Sierras – Bishop – KMS Day 117

Day 117 Thurs Oct 19th
Campsite at Guitar lake – Unmarked Tent site between Siberian + Cottonwood pass junction
1887.1 – 1900.9 (incl. 3.4 miles off trail to Guitar lake)
Approx. 3301 ft ascent 3435 ft descent
17.3 Miles

Sarah woke up a couple of times last night struggling to catch her breath due to the altitude. This was a real concern!. Although as of today we are dropping in elevation, so hopefully this will improve.
I slept soundly despite the noise of the wind making the tent flap.

We set off back down to the Ranger station where we’ve stashed our bear canister and food supply. Both are slightly anxious that it is still intact, as this needs to carry us at least another 65 miles to Kennedy Meadows South (KMS).

On our way down we bumped into a couple of familiar faces in the form of John Wick and a Brit called Ben that we had briefly met at Shelter Cove.
It was good to see JW as we haven’t seen him since Cascade Locks back in Washington / Oregon and last we had heard he had rolled an ankle.
To hear they had only been a week behind us was great and we were pleased he was doing well.

JW said he stayed at Burney Mountain Guest Ranch and he heard from Christine that we had stayed there and that he was trying to catch up.

We reached where we had stashed the bear cans to find all was fine, although it did take a bit of finding, which momentarily made our hearts beat a little faster.

What a difference it is to have to carry the bear once again + you really notice the weight. Yesterday we only had 1 day’s worth of food, whereas now we have at least 4 days attached to the top of our packs.
It doesn’t take long before we’re back on the PCT after retracing our steps along the side rail to Crabtree Meadows.

We see more caramel coloured trees with their bark stripped off. Their trunks appear twisted like a piece of candy, almost like a giant has grabbed the tree from each end and twisted each end.

We stopped at Guyot creek for lunch. It was so relaxing listening to the sound of the creek as we raided our supplies.

It’s so easy to think we only have 60ish miles of the Sierras left and how we want to rush through to get this next chapter complete. However that said we also need to savour these last few moments before we move onto the last chapter – The desert. Here we will leave these beautiful mountains behind and it’ll be a very different environment with a whole host of new challenges.

We stopped again at Rock Creek camp where the high water level meant rock hopping across the river wasn’t possible.
I found a large log which was about 8 feet off the ground.
Sarah opted to take her shoes and socks off and do it the old-fashioned way, which is the safer method as she’s not as confident on log crossings as me.

No rest for the wicked next up we have Cottonwood pass which goes up nearly 2,000 feet spread over 10 miles.
We passed Siberian pass and then carried on has the sun was setting and the sky was turning red and pink.

We had only opted to carry 1 litre of water each to help with the climb.
The next water supply was at Chicken Spring Lake, although some of the reports on Far Out look questionable.
When we got to Cottonwood pass which is another 3 miles away there was an option to take a side trail which would take us to another trail town called Lone Pine.
Although this was tempting we don’t really need to go to town as we have plenty of food + it is too easy to get pulled into these kinds of temptations and we need to remain strong.

As we near the top of the climb the ground became sandy almost like a beach just at the top of a mountain. It was very strange.
We had seen conditions similar to this back in Oregon at Timberline Lodge.
It made for a welcome change walking on soft sand opposed to rock hopping over the sharp angular rocks of the last few days.

Rather than head to Chicken Spring Lake we decided to call it a night around 19:00.
We had heard water flowing somewhere in the vicinity and we eventually located a small creek
after walking down the side of the mountain following the sound of the water.
This gave us enough water for our meal etc for the evening and we set up our tent underneath the cover of a sappy pine tree.
We chose to spot because it was well sheltered and higher than the creek, but on reflection maybe we should have moved a few feet away to stop any sap collecting and our clothes or tent.

Either way we were both happy to find a spot for the night and it wasn’t long before we were turning out the Z’s.