Week 4 Mileage: 200.5
No Bridges, No Food
I had to do the reroute from memory. I’d follow the Darwin Bench Trail for a mile until it ended, then make my way through the pass. There were 2 lakes I’d split, then navigate up a boulder field and onto a plateau. From there, make my way around a lake and ascend the pass. There wasn’t too much snow in the middle of all this and the pass didn’t look too intimidating until I got close. I had to scramble along some rocks because there wasn’t any room between them and the lake to safely walk. I used my ice axe to hike the snowfield leading to the pass. From there, up about 75 feet, scramble another 100 through rocks, and another 50 to the top. Then it was straight off the front to a glissade, traverse 200 yards left, another glissade, and a short hike down to another lake. From there, I hiked another hour to reach Piute Creek Trail and followed that 10 miles to rejoin the PCT. A lot of streams, creeks, and rivers to ford, some rushing pretty good, and I made it back by 8:30. I was curious to see how badly damaged the bridge was and you can image my astonishment when I arrived there to see it completely intact. Had they replaced the bridge since I left Kennedy Meadows? I was pissed. I had just lost half a day and eaten more of my food. The wind was completely taken out of my sails and instead of pushing on another 3 miles, I pitched my tent and just wanted to forget about the day.
Woke up still annoyed about the bridge thing and within 10 minutes, missed a trail junction and ended up .6 miles off trail. I hiked up a steep hill and rejoined it. While changing out of my warm gear, (I wear pants to start in the morning when it’s cold) a fellow hiker arrived. A Czech guy named Jan. I told him how I couldn’t believe the bridge was already replaced. He told me that was the wrong bridge. Wow, did I feel stupid! So, it was on to VVR (Vermilion Valley Resort). I needed food. I only had 5 packs of oatmeal and 1 Snicker’s Bar for 30 miles. I made it by 5:30 but was feeling pretty rough by then. I ate 2 huge plates of food, resupplied and camped there for the night. Met a few hikers. One named “Die Hard” who took pity on my lack of cigarettes, being that VVR did not have any, and gave me some of his.
I left at 6 AM. The charging station was turned off at 10 PM the night before so my phone and power banks didn’t have a lot of juice. It was going to be tough for the 4.5 days to Kennedy Meadows North. After 6.7 miles of side trail to get back to the PCT, I eventually started my assault of Selden Pass. It was a long slog; post-holing, slipping, sliding through sun cups all the way to the top. It took over 5 hours to do less than 10 miles. but that’s how it went. Over Solver Pass that way too. By the time the week was winding down, I was spent. Trying to carry a 30- mile average through this snow was tough, and I needed to get, at the very least, 200 miles for the week. The next morning, I was up and on the trail at 5. Everything was going relatively smooth until mile 912.2. The big bridge was severely damaged. I hadn’t even bothered to look at my map ahead. I just assumed I had already passed the bridge that was out. I guess there were 2. I had two options: hike back 3 miles and take a long road alternate, or shimmy across what was left of this bridge. I chose the latter. I put all my electronics in a plastic bag and in my bear can, sinched my pack up high and shimmied across the thing. I ripped my shirt, got a couple splinters and some rubbing burns on my knees, but I made it across. After 5 minutes of gathering myself, I was pushing hard up the trail. The clock was ticking, and I needed to make 200. The last bit of trail was switchbacks uphill with a lot of slowdowns. This trail is fighting me for every mile! I ended with 200.5 and took a 1-hour break. That section really kicked my ass.
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