Author: Chris DiFranco

10:30 PM I’m violently woken up by my stomach. Something didn’t sit right, I get up out of my tent, rush outside and dig a cat hole. This area was horrible to dig cat holes. It was solid rock underneath. As I’m doing my business, I see a shooting star. Awesome. When I’m done it’s back to my tent for another few hours of bad sleep and 2 Imodium.

My alarm goes off at 4:15 AM. I look outside my tent and I see the guy next to me Mark from Israel is already up and packing his stuff. He told Seven and I that he was going to be on trail by 5 AM. We all agree that’s the move. My Oura again says I’m sick, yeah yeah I believe you. I feel like absolute garbage.

Sevens running late, he says he’ll catch up, Mark and I start off up the trail and within a mile we meet another hiker Valkyrie a girl from SoCal who now lives in Denver. We all hike the 3.5 miles together till the bottom of the pass.

Seven catches up, we toss on our micro spikes and look at what we’re about to do. He turns and says “I need a minute.” Huh I reply. He says “I need to text my family my will real quick.” Yeah no shit. As we look up its steep as F, there’s switch backs of rocks, dirt and snowy traverses. The best of all worlds, we get moving up and it’s already clear this would’ve been much scarier three weeks ago.

Seven goes first then me, he gets halfway across and I start going, as we climb I keep saying easy peasy. Keep it slow and steady. Just keep stepping forward, we finally reach the last bit of switch backs and they’re clear of snow. We can breathe for a second, as we catch our breath there’s one last ascent up the head wall and the homestretch is done.

As we look over the other side it’s snow the whole way down. The initial descent is steep, there’s glissade marks that look gnarly. We sketch down the steep mountain using our microspikes and kicking into the sun cups. Once the terrain levels out it’s easy walking as we descend below 10,000’ and the snow disappears.

Seven and I look at each other and nod, we agree to drop our microspikes, now it’s time to make up ground and get moving fast. We turn the jets on and crush a total of 4,500 of downhill.

As we reach the bottom we say goodbye, Sevens heading north to VVR and I’m going to side quest to Bishop Pass. I’m heading into town to see a doctor, I think I have either Covid or the flu. 4 days of diarrhea, a fever, nausea and zero sleep. Yaay, Until today the protocol has been standard Marine protocol. Change ya socks, hydrate and keep fucking walking.

I hang the right up Bishop Pass trail and it’s 13 miles to town. I do the first mile and it’s 9% grade uphill through an absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery. As I get to mile 1.5 of Bishop pass I see two men setting up their tents who are just here for the night. They tell me there’s a campsite another 2 miles ahead after a nasty river crossing. I tell them “ok thats my plan for the night.” They ask if I want help crossing and I say I’m sure I’ll be fine. They looked at me like I was insane.

I get to the crossing and it’s sketch city, I debate turning around and heading back to camp with those guys I saw. I take a deep breath, assess the situation and say to myself “Kyle you can do this.” (boys meets world reference) I step in, the first steps up to my knees. It only gets deeper from here, the temperature? Ice fucking cold.

I start to get across the river and say wow this is flowing fast. I continue on through and make it half way to the other side, the waters coming up to my stomach, my legs wobbling, feet stinging but I make it. Completely soaked all the way to my belly button.

After the river crossing I’m cooked and don’t think I can do another 2 miles now. Now freezing and the sun low in the sky, I find a random piece of slanted ground and pitch my tent. I’ll finish the last 10 miles tomorrow easy peasy.

We take a late alpine start, we leave camp at 5:15AM and get moving. Seven says “man I almost said Mouse I am going to sleep in.” It’s 7.5 miles to Pinchot pass and it’s a beautiful area. It’s straight trail, some switch backs then the pass for 3,700’ of gain before we’re over the pass. I hit the wobbly swing bridge first, it’s swinging back and forth and wobbly. Sevens probably shaking it on the other end. It reminds me of the alpine tree course at Gunstock. My friends and I use to do it every July. Except I’m not harnessed in and I could literally die.

We get to the other side and start the climb, it starts off immediately at a 10% grade. We see a sign for a missing hiker. This dude was doing the high sierra trail in February. Sheesh that’s wild, at this point RIP Lt Kraft. After a few somber moments of talking about what happened to that guy, Seven and I switch the mood and laugh and joke to each other and say but the trail, it’s horse grade, it’s easy right? Yah right. It’s not.

We say that because majority of the PCT is like 5 to 7% which is actually pretty leisurely. You just do a ton of switch backs to get to the top.

As we continue up the trail, Seven says “hey look to your left there is a deer.” I look and there was, like four of them just minding their own business enjoying their morning like we were.

Another mile goes by and he says “hey look at this thing, what is it?” I say “I think that’s a grouse.” I use to hunt grouse back in Pittsburg NH. But I’ve never actually seen one of this kind this close just starting at me or that big. They usually flush, scare the hell out of you and fly away at a steep angle.

We continue on and see two hikers from the Netherlands, they say “they are happy to see us so we can lead them up the trail.” They were lost. We feel ya, at this point mile 5 there’s not trail, its just snow from here on out. We see a girl coming SOBO and she says “yeah snow all the way up then nothing for snow on the other side.” “Huh!?” I question her. Yeah no snow she says.

