JMT Day 24- Onion Valley to Kearsarge Pass to Bubbs Creek Trail

August 8, 2014

The morning came too soon! We weren't accustomed to having curtains, so the room was dark and we did not naturally wake up with the sun. The alarm went off at 7:00 so we could get up and out for our 7:30 scheduled breakfast time. Doug and Strider hooked us up with a simple but delicious breakfast, they even made me a custom order of egg whites which Daveed had requested for me the day before! We enjoyed sitting at an adorable picnic table outside while we leisurely ate our breakfast and enjoyed the beautiful views of the Sierras. The table, with its traditional red and white checkered table cloth, was set simply but looked like something out of a fantasy dream to me. There were little glass decorations hanging from the trees overhead, jam in mason jars, mismatched plates and silverware etc. It was a dream for me! I loved it!

The adorable breakfast table that I so loved

After breakfast, Strider took Daveed and I, Taku and another couple back up to the trailhead. I used the pit toilets one last time before topping off my water with the spigot! Going back up Kearsarge Pass was tiring and hot, but not as bad as I thought it would be. We all stopped and ate lunch at the top of the pass and enjoyed the views. There was a nice breeze at the top which felt wonderful and dried the sweat from my shirt quickly.

Lunch time! What a view!

Back to the JMT! Kearsarge Lakes and Bullfog Lake

The decent was of course what did me in. My feet and knees hurt and my legs were tired. We stopped at Bullfrog Lake for a potty break and I relished the chance to sit down and rest. After a few fast minutes of hiding in the shade and gulping water, it was time to carry on.

The view of Bullfrog Lake from our break spot

Center Peak

I liked how the trees grew along the "spine" of the ridge leading to the top of this mountain. I thought it looked like a dragon tail.

Down into the valley on switchbacks, can you spot Daveed?

We stopped short of our goal destination for the day because I was so tired. We stopped about a mile and 500 feet of gain short. This was one of the very few visible times that Daveed was very annoyed with me on trail. He wanted to press on and make it to our goal, but I was D-U-N. He wanted to make it to our goal because it would set us up better for Forester Pass the next day, which he was correct. But I was done. It also started to sprinkle a little which really did me in. So he reluctantly obliged to end our day short of our goal, kindly filled up my water supplies and we stopped at the next spot we found to camp. The site was next to a river and provided good white noise. We ate dinner and I retired to the tent pretty early. I was beat!

Tomorrow we'll have to go at least 12 miles, up and over Forester Pass hopefully by mid-day to beat any afternoon storms. I can't believe we only have 2 days left after tomorrow before summiting Whitney! It's been so routine to go and hike everyday I had forgotten that this leg of our adventure comes to a close on August 12th! We're on the last few pages of the map!!


I will miss the daily routine of getting up and hiking in this beautiful place. It's been such a privilege to "live" out here on the trail for the past month. I am so lucky.

Camp just past Bubbs Creek trail junction, elevation 9,645 ft

JMT Day 23- Bullfrog Lake Trail Junction to Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley/Independence, CA

August 7, 2014

We woke early today to make it to our pick up point on-time. We said goodbye to Jackie Ray and Tiphane which was sad. I'm psyched for them to summit Whitney in a couple days, but it was sad to say goodbye to them. I wish we all could have finished the trail together! I will really miss their company, it's been so much fun to have them as our trail buddies. As a final hurrah and to take advantage of a native French speaker, I made sure I could count to 20 in French, with Tiphane's coaching of course. Many "tres biens" were generously and patiently dolled out :)

Beautiful morning light on Bullfrog Lake

Bullfrog Lake

We cruised to the base of Kearsarge Pass and continued up and over the rocky pass. Not too bad of a climb up compared to other passes, only 1000 feet of gain on very well graded switchbacks. We had a gorgeous view from the top of the pass of Kearsarge Lakes and Bullfrog Lake. And when we got to the other side at the top, off in the distance, we could see a road!! WOOT! Civilization! We're close to our resupply point! There was a man who got to the top of the pass from the opposite direction a few minutes after we got there. He took our picture and we chatted with him for a little bit. Then it was down 2000 feet to the trailhead. We practically flew down the trail! We were so excited for our resupply! We didn't stop for a break at all today except for a short time at the top of the pass.

Kearsarge Lakes

Almost there!

Looking back west from where we came from, Kearsarge Lakes and Bullfrog Lake

Just about to walk over the pass to the other side. The rock formation on the right reminded me of the rock markers/ way finders the natives of the Arctic use called inukshuks, similar to what we call cairns.

Looking towards the east, the other side of the pass. You can see the trail on the left side

Kearsarge Pass 11,760 ft

Because I was going fast down the pass, my feet and knees killed when we got to the bottom! We arrived at the trailhead where there were pit toilets and a water spigot, woot! And, to our great surprise, Taku from Japan was sitting on the bear lockers at the trailhead!! He was also resupplying at the Mt Williamson Motel! We last saw him at Red's Meadow more than 2 weeks ago! Didn't think we'd ever see him again-- cool!! I shared the little bit of food I had left with him- jerky and jelly beans, much to his great enjoyment. The guy was not eating enough calories, he was so skinny! He said he was always hungry, eating measly portions of oatmeal and soup. Poor guy! He said he was going to get more food in town so he wouldn't be so hungry for the last leg of the trail.

