5 years ago, my dad and I backpacked from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite, following the Pacific Crest Trail south for ~150 miles. He’d wanted to make the trek for a long time, and it was an absolute blast. We met a few PCT hikers way back then, and I remember thinking that it was completely crazy that they’d walked all the way to us from Mexico. We’d even passed the 1,000 mile marker, and I couldn’t comprehend that the trail continued for so long, so far away.
And yet here we are, at long last, we’ve finally arrived to Tuolumne Meadows! I can’t believe it! 950 miles later, I’ve reached the section my dad and I hiked all those years ago. I can’t believe I walked all the way here from Mexico!
As always, please feel free to mail letters, postcards, mail, or care packages! I always get so excited heading to the post office, and the next one will be in Sierra Springs! I’ll be there approximately July 25th, and I can’t wait to see what you send. Thank you so much to everyone who’s sent me packages, post cards, and letters so far. Going to the post office is like Christmas, each and every time!
Address:
PCT Hiker — Dennis Gavrilenko
Sierra City Post Office
215 Main St
Sierra City, CA 96125
Let’s go!
If this is your first episode and you’re thinking “what in the world is happening right now”, start here!
This is a long blog piece (~10 days on trail!), so grab yourself a coffee, sit down on a comfy couch, and enjoy!
FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY I’m back on trail! I didn’t expect to be this ready to get back into the wilderness, but I’ve found that staying is one place for more than a day goes against my thru-hiker nature; I’ve very intrigued to see how this feeing develops, and I’m expecting that the return to modern life post PCT will be quite rough. But hey, that’s a future problem!
Today was a chill 12 miles with a not chill 4000 feet of climbing. Not only was I treated with a delightful 2500 foot climb over Kearsarge Pass, I was also treated to another 1400 foot climb of Glen Pass. How lovely!
The morning started off great; I relaxed in Bishop and finished writing my Whitney blog, found some more geocaches around town, and made it to the bus stop at 1 pm to take me to Independence. The rest of the hiking group got a ride to the trailhead at 5 am, but I decided last night to not partake in that adventure and simply catch up with them at camp by nightfall.
And so we were off! The bus to independence was nice, relaxing, and a reasonable $6.50, and I shared that bus along with Quinn and Skunk, chatting most of the time with Quinn. Upon arrival, Quinn went to the most Wild West post office to get his resupply, while Skunk and I headed across the street for him to get cigs and me to get Goldfish. We clearly have different priorities. McKayla then arrived, having just made it to Independence, so we all had a lovely catch up at these random benches at this random store in this random town in the middle of nowhere. Life is good. Skunk was mentioning that if Oregon has crazy wildfires when we’re passing through, he’ll dip to the ocean and do the entire Oregon Coast Trail instead. Not the worst idea in the world.
Eventually, Quinn finished his resupply and called a shuttle driver, who ferried us and Skunk to the trailhead for $10 apiece. Not too shabby. The ride up was delightful, I chatted with Skunk the entire way and showed him how to routeplan on FarOut. He was blown away. He also mentioned he might how the interior Oregon Desert Trail, and be the navigator that creates the actual map for the app. Sick.
20 minutes later, we finally arrived to the trailhead, YAY! I took one last shit in civilization (Skunk even showed me his backpacking bidet, which was amazing), and then I was OFF! Finally! I was so happy to be leaving civilization and phone notifications behind. About time.
It was a smooth day of hiking; 5 miles uphill to Kearsarge Pass, a few miles downhill back to the PCT, another 3 miles to Glen Pass, and a few more miles downhill to our campsite at Rae Lakes. Stunning views the entire day. Along the way, I met another hiker wearing the same sun hoodie brand as me, a dude named Melt with his two dogs coming back from dropping his girlfriend off at the JMT (named Melt because he heated his Jetboil without water, so everything in it melted), and a few other PCT hikers.
Interestingly, I started farting a lot again, so I only seem to be farting when I’m hiking. Not sure why that happening, maybe it’s because my cheeks are moving relative to each other more on the steep steps uphill?
The big pass of the day was Glen Pass, which everyone had been warning me about all day. Every time I’d see another hiker, they’d ask in a fearful tone, “Are you going over today??”, and every time I responded, “Yup!” and thought, “THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT!!!”
