mile of elevation gain to do and then an easy 7 miles of downhill into Echo Lake trail head. The trail started off from where we camped by crossing over a river and then immediately climbing up a steep rocky grade.
“Horse-grade!“ seven mutters. “No shit” I reply. We continue on. We reach the top and see some more beautiful camp sites. I joke we should set up and take the morning off. Nope we plan to get breakfast in town, then lunch.
As soon as we turn downhill we meet another hiker. He’s doing the same as us, hiking into Echo Lake and then getting a hitch into South Lake Tahoe. He’s going to spend some time with his wife who is coming to visit him. We hike down the last few miles and chit chat till we hit the road, funny he was an engineer as well. We hit the road and like it’s normal at this point, we throw our thumbs out and a lovely couple pulls over to pick us up. This couples going to let Seven and I stay at their house for a few days too. Sweet, Lake Tahoe here we come.
The Pacific Crest Trail 