A Great Day Back

June 8th, 2012
Day 69
Today's Miles: 10.3 (+3.8 Miles Extra Credit)

We jumped out of bed after a late night and went over to the hostel where Lifeboat's mom was awesome enough to throw us stinky hikers in her car and drive us up to Horseshoe Meadow to get back on the trail.




After the ride back to the trail we were off and up Cottonwood Pass. The climb up wasn't as bad as it looked, and we were up and back to the trail in about an hour and fifteen minutes. The climb gave way to some great scenery though.



The approach to the climb was long so it made that last push to the top easier.






Looking back over Horseshoe Meadow.






(Again) Looking back over the meadow, this time from Cottonwood Pass.

Just a short distance after we reached the PCT, we hit an outlet of Chicken Spring Lake. The outlet had water, but we went up to the lake to check it out anyways.






Twist in front of the lake.

After crossing the outlet, we climbed up above the lake and got more amazing views.


































The short day's hike was pretty uneventful but it seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes to just stare at the amazing scenery.







Once we reached our campsite for the night I immediately grabbed my fly rod for a little fishing. With a beautiful backdrop I was able to snag two small Golden Trout that I threw back. It was just relaxing to get to do some fishing.




As Twist, Camshaft and I were sitting around the campfire, we were suddenly given a close up view of some deer grazing in the meadow. Naturally, Twist jumped up with excitement and proceeded to take about 50 pictures...here is one of them.




After yet another great day, we are camped in yet another great spot in the trees between a meadow and a creek. Camshaft's tent is right behind a tree with claw marks up to 6ft high...but he'll be fine.

-Tailgate

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Lone Pine

June 7th, 2012
Day 68
Today's Miles: 0

This morning we woke up with good intentions of getting all of our chores done and hitting the trail today. We quickly realized we had too many chores to get done and decided to stay another night.

Last night we stayed at the portal motel. We were very disappointed when they kicked us out at 10:30 this morning for check out, even after we asked for a late check out.




I would not recommend staying at the portal motel. They were one of the priciest in town and had a really early check out.

While we were doing our chores today around town we had an awesome view of Mt. Whitney.







Luckily a vacancy opened up at the Dow Villa Hotel. It was a really nice hotel with a great history.






This was a nice message in our room at the Dow Villa.



Down town Lone Pone was very cute.



Above you can see me sorting out food for the next stretch.



Tailgate washed out a few pair of socks in the tub.

We had a great time wandering around town. Our favorite spot was Elevation the outfitters.






The owner John was super helpful and let us hang out in the shop all day and play with gear.



Buster showed up at Elevation excited about his treats.

Later that night Lifeboat's mom arrived in Lone Pine. We all decided to go out to dinner at the Merry-go-Round (Lifeboat, Lifeboat's mom, Cam Shaft, Buster, Tailgate and I)






We all had some amazing Chinese food and enjoyed a relaxing dinner.






Later that night we all soaked in the spa at the Dow Villa.

Tomorrow morning Carl's mom is going to drive us all back up to Horseshoe meadow. We are getting to bed kind of late but we got all our chores done and had a great time around town today.

-Twist

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Horseshoe Meadows

June 6th, 2012
Day 67
Today's Miles: 13.7

It got chilly last night. We walked out of camp at 7:15am and it was 30 degrees. So it felt good to get warmed up and hike this morning. Another climb lead to a whole morning of spectacular views!

As we reached the top of the climb we could see all the way back down to the desert.













We took a short break at the top with Camshaft and headed down the backside. It felt like we were on skates for that 6 mile stretch. Between the views and the downhill we hardly even noticed we had done the 6 miles in a little under an hour and a half!






The views of the meadows below have been amazing.



The backside of Mt. Whitney?

We stopped at Diaz Creek for about 45 minutes and visited with Lifeboat, Dayman, Clutch, and Little Bear before heading up the last 2.5 miles to Mulkey Pass Trail where we would hike down the 2 miles to Horseshoe Meadows.



Little Bear and me at Mulkey Trail.

We got down to Horseshoe Meadows and we couldn't stop taking pictures! It was absolutely beautiful.

Finally, after many many pictures, we reached the parking lot and only had to wait about an hour and a half before getting a ride down to Lone Pine. We were lucky (and extremely thankful) to get a ride, but it was a small truck. I sat up front, but Tailgate, Camshaft, Lifeboat and all our gear had to ride down in the camper.









Camshaft gave the thumbs up and we were ready to go!




Once down in town the first order of business was to eat! We hunkered down at the local Pizza Factory and enjoyed pizza and breadsticks until we couldn't possibly eat anymore.




Tonight, we all split a room at a local motel and tomorrow we will run around getting chores done. Then it's back to the trail and up Mt. Whitney in just a few short days!

-Twist

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Marmot Sighting

June 5th, 2012
Day 66
Today's Miles: 14.3

After a great (and kinda late) night around the campfire overlooking the Kern River, we got up and out of camp pretty early this morning. We walked briefly across a meadow and then into the pines to begin our morning climb. It was absolutely beautiful as we climbed through the forest and wound back and forth over Cow Creek.




About two miles from the top, the trail opened up into another meadow where we took a break with Camshaft and Lifeboat. We even got our first marmot sighting of the trail. Twist FREAKED with excitement.






The view from our morning break.

We packed up from our quick break and headed up the rest of the mountain. Here we were all taken aback by some of the views we got of the valleys below and the peaks above.







We stopped briefly at the top of the climb but then we all headed down (Karate Kid now with us as well) to the next water and had lunch on the grass next to a little creek. After stopping there we headed down to the meadows just before where we were planning on camping for the night. We took our time through this mile or two because the views were awesome and there were deer and marmots everywhere. Twist thoroughly enjoyed herself.










After getting to camp we quickly set up as other hikers from the night before showed up. Some moved on a few more miles to the next spring but those of us who stayed enjoyed yet another great night next to the fire.







To say the least, these last couple days have been amazing!

-Tailgate

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