It’s now 9:30AM we’ve been hiking for a few hours, and it’s time to take a fast break. We slug some water and eat some breakfast, then just like that we are back at it again. I look at Seven and ask “how many feet till the top?” He says “411.” Roger, good number this year. There’s 3 sketchy traverses and one icy cornice to climb. We walk through them and make it up and over the top. The first thing we see is all snow. Snow as far as the eye can see, we don’t care, we’re use to snow but that girl was 100% full of shit haha. Seven and I joke and say she bailed on the climb and turned around, was embarrassed to tell us that. That’s fine, make smart safe decisions everyone. Turn around when you need to.

We walk down the only 3 switch backs that are clean of snow and then toss our spikes back on. It’s roughly 12 miles to camp and we’re positioning our selves at the base for Mather Pass tomorrow AM. Mather being just straight up sketchy we want to be there early.

As we continue down the entire area is waterfalls and beautiful blue lakes. We look at all of the campsites and joke that none of them are on far out. We find you can rely on tent sites on far out but the best campsites are the ones you just stumble upon walking.

After 5 more miles and 3 river crossings I tell Seven I’m going to pull over to do lunch, dry the feet and socks out and chill for a little. The altitude still getting me I think I should take it slow. He says he’ll join. I lay out my Tyvek and take off my socks and shoes. I take out my food and start cooking some Mac and cheese. After 30 minutes I put everything back on and we get hiking again. I feel nauseous, yay.

We look at what are options are for camping later and we pick a mile on the map. Seven heads off at his pace and I slow down to take it easy, I come across a guy Mark from Israel and we hike the last couple miles and 2 stream crossings into camp together.

While walking Mark and I chit chat about life. He is a retired paramedic, he asks me about work. I tell him about a company I use to work for and how their CEO moved manufacturing out of America to Israel 2 weeks before Hamas’s invasion. Mark asks me why, said that didn’t make sense and all the companies want to go to the US… Yeah, my answer “someone in Israel was surely getting kick backs man.” It tanked the company. Stock plummeted, 4 rounds of layoffs, CEO still got his 5Million though. That guy was a flat out asshole through and through IMO.

I ask Mark about his family, he tells me his sons are 18 and 19. I ask what their plan is, college? How come they are not out here hiking with him? He tells me they are being forced into joining the Israeli defense force as right now they are being activated to fight and defend. They are required to join at 18 and do their time.

I tell Mark I actually respect that. Fighting for one’s nation. Defending your countries freedom from foreign and domestic terrorist. Fucking right that takes a set of balls that most don’t have. I wish Mark’s kids an easy time in the service and I’ll say a prayer for them.

We get to camp and hang around and cook more food, we talk about our week, month and overall hikes. Mark tells us he’s getting up at 4AM to be out at 4:45AM for Mather Pass. Seven and I say we 100% agree and we will see him then.

After dinner I head off and do some yoga, walk the river and take some photos. Such a beautiful area, it’s starting to rain so I tuck into my tent for the night and watch a movie on Netflix. “The Hitman”

After a small trip north to let the snowy sierras melt more we decided it was time and flipped back to the Sierras. NorCal was a bitch anyways. Not my fave. Mosquitos, gross.

Seven and I wake up at five and our ride (Ann) from Bishop to Onion Valley Campground will be here at six sharp. It’s an hour and 10 minute drive followed by a 7 1/2 mile hike uphill over Kearsarge pass to where we drop down into the valley to connect back to the PCT. Then our plan is to summit Glen Pass as well. All said and done 20 miles, we’re hoping Glenn pass is still firm when we get there and not a slushy mess. If it’s firm it’s light work for our legs. Odds are it’s slushy.

Seven doesn’t have an ice axe anymore, we both shipped them home when we went to NorCal. We thought we wouldn’t be back in the Sierras till July. I actually went to Mammoth Mountain exchange and bought a used one last minute because I said I’d rather have it and carry it and not need it then need it and not have it. 1 lbs to be safe and it digs holes much better than the aluminum trowels.

Ann picks us up right on time, she texts me “I’m outside in a red Ford Focus.” Ann’s a lovely lady who’s retired and offers hikers rides. I toss her some cash for her time and we jump out at the trail head. Honestly I think shuttling hikers for 3 months of the bubble in Bishop and you could make some good money. It’s over an hour one way, what would you pay someone for that? If you check Uber which doesn’t exist here, it would be 86$.

We start off uphill after a couple Red bulls. High altitude? Why not induce the heart attack now. If I’m going to die let it be here. I started feeling like shit yesterday, I blame the woman coughing in Vons. As we hike up we start counting how many weekend hikers we are passing on the way up. They all camped at the campground last night, that’s honestly a good idea for a weekend trip.

I tell Seven I’m feeling the altitude. Last time in the Sierras we hiked from 6,000’ to 13,000’ over four days leaving Kennedy Meadows South. It was gradual, today we went from 3,000 to 10,000 by car. Then hiked even higher, I’m coughing, feel nauseous and just have the classic altitude sickness symptoms on top of I think day 1 sickness in general. Power through bud, nothing else you can do it’s not serious and you’ll be fine. Worst case, Tylenol and an early bed time.

