Day 115 Tues Oct 17th
Tent site near Vidette Meadow – Crabtree Meadow Tent site
1866.9 – 1887.1
Approx. 4990 ft ascent 3845 ft descent
20.4 Miles
We woke up around 5:30 as we had a big day today to get over Forester pass. This involves 3,600 feet of climb spread over 7.6 miles.
Fortunately there were no further visits from Mr Bear last night.
We started the morning hiking up Kings Canyon. The ground is frosty and frozen in places. In puddles and shallow areas of the creek cat ice has formed.
I don’t feel 100% today it might be the
altitude or maybe I’ve picked up something whilst in town. I have a sore throat and I feel a little lacking in energy.
Those fresh legs of yesterday seem but a distant memory.
After a good start for the first 3-4 miles the climb up Forrester becomes steep, rocky and exposed and the sun beats down on us.
Sarah’s foot seems better, although she’s struggling with her breathing today. She recorded her heart rate going up to 130, so she’s taking it slow and taking lots of breaks.
As I look back down to where we had started, Mayflies bob up and down through the air.
Back home there is a very narrow window when they hatch from a nymph to a Mayfly and we wonder whether we have been lucky enough to witness this here.
Either way, at this altitude they must be hardy little fellas.
Yesterday Jennifer had said that it was still unusually warm down in the valleys in Lone Pine and Bishop.
We hope we have been granted an extended weather window to get through the Sierras before the weather turns.
As we make our way up the mountain through a path of switchbacks we see isolated pockets of snow hidden in the shade. Somehow they have managed to survive the sun’s harsh rays.
Earlier Sarah had asked me what I thought about the climb and I stupidly said I thought it was easy. The last 1.3 miles certainly weren’t easy.
Unlike other passes it was more of a steep prolonged climb rather than having to step up and down multiple steps to get to the top.
At the top we reach 13,114 feet officially the highest point on the whole of the PCT.
I thought it might be windy here but the air is still and the sun is warm. Sitting at the top is actually quite pleasant although the rocks are cold to sit on
After spending a few minutes appreciating the views from both sides of the pass we descended down the south facing side of the pass.
Surprisingly we were greeted by a small
chipmunk. At this extreme elevation we were both surprised to see this kind of life thriving here.
The staircase down from Forrester was steep and possibly a harder route for a nobo hiker with lots of switchbacks and steps to deal with. We joke that finally in the Sierras the nobos seem to have a harder challenge, but I am sure it all balances out over the whole thing.
We could even see mule or horse manure on the trail and are both surprised that they could cope with this kind of climb.
As we hike down into the basin on our left hand side was a huge wall of granite with snow patches and 2 shimmering lakes at its foot.
The rest of the basin spreads out for miles. WIth 2 huge stone walls off granite forming corridors running down the left and right hand flanks.
We wonder where the mighty Mount Whitney might be? As we can’t see any mountains or peaks on the horizon that are higher.
The hike down from Forrester was 5 miles and happened without incident. Although my pack feels like someone’s put some lead weights in it today.
Maybe it’s a combination of a heavy pack and the increased temperature that is making me feel so lethargic.
We see a note that another hiker has left in a ziplock bag on a rock next to the trail.
On closer inspection it’s from our old pal Fred Aka “Fredinchi”
It was addressed to a ranger and seemed to suggest there had been an incident or that someone had gone missing + there was a request for more info on the status of a hiker?
Obviously our minds started racing and we hope everything is OK + we look forward to catching up with the others to try and piece together exactly what has been going down.
As we hike away from the Ranger station we’re heading towards Crabtree Meadows which is 7 miles away.
The idea being that we use this as a base camp for Mt Whitney and by reaching it, it will then set us up nicely for tomorrow.
On the climb out we look back and can see up to Forresters Pass, the notch detail we have negotiated and the miles of trail we’ve covered since then.
Looking forward, the landscape is spectacular. The mountain range in front of us is almost otherworldly.
It looks like someone has applied a photoshop filter where the mountains look hazy and washed out, cold yet magnificent against the bright blue sky.
Looking on far out it appears this is Mount Williamson.
We’ve noticed in the Sierras how trees die and lose their bark. The skeleton remains are a warm and rich chestnut colour opposed to the white skeleton like trees as a result of fire damage.
We comment how nice it would be to make a piece of furniture from this material.
I need to find out what’s causing this and understand exactly what has killed them, because it doesn’t look like fire damage or a lightning strike.
Yet it seems to affect many trees in this section of our hike.
We rock hopped across Wallace Creek. Caught between the rocks are a collection of dry crispy willow leaves.
The rocks almost act as a tea strainer, scooping up these signs of autumn in their arms.
We pushed on and hiked into the night to ensure that we could pitch our tent at Crabtree Meadows. The plan is to try and get an early crack at Mount Whitney tomorrow.
A lot of people hike up in the darkness with the plan to summit at sunrise on the top.
This involves a 2am start and relies on you landing in Crabtree Meadows at the right time to allow this to happen.
Unless we were to take a zero then based on our schedule this just isn’t going to happen. So instead we’ll treat it as a normal day and hope that the conditions are as good as today.
We pitched the tent next to a fallen tree on ground that was extremely sandy.
It doesn’t appear that there’s many other hikers here?
Apparently the Ranger has also left for the season as of the 17th Oct. So we are alone up here. Or as we thought.
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