Day 57 : Kearsage Pass

June 15th 2013
Mile 790 : Bullfrog Lake to Onion Valley trail head via Kearsarge Pass
Mileage : 0 + 8

I said in my last post that the views from Forester were the most spectacular so far on the trail, but that was before I had seen the views from Kearsarge Pass. Wow! We were all up pretty early in order to get moving before the mosquitoes come out to play, and also to try and get into Lone Pine early enough to get chores done. The early morning light played beautifully on the lakes we passed on the way, reflecting the mountains in the completely still water. It was absolutely beautiful. The view west from Kearsarge pass was back into the high mountainsfrom whence we'd come that morning, the view east was of Owen's Valley thousands of feet further down in elevation. The contrast was striking, in the west were beautiful meadows and forested mountain slope capped with the grey granite slabs from which the Sierra Nevada is made, and with dabs of melting snow on their peaks, and in the east the dry, dusty Owen's Valley floor, and beyond that the even drier Inyo mountains that form the westernmost border of Death Valley. As we began the descent almost immediately we began passing day hikers on their way up. A day hiker can often be smelled in the open before they can be seen, especially if you happen to be following one on a twisty forest path. They can be smelled because they are clean, in stark contrast to a PCT . They wear deodorant and perfumes, have clean equipment, and most importantly wear clean clothes. A thru-hiker has none of those things. Apart from the smell thru-hikers on the PCT by now appear visibly different from a day hiker. Most male thru-hikers, like me, haven't shaved in almost 800 trail miles, and none of the girls wear any make up. We are also significantly thinner, especially in the face, than the average day-hiker and have deep tans on exposed parts of the body. We also have very different looking kit. Most aspiring thru-hikers who haven't done a long distance hike before, like me, end up swopping out kit as we each learn what works and what doesn't work. We also carry only the bare minimum in constrast to day hikers, who tend to carry everything as well as the kitchen sink. Some even carry their own water, as they get squeemish about taking water from natural sources, weird.

The 800 or so miles we have all hiked to get this far shows as much on our equipment and clothes as it does on our bodies. Most people have modified their gear in some way to opptimise performance, reduce weight, or make on the hoof repairs. I have done all three. I finally took the plunge and cut off the back of the heel of my right shoe thereby solving my achilles problem in one fell swoop. It turns out that after every major uphill, there is a corresponding downhill, and it has been this downhill that has been causing my achilles pain. My achilles tendons after a major uphill have been working hard and are tender like everything else after a climb, on the immediate subsequent downhills, with each flexing of my foot the back of my shoes hit my achilles in the just the right place to give me considerable pain. My shoe modification has put an end to this entirely, and although it took me almost 700 miles to work this out after exhausting all other options, I'm glad I have. Now I am pain and injury free, for the time being. My weight reduction attempts is easily seen with my new smarmot sleeping bag, which is almost a kilo lighter than my previous synthetic softie. It might sound like much but it is a whole kilo I won't be carrying all the way to Canada, an when you think of it like that it makes a big difference. Visible from the outside are the slight modifications to my rucksack I have cut off all extra strapping that I don't use. I have lost a considerable amount of fat, especially around my waist, and therefore need to cinch the strap in almost as far as it will go in order for it to support the weight of the rucksack and avoid loading my shoulders, which i hate. This means I have lots of extra wasted waist strapping, so I have been trimming this down as I myself have been trimming down. As TESCO would say, every little helps. IT is worth noting here however that any weight saving attempts made by PRT have been largely counteracted by the stupid gifts that each of us are carrying, but we'll be getting rid of them at Tuolumne Meadows in a couple weeks time so we won't really have been carrying them for long. The repairs I have made thus far have been limited to my sun hat, which took a beating during the night hike down to walker pass two weeks ago. Most of the duct tape is used on it is functional, but i must admit I did add an aesthetic element too, looking good on the trail is crucial.

After passing about a billion day-hikers on the descent down from Kearsarge pass, we finally arrived at the onion valley trailhead. We were hoping to see Aloha, our sort of personal trail angel, and get a ride down to Lone Pine, but he was several hours drive away so we set about accosting people in the hope of yogiing a ride. Hoop Dreams and I were the first to succeed and quickly found ourselves on the way to Lone Pine and real food, well, sort of real food. Our ride ended at the DowVilla motel, where we dumped our gear before heading across the road to take on some cheap calories at McDonalds. As stated before although I don't frequent McDonalds much in the real world, it is difficult to beat in terms of calories per dollar, so it is a natural watering hole for any thru-hiker.

I commented earlier about being able to smell clean day-hikers on the trail. What ommited to bring up was the smell associated with thru-hikers. In the open air a thru-hiker is blissfully unaware of the stench that accompanies him or her wherever they go. Not so in an enclosed space like a car or a building. The first reminder I got of this was the small outhouse located at the Onion Valley trailhead from where we all hitched off the trail. I was so excited on the way down the trail at the thought of using a toilet for the first time in over 2 weeks that I completely forgot what happens when I am in enclosed space for more than 20 seconds. I cannot stand it, even my own smell is totally unbearable, especially my shoes, socks, and feet. They all now smell to the point where I cannot tolerate being in even a sitting position with my feet relatively close to my nose. I make a point of always being at least 5 feet away from my feet at all time, not a problem when i am upright hiking for hours at a time. However in town and in cars especially, this becomes an issue. During the ride down, Laura, the very kind lady who picked us, insisted on driving the whole way with the windows all the down, despite the now oppresive midday desert heat of the Owens Valley floor. A very sensible precaution when giving rides to thru-hikers. After the taking on of many calories, and the abuse of McDonalds's wifi in the name of blogging, the rest of PRT turned up with Wagonwheel in toe we checked into the motel and I began the cleaning procedure that follows a 6 day back country hike with a very welcome shower. Ahhhhhhhhh!

The Kearsarge Pinnacles from Bullfrog Lake

Looking east down to Owens Valley and beyond, the stark contrast  clearly visible between this and the last shot.

Try as I might I could not get this marmot to look at the camera

Conquering Kearsarge Pass