Left camp at 6.45am. Breakfast after the water crossing, started hiking at 8am.
Very long approach to Pinchot pass. Few scattered snow fields, but no postholing issues.
Made it to the top around 12pm. Last few meters were difficult with a small snowpatch. Took a short break only, wanted to go down quickly to avoid melting snow.
On the top, we met Galaxy and the hiker who got swept away and rescued by SAR yesterday – unbelievable. He looked a bit beat up, but they caught up on us.
The way down was again a bit of climbing, small snowfields but at the end not very steep. We found shelter from the sun and had a late lunch break until 3pm.
Lots of water crossings… First time for me to have to switch shoes and cross in my Crocs.
Pitched my tent one more time with an amazing view…
Got up at 6am, condensation in the tent. Lazy breakfast, still cold without the sun. Started hiking 730am. After a couple miles back on the PCT.
Climbing Glen Pass, made it to the top at 9.30am. Watched two hikers cross the next snow field, one starts sliding down. Luckily only a short distance until he finds hold again.
Crossing the snowfield was not so difficult after all. Followed the rocks instead of footprints in the snow a lot of times.
Beautiful view on the Rae Lakes. Lunch break here at 11.45am.
After the one pass comes the next in the Sierras… After descending from Glen, we started the approach on Pinchot pass. We soon passed the 800 miles marker…
After starting the long ascend towards Pinchot, we walked along a valley with a river rushing down a wide flat rock bed. We ran into three other hiker Irish Toni, Smalls and Michael when we came to suspicious scene around 5.30pm.
Two backpacks lay open close to the river, with gear laying around them. A water bottle and hiking poles lay right next to the rushing river on the flat slippery surface.
A hiker was washed down the waterfall and got stuck
Another hiker belonging to the second pack showed up shortly after. She had witnessed her hiking buddy falling and had tried unseccessfully to find safe crossing over the river to get closer to him. We all decided to stay and help the rescue efforts as we could. The hiker was already in touch with SAR (search and rescue) with her Garmin InReach and was confirming position and describing the situation. I tried to keep her at a safe distance from the river and throw over some supplies to stuck hiker – emergency bivy, some food and sleeping bag to keep warm as well as his headlamp. We communicated by handwritten notes, wrapped around a stone in a plastic bag due to the loud waterfall.
About 30 minutes later, the rescue helicopter appeared and surveyed the scene with a few fly overs. He announced his return via loudspeaker and disappeared again.
When the helicopter appeared again, he started lowering a rescuers right next to the hiker in distress. Amazing to watch the accuracy of the rescue team, considering the roaring waterfall right next to them. 10 minutes later, the hiker was lifted out of the dangerous situation.
Full video of the rescue will be available soon.
We were all still shaken when we started hiking again around 7pm to make it closer to Pinchot pass. Glad that the hiker had obviously been saved without major injuries, it also made clear how one misstep can lead to disaster.
We came to another water crossing but due to setting darkness, we decided to camp and cross in the morning. Pitched tents and ate in darkness.
After zeroing in Bishop on June 13, we took the bus on June 14 from Bishop to Independence. Waited there quite a while at the road leading back to Onion valley campground, but then a fellow hiker (Notorious FIG) drove up in a rental and took us up to the trail.
Since we only made it to the trail at 4pm, we just had the plan to make it over Kearsage pass and camp soon after.
During the ascend, I met another hiker, an arborist called ape man. He had quite some details to share on the trees we passed. And ape man has a YouTube channel where he actually shared a video taken the same day.
@ape man, it was nice to meet you.
Making it over the pass around 6.30pm, we picked our tents soon after. For tomorrow, Glen pass and also the milestone 800 is planned.
Starting at Bullfrog lake in the morning with a cup of coffee and a beautiful view.
We had to hike over Kearsage pass – actually extra 7.5 miles off the PCT to get resupply in Independence or Bishop.
Made it quickly to the top of the 11.760 feet pass. In the other side, the trail led down gently along several beautiful lakes to the Onion valley campground.
At the campground, Cactass, Tinkle, Husk, Queso and myself tried to find a hitch down to Independence or Bishop. Around 12pm, it was not easy… Only few dayhikers were around. To kill the time, I started foraging for food in the numerous bear boxes… If you leave food in there unattended, you are supposed to mark it with name and pickup date. After that date, it will be removed by rangers. In our case… After the date, we just eat it… 😜 Had some perfectly fine potato chips, some biscuits…
At the end Husk was the hero of the day. He found a guy with pickup who took us down into Independence.
Getting from Independence to Bishop was another hitch… Here Tinkle was successful and stopped Dan,a nice guy from Australia passing through. He had been hiking the PCT in 2016!
Tinkle, Dan, CactassTinkle hitchhiking in Independence
In Bishop, our first stop was of course a restaurant before checking into a motel… 😁
Jack’s in Bishop – My food!
It was a long section in the Californian wilderness. The last 1-2 days before coming to town, I had started rationing my food. It is an interesting experience if your stomach hurts from hunger… And to feel the difference between appetite and hunger…
With Forrester pass (13100 feet/4000 meter, highest point of PCT) still 7 miles out, we got a relative early start at 6.15am. The approach to Forrester pass was very beautiful. I remembered many spots and felt very happy and grateful to be here again.
The landscape in this part of the Sierra… Just awesome.
We took a break at the same spot where I had pitched my tent during my 2016 JMT hike, just before the final climb. In 2016 I was here in Juli.
Now, a month earlier, the pass had much more snow. Approaching the last climb was difficult…crossing a frozen lake, finding trail the trail under the snow.
After passing an icy snow chute and a few more demanding sections, we made to the top of the pass at 13118 feet around 12pm.
With the snow melting, we started the descend on the Northern side through big snow fields. Lots of postholing, climbing rocks to avoid the soft snow.
Once at tree level, found nice spot for lunch break, still 6 miles to crossing with Kearsage pass.
We found a beautiful spot near Bullfrog lake to spend the night before pushing over Kearsage pass tomorrow to go to town and resupply.
The world is big 