We get up the switch backs and realized that the trail is completely different than when we were here last. Last time I was here I actually couldn’t even see the trail. It was completely covered with snow so as I hike up it now following a nice dirt path, it’s cruising. Seven looks at me and laughs he says “dude we will be up in no time over under another 2 hours?” I say under. Another 5 miles and we’re at the top of the pass, we see some thru hikers coming the opposite way, we chit chat about what conditions at Forrester were like. We were there 3.5 weeks ago, totally different than today. We take some photos, say good bye to them and and head on.

As we come down into the valley, it’s a fast downhill through some switchbacks that again I didn’t recognize because last time I was here they were under snow. I probably cut them in the snow and climbed across them. I take the path of least resistance in the snow. The trail here is absolutely beautiful and as I keep walking we point out all the beautiful campsites and say to ourselves, we would love to come back here and spend a week just camping not thru hiking.

We start the climb up to the base of Glenn pass, we can’t see any trail and there’s boot prints everywhere. It looks to be a pick your own adventure game. Alright then Seven loves this game. Point and shoot, he starts off and I’m on his six, I walk close to him to match his pace and stride. I step into his boot holes to avoid any unnecessary post holing. As we get to the actual base of the pass we’re both like where are we going? We see a woman hiker Snow Globe from the check Republic and we tell her to get in our conga line. Let’s problem solve.

The three of us climb to the top of Glenn Pass, rock scramble, follow by a snow traverse. We then took some photos and started the sketchy slushy descent down the opposite side. I was tail end Charlie this time. Ice axe in my upper hand and microspikes on I sloshed the whole way down the traverse till we finally hit some rocks. Once we hit the rocks we started to scramble down them to where it finally flattened out.

Once it flattened out we walked through the 60 lakes area, and I’ll confirm there are a ton of lakes around here. At least a couple dozen, we continue on through four or five stream crossings and finally hit the 800 mile mark. We snap some photos and get moving. 800 baby, let’s go.

One last water crossing and we arrive at camp. We see a hand full of other hikers and we pitch our tents, I explore the area and notice a swing bridge right there. Nice, we will be crossing that at 5 sharp tomorrow.

Seven and I eat dinner, hang out for a few then jump into our tents. The mosquitos are starting up and they love me.

I left town with the goal of making it to Burney Mountain Guest Ranch today, I set off up a road walk onto the trail. The trails still burnt but not as badly, I get a little past Old Station and take a .4 mile detour to see the Subway Caves lava tubes.

The lava tube was pretty cool, inside the tube was nice and cold! It was a good break coming out of the hot mid day sun the day after a heat wave into the dark cold tunnel. I walk for a bit in darkness and then stumble on the uneven ground. I toss on my headlamp and now I can go exploring, I meet two other hiking at the bottom who are section hiking and going SOBO.

We explore the underground tunnel area together, chat about our travels and then find the trail out of the lava tube and back to the PCT. I say good bye and hang a left as they hang a right, adios guys. I set off up the trail again with no headphones in this time, I was told they saw 4 rattle snakes in the last mile on the way here. Sweet, I’ve only seen 3 this whole trip, one last week that was the first one that’s rattled at me. With the temperatures in the 90s it makes sense they’re out and about.

As I climb to the top of the hill I see no rattlesnakes but a few people at the top of the hill at the Hat creek overlook. I decide to stop and take a break, as I’m hanging out taking in the views through the view points a woman Audrey in a camper van pulls up. She hops out and we start chatting. Her vibes immaculately from New England without the air of entitlement. I immediately realize I can talk to her easily. Come to find out she raised her kids in Andover MA before moving around the country a bit. What a small world I meet someone who’s lived 20 minutes away from me all the way out here.

After talking about everything under the sun from hiking to life back home for about an hour she offers me a ride to Burney. Absolutely, I don’t mind getting there a day earlier and relaxing and I really won’t be upset about missing this 14 miles of burnt trail.

Audrey tells me she’ll be up at Crater lake when I walk thru there next month working for the Parks services. I’ll definitely be looking for you to say hi, and to get the inside info on that area! Audrey drops me off at the bottom of the hill to BMGR and we say our goodbyes and I give her a hug. I finish the walk up the hill to the 145 acre property and I’m greeted by Christine who owns the property with her husband Kyran.

“Hi there do you want a Coke, Dr Pepper or root beer?”- Christine

I’ll take a coke please!- me

She shows me around the property and explains how everything works. As she is giving me the tour another hiker stumbles in. Wrong Turn a Marine from NC who is currently going SOBO as he flip flopped his hike. He left before the Sierras to skip the snow and then did the Oregon coast trail SOBO. He said it sucked, beautiful coast between long road walks. Wouldn’t do it again. Noted. I’ve heard that a lot about the road walks. I don’t care for them.

Christine shows us the bunk houses and tells us where we can do laundry and find dinner. Dinners at 6PM! We don’t know the menu, just to show up.

We congregate in the dining room sharing stories with the other 3 hikers here. Kim a gentleman from San Fran who’s going SOBO like Wrong Turn and one other who’s a retired Air Force lawyer from Wyoming Tony. Tony’s going NOBO on a 600 mile section hike.

Dinner arrives and it’s a spread. Salad, meatballs and pasta, fruit plate and desert. I got Italian dressing for the salad.