There were concerns of extreme snow on the north side of the pass, and though the uphill was brutal, the snow itself was minimal and not a problem at all. Quite anticlimactic tbh; all the FarOut fear mongering was completely unwarranted. I crested the pass at a cool 7 pm and began zooming downhill, and made it to Rae Lakes just as it was getting dark. Everyone was there! Brooke, Zoe, Pablo, Flo, Merit, Theo, it was amazing; we had a nice dinner without mosquitoes and headed straight to bed. It’s so wonderful to be back out here.
Day 53, 7/2:
11 miles today with 2400 feet of climbing. It was a very scenic day but a very rough climb up Pinchot Pass. Another day, another pass!
We started off the day the right way; leaving the campsite at a relaxed 9:30 am. That’s a new record right there. We woke up at 7:30, but spent forever drinking our coffee, eating oatmeal, gossiping, enjoying the mountains views; basically, everything except packing up camp. Eventually we did get ready to leave, and departed for a long stretch downhill toward Baxter Creek.
It was tremendous; brooke and I were hiking with Merit, an EMT and paramedic firefighter from New Jersey, and I spent 2 hours asking him everything and anything about medicine and fire and pretty much his entire life. It was fantastic! We only stopped to ford some creeks, chat with an Antarctic radio engineer hiking the Rae Lakes Loop, take a selfie with the 800 mile sign (!), and get our permits checked by a Kings Canyon park ranger. She didn’t even ask to check ours (isn’t that their job??), but reluctantly did so after I begged for her signature. I’m out here collecting as many signatures as I can.
After 7 miles of downhill, we made it to Baxter Creek, where we ran in Flo and Pablo chilling near the epic wooden suspension bridge. Merit, brooke, and I took another delightful break here, and then began the long ascent up to Pinchot Pass.
800 miles, we did it!
It was brutal; 7.5 miles straight uphill with 3500 feet of climbing. I was absolutely mentally exhausted (Bishop wasn’t as restful as I’d hoped), and every step was miserable. Progress was slow, Merit was way up trail, Brooke passed me, I was struggling. Add to all this the fact that ominous thunderclouds were brewing on the western horizon, and it was looking quite rough out here for Bloodhound.
Eventually, I caught up to Brooke, who was waiting in a grove of trees with Pablo, Flo, and Zoe. We were all feeling a bit cooked (me especially), so we decided to go ahead and camp at the next spot ~1.5 miles ahead. The thunderclouds were beginning to get quite concerning, and we figured we could wait out the rain in our tents before continuing on up the pass in the evening if we were feeling up for it.
Spoiler alert: we weren’t. Brooke and I set up our tent just as the rain was beginning to fall, and we huddled in there while thunder began clapping and the hail began to descend. It was crazy; our very first Sierra thunderstorm! Brooke and I ended up napping until 7:30, by which point it was too late to continue upward to Pinchot Pass. Brooke, like the saint she is, made us some delicious Mac n’ cheese for dinner, we devoured it, chatted with a JMT thru-hiker named Yaga attempting it in 6 days (Brooke gave her 2 extra granola bars she had; her trail name was inspired by Baba Yaga, though she pronounced it like an American, didn’t speak Russian, and didn’t know the YAGA hair pull video reference. To be fair to her, no one in our group got the reference but me lol), and then I played a nighttime game of Yahtzee with Pablo and Flo. Brooke was busy watching Gossip Girl.
The game was absolutely spectacular: Pablo bought some die in Bishop so that we could play on trail, I found a large flat rock for us to play on, and I even made us a self-summing scorecard on Google Sheets. I, with my tremendously high Yahtzee IQ, of course won the game, and it was one of my favorite Yahtzee games of all time. The highlight? Throwing a Yahtzee bonus of 3s on one of my opening rolls. Brilliant.
After that, it was off to bed at 10 for a 5 am wake up alarm. The goal is to get over Pinchot and Mather Pass to camp on the other Mather tomorrow night, camp at the Muir Pass Shelter the night after, and at Muir Trail Ranch the night after that. Bold plans ahead, I know, but bold is what I write my signature in. 😉
An interesting anthropological note: while playing my beloved game of Yahtzee, I noticed that Pablo and Flo have clearly adopted my slang phrases of “I’ll be the big man….” and “the people demand it!”, which led to me think about slang adoption in general. In international trade, there’s the concept of net exports: total exports - total imports, basically the net amount of goods being shipped out of a country. Similarly, you can think of “net slang adoption” as the net amount of slang you adopt from someone else, vs the slang they adopt from you. Tonight, I realized that Flo and Pablo have a high import of slang from me, as does Brooke (she calls these phrases “Dennisisms”). And upon reflection, I realized that the only two people I’ve ever had a higher import of slang than export have been Lucas (my sophomore year roommate) and Joe.
