Day 118 Fri Oct 20th
Unmarked Tent site between Siberian + Cottonwood pass junction – Ten site near Death Canyon Creek
1900.9 -1923.2
Approx. 2178 ft ascent 4619 ft descent
22.6 Miles
We spent the first part of the morning traversing the Cottonwood pass ridge line which was a reasonable grade. Walking through deep sand on top of the mountain.
I guess it’s to do with the scale of erosion at high altitude that has resulted in the formation of all this sand?
We pass fallen pass trees snagged in the bows of other surrounding trees.
They seem to try and take hold wherever they can, but in amongst these rocky foundations you can see why the roots can’t take a proper hold.
Looking out away from the mountain towards our right we’re starting to see mountains completely covered with trees again. Producing an undulating green rolling carpet of hills, which makes for a welcome change from all this bare granite rock that we’ve become so accustomed to in the Sierras.
Hopefully this means we’re also likely to see more wildlife, as although this section has been beautiful it has been slightly more lacking in wildlife.
Or at least maybe once we start hitting these lower elevations and the desert we might start seeing different species of wildlife?
We stopped at Poison Meadow Spring and camel up drinking half a litre each as well as filling both water bottles.
The creek is surrounded with willow trees. There leaves brown and crispy and filling the bed of the creek with a carpet.
A comment in Far Out suggested water starts to become scarce from here on in.
Looking at the map it definitely seems to be the case where the next water is 8.5 and then 16 miles away.
We hike past a group of day hikers that were super friendly and familiar with this area. One of them was a trail angel called Able. He said we should join the Techachpi trail angel group when we reach KMS and to get in contact with him when we get closer to Tehachapi which was awesome.
We continue hiking through a transitional zone from the high Sierra down towards the desert. The views to our right consist of mountains covered in pine trees and lush green valleys at their feet.
We wonder how abruptly the Sierras will stop and when the desert will begin and when we officially become desert rats.
I’m not sure if it’s due to the dropping elevation but my nose keeps running and I keep sneezing. Maybe I’m coming down with something?
Since Mount Whitney we’ve started to hear more aircraft puncturing the air with the familiar boom. This seems even worse today and we wonder if it’s anything to do with our proximity to Sacramento where there is a major airport.
During a Thru hike you become very goal-oriented, always looking when the next climb or descent finishes or when the next tentsite or water supply is.
This means naturally you’re always looking forward and your mind is always worrying about planning resupplies for the next section.
By doing this there is a danger that you are not always present living in the moment.
We have less than 50 miles left of the Sierras now and we’re going to try our very berst to savour them. Yet at the same time we are itching to reach Kennedy Meadows South and start our next chapter.
The morning consisted mainly of downhill and to be honest it’s becoming a little hard on my knees and we are both tired and in need of a break.
We’ve covered nearly 12 miles by 12:30 which is impressive considering our mileage in the Sierras has been anywhere between 15 and just over 20 miles per day.
This is obviously a sign that things are becoming easier as we’re approaching KMS.
It’s interesting that at this lower elevation the trail is much grittier; it’s almost like we’re walking on a mixture of sand and peach shingle. Whereas higher up it was like the sand you’d find on a beach.
Before the next 7.5 mile climb we pull into a camp spot for some much needed R&R. Just as we’re approaching Sarah clearly exhausted behind me asking “Are we nearly there yet”
I think we might need to take an extended lunch today and certainly stock up on some much needed calories.
As we take our lunch break clouds start to collect overhead looking angry and grey.
It seems like ages ago since we’ve seen clouds like this in the sky.
We take precautions for a potential downpour by making sure all our gear is packed away all in dry bags.
As we eat we are passed by another hiker that looks like Straggler. Although she doesn’t notice us sitting off trail.
We both thought it was strange that we didn’t see her again since the bear encounter on our way up Mt Whitney or Forester pass?
The start of our next climb we notice branches on some of the pine trees are charred black almost like there’s been a forest fire through here.Yet the trees still remain living?
We question whether the fire may have been quickly extinguished by the fire service. Or whether it was a controlled burn to just remove any excess dead material that was on the forest floor?
It didn’t take as long to catch up with Straggler and we quickly overtake her.
She said Mount Whitney wasn’t for her because of the increased elevation and how she didn’t cope too well going uphill.
As we reach the top of the climb we are rewarded with spectacular views of the Owen valley and the great lake below.
It looks a little like salt flats from up here, but we can see it’s made up of water.
With smaller bodies of water split off from the main lake.
It’s vast and the reflection of the mountains is perfectly captured in the mirror-like surface of the lake.
It’s cold and windy up here and although the views are great it would be a harsh place to camp.
We walk through a corridor of interesting rock stacks and formations before descending any further. We wondered how these were formed. My suspicions were that this was all once underwater. Although it’s hard to imagine water covering these high mountains.
We descend further weaving our way through yet more interesting rock formations as the sun starts to set on us.
We started to see much more vegetation including some interesting plant species including Mountain Mahogany and some others that we had not seen before.
We both commented on how excited we were to see a change in scenery and how much we’re looking forward to the desert section.
Both Sarah’s feet and my left knee have been playing up today and we are both happy to pull in for the night just before Death Canyon Spring.
Reports on Far Out said that others had experienced condensation problems here, but we feel we picked a good spot underneath some trees and it looked pretty dry.
As we eat our dinner sitting in the comfort of our tent it seems still very light outside. Sarah comments on how she’s able to catch a breath more easily at this lower elevation saying that it’s nice to be able to breathe properly again.
I’ve noticed over the past week or so that Sarah has been developing a cough that I think must be something to do with the higher altitude. Hopefully this will start to clear up now we’re dropping an elevation.
Today we descended over 4,600 feet and we’re going to spend the next 30 miles descending
further to around 6,000 feet, which just emphasises just how high up we were. Let’s hope it’s not all downhill from here.
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