After dinner we are told the all you can eat breakfast starts are 7AM. We retire to the bunk house and hang out for a bit, Christine says to be careful outside at night as they’ve seen four cougars around here recently. A momma and her cubs. We hang outside for like 10 minutes and the mosquitos are nuts.

I plan to spend tomorrow hanging out by the pool for a zero day to refresh my mental outlook. On top of that my foot’s still annoying me from being poked by something post holing and this is a perfect place to relax.

I wake up at 5AM and get ready. I also wake up feeling negative. I flat out don’t want to hike today. Yesterday was a hassle of bushwhacking and trail finding. Quite frankly it destroyed my moral. I hope the snowy miles are solid this morning so I can walk on top of it. I get out of my tent and take that first step, the snow feels firm, nice. That’s a huge first win for the day.

I dig my cat hole, eat breakfast and start off over the ridge line in the snow. After a mile it clears to nice dirt path along the ridge. Nice. I followed it for a while through blowdowns and ups and downs through some eerie burnt forest. This area was a victim of the Dixie fire and it got absolutely scorched. Depressing.

I get to the top of the hill after 4 miles and see some volcanic rock formations. Pretty cool to see since back home we have none of this terrain. I read the far out comments on how rough the lava is. This areas going to tear up my shoes but it’s beautiful. I do remember how rough the black sand beaches were in Maui.

As I continue on walking up the volcanic rock I can see views of the mountains between the rocks and they’re still covered with snow. Beautiful views too.

As I continue on up the trail again I stop and grab some snow melt as the next water source is a handful of miles away. I’m starting to chafe, sweat and I need to stay hydrated. That’s been rule #1 since day one. Hydrate hydrate hydrate. I filter a liter of snow water and chug it down. Gross strawberry flavored electrolytes, I can’t buy this flavor again. So far my favorite flavor has been the tropical flavor, next the new lemonade flavor.

After grabbing water it’s another snowy traverse, this time we go up over the ridge line to the opposite side where the sun is beating down on the mountain to skip the snow. We’ll take a smidge of bushwhacking over a sideways snow traverse in slush. Overall I’m done with snow at this point mentally. It’s sketchy walking on an angle in slushy conditions. If the snow gives out you’re just along for the ride.

After we finish the snow we begin a nice downhill, it’s 7 miles to the highway 36 and I’m planning on getting there today. The downhills uneventful, I didn’t take many pictures of this section due to it being just burnt down. It was ugly, depressing, and made me wonder how beautiful it must’ve been back then. Towering tall trees in a beautiful forest.

My dad’s voice pops into my head when I complained to him about the Big Bear fire area. He said “it’s a forest fire bud, that’s nature it happens and that’s now what the forest is. Get use to it. Find beauty in the rebirth of a new beautiful forest.” He’s not wrong, but it’s a hard pill to swallow today.

On the way downhill I pass the halfway point marker. Seven says It’s kindve underwhelming for being “halfway”. I cannot believe I have hiked this much mileage on the PCT. I haven’t made it officially halfway yet. I still have some miles I need to do in the Sierras because I had to skip forward as the snow was melting to fast. But wow, I have hiked over 900 miles on the PCT NOBO, and over 200 miles in Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Sequía. Fuck yeah! I’ve hit over 1,000 miles for 2025.

I sign the logbook and notice I’m the 15th person to come through here this year. I believe it, the trail looks like no one’s been on it in years. It’s due for some serious maintenance. Another mile or so after thinking that and I see 3 guys doing exactly that. Trail maintenance, I stop and chat for a moment and tell them they are sent from god. The trails trash the last 20 miles and you guys are very much appreciated. Too late for me, but the next guys will sincerely appreciate it.

Uglystick and Wind two other hikers I’ve met are a day behind me, they are the true trail leaders and have been ahead of everyone the entire time. They went into the sierras in April. That’s crazy, me jumping ahead put me just in front of them. They’ll catch up though.

After talking with the guys doing maintenance we move through a soaked meadow, I was originally planning on camping here but it’s not going to happen. Camp sites are scarce here, the dead trees make it so I don’t want to camp anywhere near them.

After we cross the meadow I bee line it a mile for the highway. I decide I’m grabbing a hitch into Chester and spending the night there. Seven says he’s coming with me and has his eyes on a milkshake somewhere. I get to the highway and throw my thumb out. Ten minutes in and a lovely woman picks us up, she tells us her stories, she’s heading to Reno to dog sit for her daughters new 9week old puppy. She also battled cancer the last few years and lost almost everything. Financially she lost everything, but she beat cancer. That’s most important.

She drops us off at the Bidwell House bed and breakfast and I grab a double room. It was the only place is town with a room available for tonight. The woman at the front desk has a German accent and is also lovely to us, she shows us around the property and it’s just pristine. White picket fence type pristine.

I will say Chester is the most expensive hotel I’ve paid for on trail so far, even more expensive than in San Diego but I needed it. Hell even Seven needed it. Gala apple index is also through the roof, so I knew going into it would be expensive.

Mentally and physically, I’m just toast this week. My pace throughout this hike has progressed significantly, I can hike 30 mile days but the last week or so has just been physically demanding with very little views or scenes that balance it out. This is the time for the mental toughness and to find beauty in misery. Embrace the suck.

