From PCT mile 744.2 to 746.5 Total: 4.5 miles 6/01
My eighth day hiking the Sierra Section was also the final day of Part 1, when I left the trail temporarily (waiting at home for the snow to finish melting) by hiking from Dutch Meadow Spring to Trail Pass and down to my car at Horseshoe Meadows.
I only had about five miles or so to hike that day, but I still woke up in the dark to leave camp early. I’m not sure why, but that’s just me. And I discovered that it was seriously cold up there! This made me glad that I hadn’t camped down below at Dutch Meadow Spring right next to the meadow. There was probably ice and frost all over the meadow, at a much colder temperature. I also decided not to bother cooking breakfast. I ate my lunchtime Pop-Tart instead. Then I changed clothing as quickly as possible, using my sleeping bag to pre-heat the clothes before donning them. This works! Keeps the bare skin to a minimum.
It was cold enough that I hiked with my jacket and gloves, and I was glad that the trail started climbing immediately. Now that’s the way to warm up in the morning! I only had 2.3 miles to hike on the PCT itself, and another 2.2 down to the car, so I wasn’t worried about making good time. Plus, I had almost no food left in my backpack; it was about as light as it was going to get. In other words, I was blasting up the trail.
Mostly I hiked within the forest, but the trail was often perched on the side of a slope, which afforded occasional views to the south and west. Olancha Peak, where I was two days ago, was in the south, and Kern Peak was to the west. Both are major summits in the Southern Sierra Nevada.
Within an hour, I arrived at Trail Pass. Vicki and I had been here before, back in 2020, when we did a section hike south to Kennedy Meadows. Those were good times. Just thinking about it made me want to get back home to see her. It gets lonely at times, hiking solo, even though I met a lot of other backpackers along the way. Too bad she isn’t up to hiking fifteen miles per day, or she would have been here with me. It’s hard to hike through the Sierra unless you do more miles-per-day, because the resupply points are far apart and you can only carry so much food. Sad but true.
Anyway, I was happy to be leaving the Pacific Crest Trail. At least for now. In a few weeks I planned to restart my hike right there at Trail Pass, to begin Part 2, but for now it was time to head downhill to the car. At least it was easy to dodge a majority of the melting snow drifts on the way. Most of them had refrozen in the night, and were slick like ice. I didn’t have any microspikes with me, and I wasn’t waiting until they got soft and slushy later on in the afternoon.
All told, the trail descended about 600 feet to the wide expanse that was Horseshoe Meadows. The upper meadow was mostly deep soft sand rather than grasses, so hiking was a bit of a slog. I also finally began to get warm in the sun, and removed my jacket. Along the way, there was still a wide flat drift of melting snow, which surprised me. It must have been very deep in that spot to withstand all that Spring sunshine. The other good thing about hiking in the meadow was the views. Mount Langley, which my son and I climbed back in 2015, was in the distance to the north. It was the southernmost fourteener in California, and a fairly easy peak to summit. It should be mentioned that, easy climb or not, once you summit a Fourteener, you ARE a Fourteener. Forever. That’s the rule.
After the mile-long meadow crossing, the Trail Pass Trail joined up with the Cottonwood Pass Trail, and headed due east to the trailhead parking lot. It was a flat and easy hike, and I was glad to arrive.
I got there about 7:30am, and proceeded to change into some less stinky clothing that I left in the trunk a week ago. My body might be stinky and dirty, but at least my clothes would be clean when I shuttled fellow backpackers down to town on the way home. Then I got out my book and hung out in the car, waiting for the three hikers I promised a ride to yesterday to show up.
They got there a short time later. We piled all their gear into the car and started heading down the long grade to the town of Lone Pine. Two of the hikers were busy making YouTube Documentaries (vlogs?) about their PCT Thru-Hikes. Lil’Chap Hikes and HammerHikes both made mention of me in their videos that day. Fireball, the fun one of the trio, also came along for the ride. We blasted down Horseshoe Meadows Road to Lone Pine, where I dropped them off in the center of town. As soon as I arrived, three more hikers were standing there hitchhiking, hoping to get back up the hill to Horseshoe Meadows! Sheesh! So of course I gave them a ride. It’s 23 miles up to the trailhead, and takes about an hour to drive. Then when I dropped them off, three more hikers were there, hoping to get a ride into town! So of course I took them down. Once I dropped them off, I made my way south before any more showed up! Ha ha. But seriously, it’s a good feeling, helping out your fellow backpackers, who, though stinky, always appreciate a good ride. In fact, they forced enough cash on me to pay my gas to San Diego. Thanks!
After that, it was time to leave the Sierra, on the five hour drive to San Diego across the lonely Mojave Desert and the overcrowded LA freeways. All in all, I thought, the first 100 miles of my 2024 PCT Sierra Section trek was a total success. My gear worked well, except maybe for my old backpack which had seen quite a bit of wear last year. It was getting tears in the stretchy mesh pockets, and might be due for replacement. But I had a few weeks to get ready for the next 200 mile portion. Watching snow melt wasn’t much more exciting than watching paint dry, but it was better than hiking through it. I’d be back on the trail soon enough.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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