PCT Day 81
July 20, 2021
Mile: 788.5 (+1.5 mi side trail to the PCT) to 803.6 (16.6 total miles)
Start: Unnamed alpine lake near Bullfrog Lake at Kearsarge Pass Trail
Finish: Random field site near Sawmill Pass Trail
Last night I was a bit concerned that there was an enterprising black bear near our campsite because I heard some noises on the other side of the lake that sounded suspicious. At first, I was concerned that there was a bear on the opposite shore nosing someone else’s food canister to try to open it and then would try to come eat our food. Luckily it just turned out to be another couple of hikers camped out in the woods where we could barely see them. The girl briefly appeared this morning and we waved to her. All was quiet last night, despite the warning signs posted at the trail intersections about an aggressive mama bear and cubs in the area. Our bear canisters were untouched in the morning, and actually had frost all over them. I had to defrost my fuel canister before cooking this morning, chipping off ice that had built up on the threads overnight.
Shannon and I were on a side trail back from town and finally made it to the PCT again. We backpacked up to the beautiful Rae Lakes where we stopped for an early lunch and swam in the sparkling trout-filled waters. The lakes were crystalline blue with humongous trout jumping and swimming in the shallows. On our descent down to Rae Lakes, we ran into a guy who had actually packed out in an inflatable tube and had swam to the island in the middle of the lakes using his pool float. Genius! I got the bright idea from this ingenious hiker to blow up my sleeping pad to use as a float on the lake. On the shoreline, I carefully balanced myself on my sleeping pad and once aboard the USS Thermarest, I pulled on my sun shades and floated out into depths of the alpine lake, calm as could be. Floating in a beautiful lake under a warm sun and surrounded by mountains sure beats going into the office!
Shoals of trout gathered underneath the shadow of my sleeping pad probably to better check out if I was something good to eat. Lots of people were hiking with fishing rods and one guy we talked to said he actually got so bored of fishing in the lakes because every single time he cast out, he caught a fish. He eventually got bored of catching so many fish which to me seems absolutely crazy! I’d be eating trout tacos for days if I had a fishing rod out here.
Shannon and I enjoyed day two of the trail cheese saga, snacking during lunch on the salty cheddar block procured directly from the trail yesterday. Mmm trail cheese! After lunch, we saw someone who had actually bought an inflatable row boat, hiked out with it and was rowing across one of the Rae Lakes on it. People are so awesome.
What was not so awesome was when I told Shannon that he had a “bat in a cave” which is a term to say that he had a booger in his nose that was hanging out. He snorted to get the booger out and I just so happened to have my mouth open next to him. Shannon’s booger flew straight out of his nose and into my mouth! I choked and sputtered in horror while Shannon laughed his a** off at my misfortune. It was probably one of the most disgusting things that has happened to me recently and I was scarred for life. He kept asking why I had my mouth open and all I could do was swish water around my mouth and spit out the nastiness. Swimming in a beautiful lake did help me forget the awfulness of the disgusting booger incident but oh my god, we’ve achieved a new level of our relationship that I don’t think I ever wanted to achieve.
We traveled through marmot kingdoms where very bold, very fat and very cute marmots were running around everywhere. We even saw some baby marmies playing with each other in the woods!
There was so much water here in the mountains with trickles and creeks rushing down the lush hillsides into the clear lakes. Seeing all of the water was still so amazing and we couldn’t get over it after being in the dry desert for so long on trail. The desert really made us grateful for plentiful water that we used to take for granted back in the Midwest. ThIs day was especially spectacular as we passed huge swaths of wildflower fields surrounding the many lakes. It smelled like a pizza joint in places which I couldn’t figure out why until I spotted the pink fluffy wild onion flowers clustered around creeks pouring off the mountains. We passed by a ranger station where we found out that the fire danger in the area was so high that absolutely zero fires were allowed in the SEKI National Parks (SEKI = Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks). I guess it makes sense since there’s been such a severe drought in the area.
We spent the afternoon trekking through woodlands and past dozens of lakes which was absolutely magical. I almost stepped on a small racer snake who was hanging out in one of the stream crossings, swimming through the creek to either cool off or look for snacks.