I decide to take a zero tomorrow. Tomorrow’s suppose to be 97°F and I just don’t want to hike in that heat. My plan is to relax for the day. Do laundry to get the poison oak off my socks and just generally enjoy a day of not hiking. Seven is going to burn the day with me, Wolf and Pinecone pushed on. We’ll catch up to them later in either Old Station or Burney.

The next day I wake up later than normal and enjoy an off day. I meet a local Michael who use to run the Hiker Hostel and hang at his house for a bit. Michael shows me around town and we enjoy a beer or two. These small towns and the people in them truly do make me want to stay, the hospitality for a complete stranger like my self keeps me going.

After I leave Michael’s I stop on the way back for a sub at Pizza Factory, I order an Italian with no tomatoes and the lady says “Do you want it hot?” Absolutely not, Italian subs are served cold in my life. Man do I wish California would stop trying to heat up every sub they make. I crush my sub and hang out for the rest of the day, back on trail tomorrow and I need to get in the zone for it.

We got a hitch from Bishop to Mammoth from a trail angel Debi. Worked out great, she’s also letting me store my bear can at her house till I get back. Thank you! I then grabbed a rental car at Enterprise at Mammoth airport and drove us the 5.5 hours north to skip the seriously melting fast second half of the Sierras.

I camp outside of what I think is the only store in Belden. I wake up at 5AM and Seven and I are on the move by 5:45AM. The trail starts off up a side of the mountain overlooking the river. Beautiful views for the first climbs of the day. Looking at the map it’s the most uphill we’ve done in a while.

Luckily there’s plenty of water on the way up, I stop twice and at one crossing actually slipped on the rocks. Woops, these rocks are a lot more slippery than back in the desert. As I cross the third water crossing it’s time to get my feet wet. I go in up to my knees and it’s refreshing.

As I continue up the trail I enter the burn zone from the Dixie fire. It’s scarred, charred and ultimately destroyed. As the days heat warms up I want to get a move on but I also just spent 3 hours bush whacking through zero trail at all. This section needs desperate maintenance. My morals slipping.

Finally the trail appears and I see snow ahead, damn snow again. I toss on my microspikes as it’s a traverse across a steep slope, yuck it’s slush too. These spikes are useless anyways. Seven goes first, he kicks boot steps in the steep slope and makes it down instead of across. I go next and follow his boot steps. I slip half way down and sled 45 feet on my ass. Alrighty then. Not what I wanted but I’m ok.

After we both get to the bottom we realize we have to climb up another ridge to avoid more switch backs in the snow. Ugh. We kick boot steps in and make our way over the top. Finally dry trail. We get a move on and look at the map for the next and last water source of the day.

In 2 miles we hit the next and last water source, we fill up 3.5 liters for the hot sun and a dry camp later and then get going again. It’s 2.5 miles to high point junction and we’re going to camp right after it.

We approach a beautiful meadow and it’s soaked, we trudge through the sloppy muddy meadow and get into the next burnt section. As we climb climb climb we’re back into snow. I look at the map again, I’m going to pull up short and camp on dry ground instead of snow.

I see a dry spot and there is home for the night, I pitch my tent, dry out my shoes, socks and everything else. I sit down on the dirt and cook Annie’s Mac and cheese tonight. I mix it up in a freezer bag to keep my cook pot clean from the cheese sauce.

After dinner I retire to my tent and watch a movie. “Entourage.” Honestly- I was a huge fan of the show. Like absolutely loved it, will watch it endlessly. The movie, just didn’t deliver. Bummer

Not surprising but today really wiped me out. Time for bed as some deer prance around outside my tent.

My alarm didn’t have to go off, I’m awake before it goes off at 1AM sharp. I slept like garbage last night at altitude and now I’m ready to go for the biggest climb of the trip. I pack up all my stuff and get my morning breakfast down, two Thomas’ muffin tops, one blueberry and one chocolate chip, a half liter of water.

I wait for Seven Wolf and Pinecone to pack up their stuff. Today’s a team sport, or at minimum we will travel in pairs most of the time.

We head up the trail in total darkness, we haven’t done this since San Jacinto. (Besides for night hiking) it’s 5ish miles to the base of Forrester Pass and Seven is in lead. I keep giving him left or rights to let him know we’re on or off trail. We get closer to the Forrester approach and I swap my shorts to pants, man it got much colder as I climbed that 1,000 feet. This is the first time in 30 days I’ve hiked in pants. And the only time I have ever hiked in my puffy and mid layer.

I toss on my microspikes and debate using my ice axe for the first bit. I skip it and go with just my trekking poles. As I start to climb I immediately regret my decision of not carrying my axe for this bit. I decide to make a side detour to the skree field and then grab it. Taking your backpack off on a slope like this is always a gamble DO NOT LET GO. The snow is honestly ideal right now, I’m glad we left at this time. I look back at Pinecone and take his picture. “What’s the sketchiest thing you’ve done this week?” I ask him as I stand there on a 50 degree slope cellphone in hand.

We continue to push up the high pass and struggle to breathe at the high altitude of 13,000’, we then make it to the switch backs. Finally a little bit of dirt trail, we can take a breather for a second on firm ground. That feeling doesn’t last long and we climb out of that switch back and finish it off with a nice snowy traverse and a rock scramble or ice climb to the top. Pick your own adventure.