Day 54, 7/3:
23 miles today with 3800 feet of climbing. Not only that, but we also had 6400 feet of descent! My oh my, what a big day! We basically went up one Mt. Diablo, and down two; I’ve since realized that I measure elevation gain and loss in Mt. Diablo ascents/descents. But hey, that’s my frame of reference.
I’ve been sleeping with a backpacking quilt the last few weeks, and today I tried having the toebox not wrapped around the bottom of my sleeping pad, but rather have it fully wrapped around my toes. This morning, I decided I’m never doing that again as it was way colder without the protective wrapping of the pad. I also had a dream last night that I missed my last final exam at UCLA, failed the class, and then didn’t graduate. Clearly some residual academic stress there.
Since the goal for today was to climb over not one, but TWO, High Sierra passes, brooke and I needed to leave nice and early to make sure we crossed the second one before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and we got trapped like yesterday. So, we woke up at a delightfully early at 5:30, chowed down some granola bars, and were out of camp by 6:15. Compare that to our 9:30 departure yesterday! Wow!
Brooke and I started off the day nice and steady, and climbed over Pinchot Pass by 8 am (I also took the most scenic shit of my life on the ascent, see photo below). Though it’s not the highest pass on the PCT, Pinchot is one of the steepest, so it was quite exhausting making it to the top. We were huffing and puffing the entire way up, and celebrated with a proper oatmeal and coffee breakfast at the summit. One pass down, one to go.
Summit note: while eating tan-colored oatmeal, Brooke said “no wonder British people love backpacking, all the food is beige”. Brooke was really struggling with the last two beige bites. She also just sneezed so hard that her back cracked!
The descent down from Pinchot Pass was delightful: not too steep, beautiful views of more lakes, and Flo and Pablo caught up to us. Along the way, we ran into two southbound JMT hikers whose water filter was barely working, so brooke and I traded our extra water filter for their entire bag of dehydrated mangoes. We’re getting new filters anyway in Tuolumne Meadows, so this was all around an amazing deal; the hikers were so grateful that we basically saved their hike. They also looked exactly the same, even though they’re three years apart in age, not twins!
The descent continued smoothly, and we eventually arrived to the bottom creek before beginning the climb up to the second high point of the day: Mather Pass. This one was the same elevation as Pinchot but a lot more gradual (thank goodness), so I decided to go ahead and try to set the fastest ascent time again. It was amazing; I felt tremendous the entire way up, and crested just about two hours after starting. We’ll have to see just how fast it was when Strava loads in Mammoth Lakes! (Update: it was the second fastest time up!)
At the top, I took a long break for another ramen lunch and enjoyed the lovely High Sierra views in both directions. I even shared my ramen with another hiker, who was so excited by all the fancy ingredients (ramen, olive oil, dehydrated bell peppers, 2 hot sauce packets) that he gave me an instant coffee packet and a granola bar as a thank you for the bite I gave him. Pablo and Flo eventually arrived, then brooke. We continued the nice long break and ended up chatting with an older backpacking gentleman, who had a $450 carbon fiber bear container called a bearicade (?) and described in great detail the chocolate peanut butter smoothie he makes on trail:
On-trail chocolate peanut butter milkshake:
Talenti jar
1/4 cup peanut butter powder
1/2 cup powdered whole milk
One packet carnation instant breakfast drink
8 oz water
Shake!
It sounds delicious, and I’ll need to give it a try soon!
We still had a long way to go before arriving at camp, so brooke and I packed up our things and began the looong descent down the glacial valley. There were so many stone steps, waterfalls, and the single greatest glacial U-shaped valley of all time; I thought I’ve seen some great U-shaped valleys before, but this one absolutely takes the cake. I flew down the canyon, feeling so fit the entire way as the wind rustled the aspen trees in my favorite way, and made it to camp by 8:30. Brooke and I were absolutely exhausted and went to bed right away to the sound of the nearby Kings River. Muir Pass tomorrow!
