Hikey Mike

Day 53 – 14 miles

The desert was officially behind us, with the next month in the Sierras being the section that hikers end up enjoying the most but also struggle through. The day would start at 6000ft but by the end of the day I’d be above 8000ft and wouldn’t hike below this level for another four weeks. As my highest peak so far was 9000ft, this was definitely a concern.

The Sierra also comes with other challenges, much colder weather including sections of snow walking, long food carries, often a week at a time without seeing civilisation and the extra weight of new gear. It’s not only the snow gear that adds weight, but entering bear country we are now also legally required to carry all our food in bear cannisters, designed to stop bears eating visitors food and to make hikers struggle in the early morning when it’s frozen over and their breakfast poptarts are locked away until thawing. The only perk of the bear can is it’s a place for hikers to show their creativity with vast space for stickers, and early on I showed some national pride by prepping for the World Cup.

The first day out of Kennedy Meadows was a pretty gentle one, a slow climb into the mountains with the terrain quickly starting to shift into much more green and alive. After the two months in the desert, this was a welcome change and the vast size of everything was a real shock to me, with meadows and forests going for miles in all directions. We would largely be walking through designated wilderness areas in the Sierras, which means no buildings or vehicles of any sort other than the odd ranger station, but this first taste of complete isolation was a very welcome one after a few days in town.

Planning for a shorter day to ease into the elevation, we found a large river with a beach and due to the excitement of having large water sources for the first time all trip, we decided to enjoy dinner and cowboy camp on the beach, with the only noise being from a nest of 20 swallows under the nearby bridge. If this is what the sierras had in store, it was going to be a good few weeks.

Day 54 – 18 miles

Today started with a treat, a 2500ft climb bringing a new milestone, my first time over 10000ft. After struggling on San Jacinto a month and a half ago at 8000ft, this is a landmark that I had been worrying about for some time. For perspective, the recent discussions about how the England team would possibly cope with playing at the Azteca in such inhumane conditions was for a stadium at 7200ft and while I’m not running around for 90 minutes, lugging myself and a near 40lb rucksack up a mountain didn’t feel much easier.

Luckily, I managed to get to the top without too much of a struggle and was rewarded with my first view of the mountain range ahead of me, which while beautiful was concerning to think I’d be hiking through over the next week

The rest of the afternoon was a pretty smooth hike through meadows, which after two months of no grass was a lovely change and a nice way to ease in

Day 55 – 20 miles

Today was the day the Sierras delivered on everything I’d been told coming into this week, both the good and the bad.

Starting with the bad, which was dealing with elevation. While not having the sickness I’d previously had, living above 10000ft comes with its challenges. The obvious one is the oxygen intake issue, which meant that the sound of my constant panting for air was becoming second nature and climbs were requiring frequent breaks to catch my breath. The more surprising was the lack of sleep, which is apparently a common issue. The lack of oxygen breaks your bodies breathing rhythm and causes less deep sleep and much more interrupted sleep. After two months of pretty solid 10 hour sleeps, this new change was starting to bother me and I woke up tired and grumpy.

The group had set the goal to climb Mt Whitney at sunrise on day 57 for Lorax’s birthday, a great plan which unfortunately required a longer day today. While 20 miles in the desert eventually became pretty straightforward, in the sierras it was less so. Five of us fell behind the main group and eventually reached our lunch spot a few hours after everyone else, with conversations starting on if the plan was going to be achievable, but we soldiered on. The main issue with slowing down would be food. I had packed enough for 8 days assuming that due to my previous elevation issues, I might not be able to go so quickly however everyone else had packed for 7, meaning we needed to get to town on our original timeline.

The day was brightened by the sign of our first alpine lake, Chicken Spring Lake, which would be the first of hundreds of lakes we’d see over the next few weeks. Filled entirely by snow melt from the mountain above, the water was cold but refreshing after a long day hiking, and would have made for a lovely sleeping spot if it wasn’t for my new enemies, the mosquitoes, which made sleeping or even taking a break by any water source a miserable experience, so I powered on another few miles to escape the swarm.

Day 56 – 15 miles

A shorter day today to set us up for Whitney tomorrow, but my energy levels were low and by lunchtime I’d fallen behind the rest of the group. The goal was to reach Guitar Lake, 4 miles and 3000ft below the summit of Mt Whitney and the last real campsite however waking up this was still 19 miles away and felt like a tough challenge.

The day was also littered with what would soon become a familiar challenge, the dreaded river crossing. The trail crosses hundreds of rivers and streams, some easy rock hops, others impossible to cross without fording across with water up to thigh level if not higher. The worst of these crossings are the ones inbetween, where there appears to be a dry path that requires some form of parkour or balance work to cross dry, and each must be assessed on how likely you are to get across in one piece vs how much you really don’t want to get your feet wet.

This sort of log crossing would be common over the next few weeks, but I still find fear inducing, slowly inching across with a heavy pack on your back and the river flowing below. Like this one, the worst log crossings have additional obstacles of random branches sticking up in the middle that require additional gymnastics work to go round, all part of the fun.