I start off with the ice climb, I dig in my cramp ons and move up, I get 5 steps up and say nah, it’s hard but not hard enough ice. I worry about the entire surface coming loose. I head back down and reevaluate. Seven takes the rock scramble line ahead of me and I see that’s a better decision.

When we get to the top we all take a minute to enjoy the sunrise. Fuck yeah. We take some photos and then remember we still need to get moving again to beat the slushy downhill as the sun rises.

We hang a left out of Forrester pass and it’s downhill for 5-6 miles through the snowy valley with amazing views all around. It starts with about 3/4 of a mile over a nice ridge line.

We see hikers in the distance, they actually passed us going up like champions. Their comment as they passed was we are mountaineers we know what we’re doing. It surely looked like it, especially at 13k I was sucking wind trying to breathe. I was genuinely impressed by how fast they did it, we did it pretty quick but they absolutely crushed it. We start to head down the ridge line.

When we get to the top of the ridge line we talk about the question of the morning. Do we glissade or nah? I say nah, too early in the AM and the snows too solid. We take a vote, 2 yes’ 1 no and an eeeh. Roger let’s glissade is the answer. We glissade down the back side and get a move on. My ass takes a beating on the downhill, I still stand by it was too hard of snow!

We get down in altitude from the granite cliff faces and back into the forests. There’s rushing streams and waterfalls everywhere, it’s amazing to listen to. As we cross snow bridges I wait for one to collapse but luckily they all hold firm.

We get to a trail junction and read a sign about bears and the JMT. Seven and I are checked out and we make a wrong turn. Hike a mile down the wrong way and then have to double back to fix our mistake. At least it was a beautiful trail.

We forgot we are currently hiking the JMT NOBO which happens to be the same as the PCT for this section. The trails over lap. I debate coming back in September and doing to entire JMT by my self. But anyways Seven and I, we are dumb for that mistake! We were probably just happy to be back on dirt.

When we get back to the junction we meet back up with Wolf and Pinecone who were a little slower than us on the way down and they say “wtf are you guys doing??” We tell them our blunders and to NOT go that way. I then say goodbye to the three of them, they are camping here. I am splitting off to hike out to Bishop for Mule weekend which means I have to keep hiking today. At least another 10 miles solo, it’s noonish let’s get it.

The map says I have to get up and over Kearsage pass, a lovely slog in the snow which included chest deep post holing. At one point I needed to take off my backpack to get my self out. Honestly, my mom would be upset I was alone in this particular area if she knew. After that I finally come into more switch backs, 10-12 of them which was actually a nice relief from the snow.

As I finally reach the summit I see and read the Kearsage Pass sign and eye ball the other side aka the descent. And wow it’s sketchy looking in the slush. I see a guy climbing up who says “wow that was slick man!” In my head I was thinking what are you doing coming up at 3PM? But he was probably thinking the same about me. He asks if I want him to wait for me to cross in case I slip. I laugh and tell him my mother would appreciate that and I take off in the same path he came up from. Microspikes and ice axe on and in my hand. I cross and yell back thank you, he waves and that’s the last I see of him.

This section wouldn’t have been sketchy earlier in the day with firm footing but at this hour it’s slushy as hell and spikes just don’t do anything. If the snow decides to slide you’re sliding with it. There’s rocks 900 feet below and then a lake under that.

I get through this part just fine and see three hikers way beneath me, I turn the jets on hoping to catch up and follow them down. It’s easier and safer to travel in teams and my phones almost dead. As I catch up I meet hikers I’ve run into in the past. We saw these guys on San Jacinto over a month ago, they were in their tent in the middle of the trail and we literally exchanged heated works at 3AM. We never “met” each other then, but what a small world to see them again. They’re actually nice people.

We continue on hiking and then they pull off to camp for the night. See ya further down trail guys. I drop down into Onion Valley, I hear I can hitch hike to the town of Independence from here then take a bus on the 395 highway to Bishop.

I start sourcing day hikers and campers for rides and get shut down, I offer one guy cash up front and he says no sorry. I get frustrated and say 10 more minutes and I’m walking. Fuck it. Just did 22 miles on trail what’s another 30 to town? Sarcasm.

No luck, I start the road walk and finally get some cell service after a week, 188 emails, 97 texts and 12 voicemails. No one calls me when I have service tho? The road walks brutal, there’s zero cars, zero hope and zero drive to keep going. It’s windy switch backs for miles, would be a beautiful drive. On the way down I only see 2 cars, neither picks me up. The wind picks up and it’s getting cold.

As I’m mentally prepared to house the whole walk, mile 9 appears and someone finally arrives and gives pity to me, they drop me off at the post office in Independence and I slip them a $20 for the help. This gentleman makes pizzas out of a mobile pizza trailer. Him and my buddy Marc would be boys, slinging dough.

I make it to the town and get dropped off at the post office. I was actually here last week by car to grab a package from Z Packs. In case y’all read this, no my backpack is still broken. I sit down on the bus stop and take off my shoes and socks, 30+ miles today in wet shoes and socks. I think 4 or 5 water crossings. All day snow. My feet are screaming.