Another interesting anthropological note: since we’re literally walking most of the day, boredom is a constant companion, and now a friend, on trail. I used to hate being bored; it is, after all, boring. But I’ve since realized that the root problem of my relationship with boredom was that I simply was really bad at it. With all the distractions of modern life (translation: phones), you don’t ever actually need to be bored, and so being bored feels literally painful because you always could be doing something else. Here on trail, there isn’t anything else to do (besides talking to other hikers and listening to assorted audio), so I find myself being a lot more bored in general. And surprisingly, it’s been quite amazing; I feel more relaxed and at peace throughout the day, take the time to fully travel down random mental tangents, and come up with lots of fun writing quips to include in this blog. In fact, some of my favorite blurbs and phrases I’ve written here came to me in moments of great boredom, where my mind had no choice but to figure out how to entertain itself and subsequently decided to cook up something great.
It seems that boredom used to be a feared enemy, and then quickly became a companion on trail. Now, I see boredom as a dear friend that helps me create some of my finest work and appreciate the little things in life.
Day 55, 7/4:
17 miles with 4300 of climbing day. Muir Pass, conquered!
After our crazy day yesterday, brooke and I decided to sleep in this morning and have a much slower start. We only had the 11 miles of Muir Pass to ascend, so we figured it’d be alright to get our rest, enjoy the am hours, and chill before heading up 4000 feet.
It was delightful; I woke up at 9:15, had a coffee with brooke, read a bit, slowly got up, took a dip in the river, and packed my bag in a relaxed manner. Now that it’s I’ve eaten a few days of food, it’s a lot easier to fit everything inside!
Brooke and I finally left camp at 10:45 (new record!), and began the long ascent to Muir Pass. It was absolutely stunning; the canyon was a huge granite one, well carved by glaciers, and reminded me perfectly of Yosemite Valley. The best part was that there were no annoying Yosemite front country tourists, so we could just enjoy the scenery and chill all day. We did encounter a ranger who again didn’t ask for our permits, but did go ahead and sign it when we asked for it. We chatted for a bit (and I learned all about how the Garmin SOS button works, she also had a nice Hyperlite bag, look at her go), then I went on ahead and cruised all the way up.
I stopped for lunch at Helen Lake, a beautiful alpine lake named after John Muir’s daughter that made for a perfect rest stop. There was a delightful grass beach, perfect jumping rocks, and uninterrupted views of the high mountains; I took a naked swim that caused a 5 minute hyperventilation session (the water so unbelievably cold), then spent an hour relaxing while Flo, Pablo, and Brooke caught up. Upon arrival they also jumped into the lake, then celebrated our near ascent with a high-alpine game of Yahtzee. Flo won, though my story is that I let him win to feel good; plus, it’s a game of luck (that’s my story for whenever I don’t win). It was great!
We continued on to the crest of Muir Pass, where we were greeted with the famous Muir Summit Shelter. Not only is it a beautiful stone igloo shape, it features a confessional notebook full of hilarious entries. Among my favorites:
As for my confessional, you’ll never know. 😉
The rest of the evening was absolutely heavenly; we descended down into Evolution Basin, the famous landscape John Muir named after reading Darwin’s research on the topic. It’s some of the finest views in the entire High Sierra, and nothing short of spectacular. I flew through it in a tremendous mood, listening and practicing my French with my beloved Coffee Break French podcast on Spotify, all the while entertaining marmots and marveling at the sunset alpenglow on the peaks high above.
I arrived at camp just as it was getting dark, where Brooke et al were waiting for me to set up the tent. I practiced talking about my siblings with Flo and Pablo, figured out an ingenious tripod solution to our drip system Sawyer Squeeze, and called it a day. Life is amazing.
Day 56, 7/5:
Another 20 miles today with 3000 feet of climbing. Fitness is no longer just a passion anymore; it’s a lifestyle.
I was particularly excited for today, because today we arrived at Muir Trail Ranch! My friend from a few weeks ago, Tiny (who I’d met near Walker Pass and spent a bunch of time with at Kennedy Meadows), had a 5-gallon bucket resupply sent to MTR, and had graciously donated it to Brooke and I after he left the trail after Mt. Whitney. MTR is a popular resupply point along the JMT, and the best part is, you have to mail your resupply in a bucket that is then hauled in by mule. Mule! Reminds me of the Grand Canyon. The best part was, Tiny had actually forgotten what was in the bucket, so it was like Christmas for me to see what was inside.