In the late afternoon, we passed hiker after hiker who for some reason kept asking us how far they were from somewhere called Dollar Lake. We kept telling them that we had no idea what they were talking about since we’d passed at least 7 or 8 lakes just this afternoon alone. Most of these people seemed like a bunch of whiny day hikers who didn’t have GPS or maps that they could look it up themselves. I stared at them super confused, trying to figure out why the hell I’m supposed to know where you people are going? How would I know how far or how fast you hike? I don’t even remember something called Dollar Lake and definitely put on my RBF (resting b*tch face) so these dummies would go away.
My negative thoughts got me into trouble when I had to pee later in the afternoon since I was so frustrated at all the dumb questions these day hikers were asking us. I was so focused on hiking away from these stupid hikers that I actually walked straight into a low lying tree branch on the side of the trail. Serves me right for being impatient. I couldn’t see the branch because my peripheral vision was blocked by my hat and my sun shirt hood and I was really focused on trying to find a quick spot to pee before more idiotic day hikers came up whining up to us asking if they were there yet. Several large splinters and shards of the tree shoved up underneath my forehead skin and blood trickled down to my eyebrow from my scalp. Whoopsies poopsies! I guess that’s karma for you.
We decided to walk another mile to a swinging suspension bridge and campsite where Shannon volunteered to clean out my wound. Nurse Shannon performed some excellent trail side surgery on my bloody forehead, extracting the wooden splinters with alcohol wipes and sterilized tweezers. After about 10 or 15 minutes of surgery, I was patched up, my wound cleaned, the tree branches extracted and the splinters returned back to the wilds from which they came.
After carefully trudging across the wildly swinging suspension bridge that was probably one of the sketchiest bridges that I’ve ever crossed, we headed uphill towards the 6 mile ascent to Mather Pass. We passed the 800 mile marker on trail but were too exhausted to do much dancing to celebrate. We thought that tonight we might make it up to Mather Pass and have another day of trekking over 2 high mountain passes. But as we climbed the steep trail, it seemed like because of our stop for impromptu head surgery and swimming at Rae Lakes today that we wouldn’t be making it up the pass while there was still light. It was totally okay because we took the time to enjoy some of these places today and that was worth it.
The campsite that we were aiming to stay at was not only super mosquito filled but also packed like sardines with JMT and day hikers. Despite being slightly exhausted and my head pounding from the bruises gained by walking into a tree, we quickly decided to leave the busy mosquitoland and went up further the trail to find a stealth spot by a stream. Unfortunately even up here the little bloodsuckers were just as awful so we packed up, heading to drier fields that hopefully had less bugs.
On the side of the trail was a curiously photogenic pika which is like a cute little alpine rabbit with tiny ears that makes shrill “Peek!” noises from the rocks. I’m pretty sure that pikas are the inspiration for the Pokémon Pikachu and this little guy was not shy in the least. I was standing on the side of the trail and this little pika got so close to me that I got nervous that he was going to crawl up my leg! He posed left and right, up and down, constantly telling me to take a picture of his good side by yelling “Peek! Peek!” I got some great photos of the camera loving pika and trekked a short while up ahead when I heard a weird cooing sound. I stopped and saw a protective mama pheasant herding her babies. Shannon and I stood silently and watched the tawny forest birds as they clucked and cooed like mini-velociraptors down the trail.
We waved to some girls camping next to the stream where we were thinking of camping but quickly decided it was still part of Skeeterland as the mosquitoes swarmed us. As the day started to turn to twilight, we continued up the mountain deciding to find a random spot whenever we got tired and hoped that there were fewer mosquitoes. After a bit of exploring, we finally found a flat campsite in a field well away from the trail. We collected water from a bubbling creek in the woods, eating dinner under the setting sun.
As an early moon rose, the night air started to chill us since we were close to being 11,000 feet in elevation. The colder weather was actually wonderful because it scared away all the mosquitoes and we were able to eat dinner without having to constantly slap the little bloodsuckers. Shannon and I tossed our bear canisters a ways away from our tent and snuggled into bed at hiker midnight (aka about 8:30-9pm). The goal was to go to bed early to stay warm in the high altitude and wake up early to hike the upcoming pass. I had to pull my hat down over my eyes to block out the bright light of the moon which felt like someone was shining a bright spotlight in our eyes. Hopefully no bears would come up here to bother us since there wasn’t much food for them up in the high altitude alpine tundra.