I cross the street to the bus stop and the schedule says it’s not running today, ugh, here’s to another hitch hike attempt. I try for an hour out on the road with no luck, the only one who even waved was the sheriff. My cell phone is now at 10% battery and I am thirsty. I walk to the Valero gas station to grab a Gatorade and chips. I ask the cashier at the counter if there’s any taxis in town since Uber doesn’t exist here. The guy gives me someone’s number. 45$ he’ll take me to Bishop it’s 55 miles up highway 395. Let’s go bud I’ve walked enough and want to sleep inside tonight. A half hour goes by and he never shows up. I call one more person and they say it’s really far but they’ll do it as they’re just home reading.

Dave picks me up and we drive up 395N, we have a nice chat in the car and I tell him my story. I arrive in Bishop after the drive and check into the Hostel California. My sister booked me a room earlier this week knowing it was mule week/ Memorial Day and that all the hotels would be sold out. HUGE thank you to her and for thinking ahead. The timeline knowing I had a spot was a motivator too.

The hostel is outrageous, an old 1800s house with a ton of rooms. I’m welcomed by the host with a bong rip in the shed followed by a tour of the property. There is probably 15-20 other hikers here and a bunch of random nomads. Everyone’s playing piano, cooking, playing guitar, hanging out, drinking, playing games and sharing stories of their travels.

I chat with a couple guys from Germany and discuss future Sierra plans, we laugh, talk bullshit and swap contact info. Some other guys bicker back and forth about some nonsense and I sit there laughing at it. I’m old AF at this point in my life the late night bullshit peacocking doesn’t interest me. Best of luck to them haha.

After a while of stories at midnight I head inside to the 8 bed dorm style room to where I got the top bunk tonight. Haven’t slept like this since college, brings back good memories. I hiked from 1AM to 6PM today and with my legs feeling absolutely destroyed it’s going to be tough getting in and out of bed from the top bunk.

Tomorrow I’m going to zero in Bishop and enjoy the Mule Week festivities. The weather is absolutely perfect here, the people are friendly and it just feels right. I’ve really enjoyed all the small towns we’ve stopped at in California so far and I plan to stop in many more along the way.

I wake up late. I blew it again for an early start, the game plan was to be up and out of camp by 4AM. 5:15AM hits and I’m like WTF, my alarm didn’t go off and I didn’t naturally wake up? I was really tired. Yesterday was tough.

I pack up as fast as possible and get going. The others are waiting for me and today’s a slog. It’s mostly uphill to get to the base of Forrester pass. We got an early start to beat the post holing and to be able to cruise on hard packed snow. It’s nice when the snows firm and you can walk normal without fear of falling through.

We start the day off with a water crossing, over a big log onto the other side. Then the first mile is all up hill right into the snow, then a bit of patchy sections on the south side of the mountain. Got to love that sun power, as we keep moving snow snow snow.

We take some sketchy down hills followed by some wide open meadows. We get a nice look at Mt Whitney and see the fighter jets flying over it. How awesome of a view those pilots must have of the Sierras. At one point they’re beneath us.

As we cross the second water crossing it’s time to get my feet wet, oh well. We move through the icy cold water and keep going, I don’t fill up my water bottles because I’m carrying 2 liters of water already. Trying to drink as much as I can at altitude. As we turn into the next water crossing it is raging. Actually sketchy.

Seven first, then me, then Pine Cone, then Wolf Slayer, the water is ice cold and my legs and feet are stinging. As we get across it’s only another 1000 feet up to camp. We get a move on to get warm and get in the sun. I get to camp, setup my stuff, let my shoes, socks, gaiters and shorts dry out and I start to cook dinner. I really have no food left and I’m cooking anything at this point.

After eating dinner I head down to the crossing when I see some others crossing. The waters raging now and they luckily made too. Now it’s a 7PM, bedtime because tomorrow is another early start. Tomorrow I am waking up at 1AM for a 2AM start to crush mileage while the snow is still frozen.

I wake up as my alarm goes off. First time in a while this has happened, 5:30 it is. Like a broken record, again I say I need to get an early start to beat the post holing. I expect miles 5-15 to be full of snow and the others to be questionable. FarOut had good comments from people here last week, people that came by most recently still don’t have service to post. So we head in semi blind with “old” info. I read comments from Reaper and Stumbles on campsites, water sources and snow. I trust their comments as I hiked probably 120 miles with them back in the desert. Solid

I pack up, dig a cat hole and grab some water from the creek. Pro tip is using the ice axe to hold your TP.

Today there’s multiple water sources along the trail so I’m not too worried. Besides the snow, and the altitude it’s a relatively easy day. 1,800’ vertical day and 2,600’ of down.

I start off and make great time on the first 2 miles, then the snow starts. It’s nice and firm so I’m walking over it fine, I get to mile 4 and there’s one section that’s steep. I toss on my microspikes because I’m alone and I send it. Not a “dangerous” area really but I don’t need to slip on my ass and get that kind of dumb hurt. Be smart.

I decide to leave my spikes on for a while and crush the next 2 miles pretty easily, the trail starts to change and it actually becomes hard to follow. I can’t see any boot tracks and there’s trees everywhere. I rely on my GPS to line me up a direction and I head that general way, walk a half mile then look again. Like a boy scouts with his compass. I can’t say I ever struggled with navigating the backcountry provided you can see. I remember a time in college my roommate Bobby had his ROTC land navigation test the following day but had the flu. I went out the night prior and did mushrooms and mapped out the entire campus of UMASSD. His drill instructor said he was blown away by it. That’s about my land nav experience tho.