But first, getting there. ~15 miles from where we camped at the base of Evolution Basin, all downhill along Evolution Creek and the San Jaoquin River. The San Jaoquin! That flows straight to Antioch!
Brooke and I walked a bit together in the morning, and then I bid her farewell and began cruising to the ranch. I popped in the AirPods, put on Acquired’s Epic Systems episode, and was off; I made it to MTR after hours of hiking alongside to beautiful rivers, and began my long process of relaxing at the ranch.
It was truly delightful; large, shaded picnic tables with free charging, hand washing, and tons of hiker boxes with lots of free goods from other hikers. I raided them all, scoring myself ~15 Tapatio packets, a large bottle of insect repellent (score!), more wet wipes, an entire Mountain House meal, and a large assortment of other trinkets. Even better, there were two Texas music teachers hiking the JMT, and we spent the next hour shooting the shit and chatting about everything and anything; unfortunately, my brother’s band’s Hot Cross Buns video didn’t load so we didn’t watch it there, but I did get her number to send it to her once I get service.
Best part was, when one of them asked me if I was doing the JMT myself, the other pointed at my bag’s PCT tag and whispered, “no, he’s a PCT thru-hiker!” Hells yeah, broski, I’m a PCT hiker! I’m just cool like that. 😎
It was a wonderful time hanging out with them, and it was with them that the much-anticipated unboxing of Tiny’s 5-gallon bucket finally happened. Inside? A HAUL! Another mountain house meal, granola bars, ramen, crackers, cookies, toilet paper, a plastic bag full of plasti bags (?), and to top it all off, an entire BOTTLE of Captain Morgan rum! LET’S GOOOO! Tiny, you’re our hero!
The rest of the stay at MTR was magical; brooke, Pablo, Flo, Theo, and Lucas the Swiss Man eventually arrived, and I spent another 2 hours relaxing there with them. We wrote a postcard for Tiny, divided his food haul between us, and I even went ahead and made myself a fire penis with the extra fuel canisters discarded by other hikers. I’m actually 5 years old.
After our long break at MTR, it was finally time to continue onward and begin climbing up toward Selden Pass. Brooke and I flew up the mountain, chatting the entire way, and set up camp with Flo, Pablo, and Theo right below the pass atop a beautiful granite plateau. We feasted on our delicious dinners (mashed potatoes for me, angel hair and basil pasta for Brooke, mountain house for Pablo), drank Tiny’s flask of rum (including pouring one out for him on the granite 🙏), and relaxed around the cooking stoves until it got dark. Another amazing day on trail, what a life!
Day 57, 7/6:
Only 18 miles today, but boy, were though 18 miles tough. One of the hardest days mentally on trail, but we were rewarded at the end with a cold drink and hot lasagna at Vermillion Valley Ranch! Hallelujah!
The morning started off in a chucklesome manner: last night, there was a tiny mouse running around our campsite like a demon possessed, which we all thought was both cute and hilarious. This morning, brooke discovered that the mouse ate the caffeine mints from Tiny’s resupply that she left in her backpack’s side pocket, meaning this tiny creature injested 160 mg of caffeine at 9 pm. No wonder it was running around like crazy; it might never fall back asleep again! It also ate Brooke’s dried mangoes she left outside, what a feast it had. Brooke then discovered a giant spider on her bag, and made me get out of my warm cocoon in the tent to take care of it. What a morning.
And unfortunately, the rest of the day proceeded downhill from there, both literally, metaphorically, environmentally, financially, psychologically, all the -lys. By the time brooke and I got out for breakfast, a swarm of mosquitoes descended upon us and turned us into a mosquito blood bank. It was by far the worst mosquito situation on trail, and it put me in such a bad mood that I for some reason couldn’t get out of for most of the day.
The destination for the day was Vermillion Valley Ranch (VVR), a significant 6-mile detour off trail that sold fresh burgers and other resupply materials. It’s located on the other side of a long lake from the PCT, and though there is a boat that goes across it twice a day, the plan was to hike there today and take the boat back across tomorrow.
