The High Sierra Trail - Day 6

The Kern Canyon was my favorite walking of the whole trip.  We had 8 miles to go to make it to Junction Meadow.  The terrain was relatively flat, deeply forested, shady, cool, and very pleasant.  The granite walls of the canyon rose on either side of the trail and ranged from 2000 to 5000 feet.  Our walk took us right along the Kern River the entire day.  We had several stream crossings over Guyot Flat, Whitney Creek, and Wallace Creek.  The canyon is densely populated with Jeffrey Pines. 

I can't remember which creek we were crossing but Nancy took a spill.  Her feet flew out from under her and she went down on her side.  I threw my poles down like I was going to lunge in after her but ended up just standing on the side watching.  The stream wasn't carrying her away so I figured she was alright.  She struggled with her hip belt and finally got it undone and was able to get herself standing again.  She was soaked and gouged her knee on the way down.  We made it to a sunny clearing and took a break to assess the damage.  Gouged knee, scraped elbow, wet clothes, wet boots, and a bit mentally shaken up.  Could have been way worse.  Nancy is tough.

We made it to Junction Meadow at a decent time.  Enough time to filter water, wash my blisters, and relax.  When we walked into the campsite, there was one tent set up.  I immediately thought, Hmmm, this doesn't look like a thru-hiker, this looks like someone who's been here awhile.  He had a California flag hanging in the trees and big old water bottles.  He also had massive rocks holding down his tent stakes.  He soon came up from the river from fishing and we had a brief conversation with him.  Jeff was his name and he came out every year for a month.  His record was 36 days.  He became addicted to the solitude (although he was very talkative and seemed lonely).  I thought he was a little "off" and had good serial killer potential.  The river was so loud and our tents so far apart, Nancy and I wouldn't be able to hear each other scream if he attacked one of us.  I had dreams that night that he was shaking my tent and trying to get in. 

When I go in my tent every night I read my kindle for an hour or so or however long it takes me to relax and get sleepy.  Before I do that though, I read one chapter out of my teeny tiny New Testament.  This keeps my mind focused spiritually. I intended for this to be a spiritual trek and not just physical.  How could it not be?  I opened randomly and this is what I read:

Acts 3:1-9
Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.  And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;  Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.  And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.  And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.  Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.  And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.  And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 

That spoke to me.  I get teary eyed just thinking about it.

We slept at 8036 feet.











Nancy's chaise lounge





















Nancy has taken her boots off at this crossing.









Yeah baby!  This is not even the worst of it.  I'm sparing you the real gore.

The High Sierra Trail - Day 5

We had a short day to complete on Day 5- only 7 miles! We quickly learned to never preface a mileage number with the word "only."  Too many variables could occur to foil the "only" part. 

Our destination was Kern Hot Springs.  Just the thought of soaking in a hot springs was enough to spur us on.  We walked through forests and shade with wide open meadows paralleling the timber. 

Soon we started descending the switchbacks that lead into the Kern Canyon.  What a torture!  My feet were throbbing!  The switchbacks had step-downs half the length of my leg.  What a hip burner! 

Funston Creek crossed over many of these switchbacks as it thundered down the mountain into the Kern Valley.  It was so amazing and beautiful. 

Once we made it to the bottom, we sat and ate lunch.  We saw three dudes finish the switchbacks and give high-fives all around.  They waved to us and continued on. 

We "only" had maybe one more mile to go but it had to have been the slowest mile I've ever done (I take that back, Mt. Whitney was still to come) .  The trail was so rocky and dense with chunks of granite that normal walking was impossible.  It was brutal.  Then a long slow slog through a hot, never ending meadow.  Nancy pulled her app out and said "only" 1500 more feet!  How far is 1500 feet anyway?  It seemed really, really far.

Finally!  We saw the hot springs.  The three dudes were there but it looked like they were just finishing up.  We walked a little further to spock out a campsite and set up our stuff.  By the time we made it back to the hot springs, the dudes were almost done packing up.  They said they were continuing on to some far distant location that I can't remember. They showed us how to plug and unplug the hot spring and told us if it's unplugged, the water goes into a pool below.  Well, the hot springs feed into an algae filled cement tub that didn't look appealing at all so we uncorked that sucker and let the warm water flow into the below pool.  Heaven!  We soaked and it felt so good on our burned out muscles and feet.  We were able to wash our hair too!  Leave No Trace dictates no soap in the river, so we used two ziplock bags and carried water away from the river, doused our heads with it, soaped up, and rinsed.  YEEHAW!  Man, that was the best feeling ever.  We used the same method for washing some socks and underwear.

We saw another dude limping by while we were soaking but he just waved and continued on.

We finished up at the hot springs as the sun set behind the granite and made our way back to our campsite.  Ahhhhhhhh-  it was a good day.  One of my favorites.

We slept at 6880 feet.























This is the kind of crap we were walking on!







Flat Stanley fell in the river and had to be rescued.  He's looking a little peaked.



Hot springs pool below the algae filled cement tub.





Ew.







Nancy is performing emergency surgery on  Flat Stanley.



Flat Stanley is recuperating with some honey bourbon.

The High Sierra Trail - Day 4

Nancy and I have backpacked together many times and already had a good routine.  In the morning, we start stirring around 6:30am, sometimes she is up earlier than me.  We make coffee first, of course!  Then breakfast.   We take about an hour to do that, get dressed, and slowly start moving around.  Then we start packing up gear.  We are usually ready to start walking right around 8:30am. 

On this day, since none of my laundry was dry, I wore my running shorts and strapped on the wet bra.  Brrrrr!  We both had our laundry hanging off our packs to dry, hobo style.

We had 8 miles to go to get to Moraine Lake with a 500 foot climb out of the junction, through thick, shady forest.  What an enchanting walk!  We made it to the top and began a pleasant descent. 

Moraine Lake is not on the High Sierra Trail.  We took a little side loop that would take us past the lake and then the next day would hook us back into the HST.

We got to Moraine Lake right around 3pm with plenty of time to take a dip in the lake and relax on its sandy beach.  For the first time, I was really able to relish the serenity of the wilderness.  I enjoyed the sunshine and the breeze and said prayers of gratitude.  It felt like we were in paradise.  I dunked down to my neck in the lake to rinse off and it was pretty cold.  It felt like bliss to my poor little toes.  This was one of my favorite days of the whole trip.

We had a nice leisurely dinner sitting on our z-pads and resting our backs against a log.  Cinnamon whiskey and honey bourbon flowed.  Mainly with the prime purpose of lightening our pack loads.  My favorite part of the day was being able to sit down on my z-pad and sip on a cup of hot chocolate as the sun set.  Ahhhhhhh!

We had another bear box available this 4th night.  A bear box is a metal container that you can put your items in that won't fit into your bear can.  We thought we would only have access to one of these the first three nights so it was a nice surprise when we saw one available at Moraine Lake.  It would turn out we would have bear box access all nights except for the last two.  In hindsight, we could have totally used our small bear cans instead of the large.  Nancy said "We'll know for next time."  I went into peals of laughter at that one.  "Nancy has jokes," I replied back. 

We slept at 9290 feet.

















Mole skin over the blisters, covered in duct tape.  Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' bout!