I get to mile 8 and decide to take a quick break, it’s at the top of a beautiful view and I see two hikers coming SOBO, they just came off Mt Whitney and one of them twisted their ankle. So rather than push on toward Bishop over Forrester they’re pushing back towards Lone Pine. Smart, easier route even though it’s sucks to go backwards.

I say good bye and pop up to keep hiking. The last handful of miles are downhill into camp, IMO even though they were downhill they were a slog. I post holed most of the trail and walked basically off trail to stay on the dry parts. I can’t say it was too bad, but annoying to have wet feet all day. And I mean all day.

I walk into camp and I’m again the first one here, I pitch my tent and start to dry out my sleeping bag, liner, socks and shoes and my tent. The suns moving quick so I’m playing a game of moving stuff around all afternoon. But that’s why I like to get these easy days done early. Now it’s 4PM and I can hang out and relax for the afternoon.

Seven arrives second and then Wolf walks in next and pitches their stuff. Pinecone a little after, we listen to the gurgling creek and sit in the sun. What a nice day.

I head up to cook dinner and get the info on tomorrows day, Pinecone says it’s 4,600’ of up and we’re camping at 11,500’… We are positioning our selves at the base for Forrester Pass and it’s going to be quite a venture. Hoping to be up top for sunrise. You know me, I’m a sucker for sunrise.

I wake up at 6AM and get a move on, today’s weather is perfect. 63F and sunny all day, I make a deal with my self, since it’s a short day I must have 4 breaks today.

I start off solo and eventually Seal catches up, he’s pushing a 27 mile day today so he can position him self for Whitney. We chat for an hour and decide to take our first break.

Him being a young engineer and me being an older engineering director, we bond over wtf are we going to do after this? I tell him he’s fine. At 27, you can go get any engineering job to pay the bills when you’re done, then figure out what you want to do. Me on the other hand? I feel I’m washed up as a functional engineer, but I don’t think I want to go back to managing large engineering teams. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, maybe only fans?

We get up and get moving again, he tells me he’s got to dig a hole and take a crap. “Brother we just stopped you could’ve went then!” I say to him. But I get it, I don’t have the best stomach, so when you got to go you got to go.

We keep going up the trail and make good progress, we see two F22s flying actually below us. Wow, we’re at 10,500’ feet. They must be below 7,000, getting in that good practice. Seven garmins me “bro the jets!” I laugh and respond “good old American tax dollars baby!”

We hit a point where it’s lunch time and I tell Seal I’ll see him later. He is skipping lunch since he has to do a lot more miles than I do today. Today’s actually a leisure day for me. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Dallas aka Pine Cone because he carried one of those HUGE pinecones over 100 miles planned this stretch. I mean like me Wolf or Seven did ZERO planning this section. Pine Cone nailed it, all I needed to know is how many days of food do I need?

The only thing I didn’t like was doing a 11 day food carry at 11,000 feet. He wants to hit VVR and mailed himself a package there. I did not, and initially planned to skip it because I thought it would still be closed. So I altered the plan to five, I’m going to cut off at Kearsage pass and head into Bishop to resupply, jump back on trail and then catch up. I feel I can move better, and faster with less weight than suffering it out for 11 days.

I absolutely struggle at higher altitudes, I fought for my life in Colorado when I hiked a 8 day section with my buddy Brock and his father in law. It’s the only time in my life my Apple Watch was giving me warning because my heart rate was 175+. Nausea, headache, dizziness. No thanks.

Granted, I’m in much better shape than I was in 2021, but I still don’t want to think I’m “in serious shape” I can hike yes. But as far as heavy breathing my cardio and VO2 max are slacking, now my day to day life lives is in zone 2 maybe 3 for a bit. Almost never zone 4.

So I made the extremely hard decision to split up from my trail fam and do the side quest to Bishop. But that’s later this week, I need to get there first in a few days.

I sit in a nice little area and I fire up some rice medley for lunch. Knorr knocked it out of the park with this one. By far my favorite selection from their lineup. Some electrolytes and then I’m back on the move again. About 25 minutes after lunch I was done with the climbs for the day, all down hill from here. Nice!

I start cruising, nice, easy trail with some snowy patches. Like an idiot, I miss the last water source, ugh, now I’m a mile too far to go back. I’ll skip dinner and brushing my teeth tonight I guess? I Garmin Seven and tell him to grab an extra liter for me and that I’m an idiot! He says “Fact,I got you”

I make great time the last few miles into the trail junctions that’s where we are camping tonight. There’s three people there sitting down. A couple from Seattle and a guy from Sweden. They’re going down to Cottonwood Pass to head into Lone Pine. Nice, I got good weed at Sage and Fire in Lone Pine a couple weeks ago. They thank me for the tip.

We chat for a bit and tell each others stories from the trail, and just like that they pack up to head off to grab a hitch, for them it’s still a few miles down into camp, tonight then a few more miles till a road.

I set my tent up in a beautiful area, Wolf, Pine Cone and Seven walk in all at separate times and do the same. We enjoy dinner and relax for a while because it’s early. I throw on my spikes and test them out, it’s been almost two months since I’ve used them.

After I head to bed and rewatch a movie. Captain Ron, “Isn’t this great!”