That left us with an 18 mile hike to get to VVR, mostly downhill, but still miserable nonetheless. I went off ahead of brooke, spent the day listening to podcasts, and found 4 geocaches along the lake before taking a long break near the shore (TAP Portugal finally gave me my money!). Around 5, I finally arrived at VVR, where brooke was waiting for me, and together we celebrated the long and brutal day with a big portion of lasagna (no burgers today 😔), a free beer from the fridge, and complementary lollipops for PCT hikers. Flo, Pablo, and Theo eventually showed up, and we all had dinner together and spent the rest of the evening hanging out and relaxing. I began to feel so much better (especially after raiding the hiker box and sitting at the picnic table doing nothing), and am generally feeling a whole lot more positive now. Thank goodness. I also had a really funny conversation regarding clowns on Internet browsers with Lucas, iykyk.
One of the worst days mentally on trail, but we made it! Can’t wait for tomorrow’s breakfast pancakes and this delightful boat ride across the lake.
Day 58, 7/7:
Today was an absolutely heavenly day back on trail. 17 miles with another 5000 feet of climbing (!!), but my goodness was it delightful!
The day started off wonderfully: sleeping in until 7:30, with a large breakfast burrito, 2 plate-sizes pancakes, and an unlimited refills coffee to greet us at the cafe. Brooke and I packed up our campsite quickly, then chowed down all morning. I had a delightful time chatting with Swiss Lucas while Brooke sewed up Flo’s very torn pants, and we got ready at a relaxed pace until it was time to travel back across the lake to the trail.
The mode of transportation was quite exciting: a boat! There’s a ferry that takes hikers from the east end of the lake (adjacent to the PCT) to the west end (where VVR is located), and we opted to save $20 yesterday and only take it one way today. It was a great decision, and the half hour ride across the lake was heavenly. The captain was cracking old man jokes while we were all forced to laugh, but brooke and I passed the time by chatting the older UCLA alum sitting next to us. Go Bruins!
We eventually made it to the other side of the lake, and it was back to our hiking reality for us. We met up with Zoe at the trail intersection after a few days of not seeing her, and all began the long climb up Silver Pass. We stopped to refill waters and take a quick swim, saw another hiker with the same sun hoodie that I had (albeit much cleaner, since she just started the JMT two days prior), and flew to the summit. We descended a bit before having lunch in the lovely shade of a gnarled pine tree with Flo and Pablo, making jokes the entire time. Pablo and Flo elected to stay behind for their daily nap, so brooke and I carried on ahead to Duck Lake.
Brooke and Zoe went on ahead to refill water at a nearby lake, where I quickly caught up to and chilled with brooke for half an hour (my own nap equivalent). Eventually, it was time to get going, so I reluctantly got up and carried on downhill to catch up to brooke (again) who’d left a while before. Upon catch, I retrieved the tent from her (what a gentleman) and carried on; I eventually caught Zoe, which resulted in such a long gossip session (about what you don’t want to know) that brooke caught up again, after which I hiked with brooke to update her on the gossip talk with Zoe. We then passed Zoe (again), passed the pessimistic French couple (don’t ask how we know that, turns out one of them is actually Korean and just moved to France lol), caught up to Flo and Pablo, gossiped with THEM, decided to actually want to abandon our Duck Lake idea and go to Purple Lake instead (it was two miles closer), and then I thought, “ok broski, get your shit together and get to camp already.” I said farewell to everyone, flew up the mountain blasting some great tunes and singing badly across the mountainside (also saw a really cool rockfall remnant), and made it to the camp around 7 pm.
There, I was immediately greeted by three older hikers, who were set up there on their first night on trail! They’re planning for an 8-day trip to Bishop Pass, and were clearly impressed by my PCT quest and the 58 days I’ve been on trail already. What can I say? I’m super cool and inspirational out here (and modest about it), and the JMT hikers recognize that; this phenomenon is exactly what Kevin described. I relaxed in the tent for another hour while everyone else showed up, reading my book while Clair de Lune played on repeat. Life is good.
Day 59, 7/8:
A chill 13 miles with 1700 feet of climbing today to get into Mammoth Lakes. Civilization! We have arrived at last!
We woke up this morning nice and early with the goal of arriving to the Mammoth Lakes trailhead as soon as humanly possible; it’d been a week since we last showered and gotten food, and I was beyond excited to finally eat a burrito!
I set the alarm for 5, then snoozed it many many times before reading for an hour and finally waking up at 6. Our planned 5:30 departure thus became a classic 7 am departure, with brooke and I surprisingly leaving camp right after Zoe. We quickly caught her on trail, then continued cruising up the rolling hills until the junction to reach the Mammoth Lakes trailhead via Mammoth Pass.