Managing 15 of the 19 miles, I knew I was done for the day and reached a campsite early enough that I could get some sleep before the nighttime ascent. Being 4 miles behind the rest of the group, I would need to wake up almost 90 minutes before them to catch up in time for sunrise, a challenge I wasn’t sure I would be able to complete but was going to try

Day 57 – 25 miles

11:30pm alarm, hiking by 11:45pm. This was going to be a long day, and the next 16 miles weren’t even on the PCT. The Mt Whitney summit is technically a ‘side quest’, 8 miles and 4000ft to summit the tallest mountain in the continental US and then 8 miles back to camp, with the benefit being I can leave my tent and food at camp and hike up with a lighter pack.

The whole climb would be done in the pitch black, with only my headlamp to light the way, which is always scary for the first 10 minutes but quickly becomes normal

I quickly caught up to where the others had camped last night and couldn’t see anyone so assumed they’d already set off. Making slow progress up the mountain, I was worried I wouldn’t make it to the top for sunrise but I kept plodding on and suddenly other members of the group started to catch up, with the realisation that I actually caught up quicker than I thought and was the first person to begin the ascent.

The climb was tough for everyone, with people suffering from elevation sickness and the bitter cold with one person getting shock from the cold just 10 minutes from the top and having to huddle under their sleeping bag for a while to warm up.

Eventually we made it to the top, and even managed to beat sunrise by 20 minutes. The summit was well below 0c and even in our sleeping bags it was almost unbearable, but soon the sun rose and the views were completely worth it. I had carried a beer to celebrate the moment, which in town felt like a good idea, but shivering at 5am, it felt more like a chore.

We spent about an hour at the summit, before the cold became too much and we descended back down the mountain. Driven by adrenaline and a desire to quickly drop altitude, the climb down was quick and improved by the sight of at least 10 marmots, small furry mammals who all seem to be chubby and very relaxed

Getting back to camp at 9am after 16 miles, I went straight to bed and managed to nap until around 1pm when the sun finally started to shine on the tent and became annoyingly hot. The rest of the group caught up with me at camp, and we all took a long lunch break, deciding to try and go further today to get closer to the start of Forester Pass, the tallest point on the PCT and covered in snow which is easier to hike on in the morning. 9 very tired miles later, we finally reached camp and worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep again, was offered a sleeping pill and managed 10 hours straight sleep, the dream.

Today was the day I had been fearing for the last few months and to be able to reach the summit without any major struggles was the most rewarding and emotional moment on trail so far. There are lots of challenges to come but I no longer doubt I’ll be able to take them on

Day 58 – 13 miles

You’d think today would be an easy day after yesterday’s challenge, nope. The first thing we’d do today is climb Forester Pass, the first major mountain pass on the PCT and the highest point of the official trail at 13200ft. Normally completely covered in snow, due to a historically low snow year this summer, there were only a few miles of snow walking to come, including one of the most dangerous sections, a steep snow chute at the summit.

Despite the fear mongering, I actually found this climb one of the easiest so far, until reaching the dreaded snow chute, normally around 20-30m long, it was only 10m this season but still very scary, with a steep drop over 1000ft below the snow. Taking this on early enough in the day meant the snow was still hard and not melting, so it was easy enough and by not looking at the edge I was able to quickly scurry across, reaching the peak just a minute later

The way down was much easier, and a lot more fun, with my first experience of glissading, aka sliding down a snowy mountain on your bum. Very doubtful at first, after watching everyone else do it I commited and as you’ll see, I had a great time.

Unfortunately we couldn’t slide the whole way down, so we actually had to hike! The next hour was the most we’d walked in the snow, and unless there’s any unexpected storms to come, probably the longest stretch we’d have in the snow the whole trail. It’s hard work, but compared to what people go through most years, this was very easy

Finding one of the bluest lakes I’ve ever seen, and still half frozen over, we decided this was the ideal lunch spot, but I flat out refused to go for a swim

At this point we were only 15 miles from town, but I suddenly got my first real injury of the trail, a sharp pain in my achilles. With no other option but to plod on, I slowly limped the next 6 miles and was delighted to see our first trail magic of the sierras. Set up at the campsite I was planning to stay at, and with no vehicles allowed in the area, a group had hired mules to bring food and drink up to the trail, and so the night was spent eating 7 quesadillas and drinking slightly too much whiskey. Around 30 of us spent the night around the campfire and all the pain of the last few hours disappeared, enjoying my favourite night on trail so far

Day 59 – 9 miles

I was ready for town, and thankfully all that separated me from Bishop was one of the hardest passes on the trail, Kearsage Pass, a 2500ft climb over 4 miles. With my foot less painful but still sore, I hobbled through the morning and was only spurred on by a slightly surreal moment, a deer walking along the trail for almost 20 minutes which did not seem startled by me at all

Reaching the peak, I slowly made my way down the climb and reaching the car park at the trailhead we ran into two competing trail angels both offering us beers, one of the better problems I’ve had.

One of the trail angels drove us into the closest town of Independence and after an hour we managed to hitch go the bigger town of Bishop where we’d booked a hotel

Day 60 – Zero in Bishop

Last night was my designated birthday celebration, with my actual birthday in a few days being on the trail. The DJ in the local har was thrilled to see us, with our group of 14 doubling the number of people there, and a fun night was had by all, with a One Direction song being accompanied with a shout out for ‘A British song for Twisters Birthday’. This did mean the next day was quite slow, with the now regular cinema trip followed by the start of my trail crisis, offering to accept any haircut that anyone in the group wanted to give me, and so the Mohawk was born. This is not how I expected to look on my 29th birthday, but the trail provides.