It was pretty crazy; I was in front for the whole climb, and upon cresting the pass and exiting Ansel Adam’s Wilderness, reached the lake at the summit for a dip. Hordes of day hikers were there, just swimming, fishing, taking their dogs out for a hike. It was crazy! After a week of seeing no more than a few people in the same place, it was crazy to see so many non-backpackers all together, and even crazier upon descending to the parking lot. Cars everywhere, tourists everywhere, it was unbelievable. The bright side of the entire situation was that we’d reached civilization at last, which meant that a free shuttle departed every 30 minutes into town. We’d just missed it by 5 minutes, and brooke and I were so hungry that we decided to try our luck hitchhiking into town rather than waiting for the next bus.
It couldn’t have been more successful; we were picked up within 3 minutes by a former Yosemite climbing ranger who now owned her own construction business in Mammoth, AND who graciously dropped us off right at Latin Market, home of the best and cheapest burritos in the entire area. Brooke and I munched down some delicious wraps, and then spent the rest of the day adventuring and doing town chores around Mammoth: checking out the gear shops, exchanging Darn Tough socks, groceries, laundry, calling family and friends. We split a hotel room with Pablo, Flo, Zoe, and two of Zoe’s Appalachian Trail friends, and fell asleep watching WallE in Polish.
Day 60, 7/9:
10 miles with 1200 feet of elevation gain. Today was an absolutely magical day!
The big highlight of the day was Wes, aka elrojo14, a fellow geocacher who’d seen my log for Cache Peak a few weeks ago (read Episode 58 for all the details about the find!). That geocache hadn’t been in 11 years, so when he saw my “Found” log, he reached out to me asking to meet up and offer a resupply. The timing didn’t work out for a few weeks, until he reached out that he could make it to Mammoth! He drove 5 hours to make us out to breakfast, drive us back to the trailhead, and bring us tons of chocolates, Liquid IVs, and baby food pouches for Brooke. The best part was talking about geocaching and his teaching for hours at the diner, and our subsequent geocaching adventure around Horseshoe Lake. What an amazing start to our day!
And Wes, hello! Thanks so much for driving all the way up to Mammoth and treating us so well; it was so wonderful to meet you, and brooke and I are so grateful for your kindness. :)
After saying bye to Wes, brooke and I carried on to Yosemite and back to Mammoth Pass. Our mood was tremendously high (despite the hourlong call to several post offices regarding our Kennedy Meadows package, iykyk), and the descent into Reds Meadow was nice and easy; I called Hamburger Helper and my parents on the way down, and enjoyed a GIANT ice cream at the general store there courtesy of HH. The best part of Reds Meadow was its hiker box, which was routinely stuffed full of food by passing JMT hikers who mailed too much for their resupplies. Brooke and I spent about 2 hours there, chatting with our friend Quinn, and raiding the hiker box every time someone put anything in it. It was a heavenly experience (so many granola bars!), though we did end up leaving that place with extremely heavy packs from all the extra food we had picked up. Yikes.
We spent the rest of the evening hiking towards Tuolumne Meadows, checking out Devil’s Postpile (those hexagonal columns are so cool), and crossing fallen logs across raging rivers. What an absolutely AMAZING day, one of my best on trail!
Day 61, 7/10:
21 miles with 4900 feet of elevation gain.
When I came into UCLA, I knew I wanted to do two things: become a tour guide, and join the cycling team. It took me until my second year to succeed in the tour guide department, but the cycling team goal was achieved right away. I joined as soon as I got to campus, and went on many rides with the team throughout the year.
One of the people on the cycling team was a guy named Yumeto, who went on to win the collegiate national championship that year. Shortly after, he wrote an epic saga of his journey to the title in the team discord, and it was here that a legendary analogy was born: when describing the highs and lows of training, he referenced the phenomenon of having good days and bad days as “sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug.” A magnificent comparison.
Yesterday, I spent the day as the windshield: everything was great, the pack was light, the ice cream was delicious, and the vibes were great.
Today, I was the bug. Oh goodness, it was rough. All day the hiking was miserable, and I wanted nothing more than to get to Tuolumne Meadows already for the relaxing day off in Groveland.
Nevertheless, the show must go on, and I wasn’t gonna get to Tuolumne Meadows by just sitting around all day. It was a long slog of the day, full of climbing, but it was made tolerable by the magnificent mountain views we were treated to all day.
And I also did sit around a lot today. A lot a lot.
And at the end of a very long day of mental struggle and morale anguish, we arrived at the top of Donahue Pass and officially entered Yosemite National Park. Brooke and I jumped into the park boundary together, celebrated with a summit dinner, and descended to the bottom and camped at the beginning at Tuolumne Meadows. It was a rough day, but also a delightful day; and you know what they say: the best part about being at rock bottom is that the only way to go, is up!
Day 62, 7/11:
11 miles with a nonexistent 200 feet of elevation gain. We woke up early in the morning and left by 7 am, eager and excited to make it to the Tuolumne Meadows General Store as soon as humanly possible. The breakfast menu was available until 11 am, and brooke and I were salivating by just thinking about the breakfast burritos we were going to devour for ~5 miles.
Waking up early was nice, but brooke was greeted right away with a vivid recollection of my extremely weird dream. In it, I was hiking a beautiful granite ridge, discussing profound topics and personal dilemmas with a fit and extremely soothing Barack Obama. I distinctly remember thinking he was so wise.
After that crazy snoozing session, we powered on through the very flat meadow, and enjoyed the amazing scenery all the way to the general store. There was a delightful marmot sighting (one of my favorites on trail!), and even a sighting of Brooke’s dad! He’d hiked out a few miles to meet us, and greeted us excitedly with fresh apples and cold Gatorades. Fantastic! He absolutely loved his beer from Mammoth I’d carried for two days, and together we three hustled to the store and ordered the burritos just in the knick of time.
The other amazing thing about the Tuolumne Meadows General Store was its post office, which held an extensive collection of packages for brooke and I. So many packages, in fact, that our eyes were filled with delight, the postal worker’s with relief, and those of other PCT hikers nearby, envy. Even better, the packages were graffitied with our names to make storing and finding them easier inside the post office; the art was so cool! Thank you so much Hamburger Helper, Joanne, Fred, Peggy, Ms. Setka, Mama, and Papa for all of the mail and kindness. ❤️
After driving back to Brooke’s grandma’s house in Groveland, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, packing our next two resupplies, and hanging out with Brooke’s family. After a long few weeks of go-go-go travel, it was so nice to just sit at the end of the day, doing nothing and knowing there was nothing else to do. :)
Day 63, 7/12:
Today was an absolutely heavenly day: a full zero day, with no town chores to do at all! We slept in, had delicious coffee on the patio, and spent the morning hanging out in Groveland. Pablo and Flo shopped for groceries with Brooke, while I headed over to the museum and library to mail postcards and learn more about the local gold mining history. The highlight by far was learning about the local hotel owner, who received 60 marriage proposals within the first week on her husband’s death. The mining town of Groveland had a population of 3000, with only 10 women. Needless to say, demand and supply were not at the correct levels in Groveland, and those miners must’ve been extremely down bad.
I must also add that the museum had a massive stuffed bear was on display, creatively named Berry by the local schoolchildren. Plus, I learned that rifles are so named after the rifling found in the gun barrels, which spins the bullets upon firing to create a more accurate shot. Interesting stuff.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the lake, playing Blokus with friends (including Jess, who came to visit from Yosemite Valley!), and eating delicious food all day. We finished off the magical day with the movie Knives Out, graciously lent out from the Groveland Library we visited earlier despite the fact that we didn’t have a library card. Somehow, they let us check it out under Brooke’s grandma’s name, even though we didn’t have her library card either and she was miles away at the lake. These mountain folks are so nice!
Hey Dennis! This is Eli from that one night of hiking after Agua Dulce. Loved reading this blog & im happy to hear that you, Brooke, Quinn, and Merit are all doing well!! Safe travels.
Wow! You covered a lot of territory-literally and metaphorically. Entertaining to read as always, and thank you for posting photos of those sublime landscapes.
Hey Dennis! This is Eli from that one night of hiking after Agua Dulce. Loved reading this blog & im happy to hear that you, Brooke, Quinn, and Merit are all doing well!! Safe travels.
Wow! You covered a lot of territory-literally and metaphorically. Entertaining to read as always, and thank you for posting photos of those sublime landscapes.