Headed down the pass toward FOOD! And a shower!

This lake reminded me of an infinity pool

Another pretty lake on the way down the pass

ROAD! 

Taku!

Doug from the motel picked the 3 of us up at the trailhead right on time and took us to the motel. The temperature difference from the top of the pass, to the trailhead to the town of Independence was crazy! It was cold and windy at the top of the pass, maybe 50 degrees. It was hot and dry at the trailhead, at least 80. And it was HAWT and dry in the town, 100+ degreez! The elevation change was wild too, from 11,760 ft at the top of the pass, to 9,600 at the trailhead, to 3,930 in the town of Independence. We had fun marveling at how neat cars were. The car took us down more elevation in 10 minutes than we could do in 2 days!!

Doug and Strider, the owners and operators of the Mt Williamson Motel, hooked us up with a cute little cabin, had our resupply buckets waiting, did our laundry and recommended some places to eat in town that were open. It was wonderful to get our clothes laundered! It had been more than 12 days since our last laundry and shower... Oh a shower. It felt so good to be clean!! My head was so itchy and dirty!

After we got our laundry back and had each taken a shower, we ventured out in the super hot sun and heat to get some FOOD! I was also craving juice for some reason. We walked to the recommended taco truck and we were not disappointed! Big ol burritos! The truck only takes cash and thankfully we had $20 American dollars on us...and we spent it all! We were so stuffed we felt sick all night...which was unfortunate as I really did think at a couple points that I was going to puke. I think it was a combination of the sweltering heat and the heavy foods. I was definitely dehydrated too.

My hair is clean and so are my clothes, OLE!

Taco truck

After we ate, we walked to the "Eastern California Museum", which was closed. Darn. So we walked in the scorching sun, I actually got a blister burn on the back of my neck from the necklace I was wearing! to the gas station/small convenience store to buy a few items, including 2 pints of ice cream and 2 bottles of juice, and then headed back to our room to sort our resupply buckets and bask in the luxury of AIR CONDITIONING.

It took us a long time to sort through our resupplies and then repack our bear cans. When we finally finished, we packed up our backpacks so the next morning we could sleep in as late as possible.

It felt wonderful to be in a bed! My feet, ankles, and knees hurt and are very tired and stiff. I'm not looking forward to the 5 miles and 2000 feet of gain up to the top of Kearsarge Pass again tomorrow morning!


Plug for Mt Williamson Motel- resupply here. You will NOT regret it. Yes, you have to go off trail. Yes, it costs more than a regular resupply pick up, but you get a private room and shower, they do your laundry, they pick up your resupply bucket and they make you breakfast the next morning. And they take you to and from the trailhead. Doug and Strider are so nice and accommodating! They are warm, friendly and experienced hikers. JMT, PCT, they've done em, so they know and understand what hikers need and want. They've got a great system that works like clockwork. We loved our stay here and almost wished we would have taken a rest day here! If you don't want to go off trail, they also offer resupply services where they will hike in your supplies. Just give em a call, they are always happy to chat and answer questions.

JMT Day 22- Woods Creek to Glen Pass to Bullfrog Lake Trail Junction

August 6, 2014

My legs felt tired this morning which made it hard to get out of my sleeping bag. We woke early to get a bit of a head start on the day as Tiphane's weather report said that storms were likely around 11:30. We wanted to get up and over Glen Pass ASAP. We climbed 1500 feet first thing out of camp and leap frogged with a group of boy scouts all morning. And actually, we passed a ton of boy scouts going the opposite direction as us, up until we started up Glen Pass. They were all wearing the same outfits: blue shorts, white t-shirts and red bandanas. I liked the 'Merica colors. How very boy scoutish of them!

Looking back towards the valley where we camped at Woods Creek last night

The sparkling Dollar Lake

We had beautiful views all day today. I took a ton of pictures! And had several "wow" moments as I drank in the scenery.

A distant view of Fin Dome

This scene was one of my "wow" moments: a perfect cascade with a perfect mountain backdrop. Wow.

The first of many incredibly beautiful views of Rae Lakes

We stopped at Rae Lakes for lunch which was gorgeous! My second favorite section on trail! As we were about to finish up lunch, Tiphane and Jackie Ray came by and said they had just seen a bear next to the trail! We missed it by about 15 minutes! Darn!

View from our lunch spot. Seriously!!

From the other side of Fin Dome

More Rae Lakes beauty

I called this the Wild Goose Island of the Sierras. Look at that water! Looks tropical in color!

After lunch we continued on past Rae Lakes, drank in the views and as we approached the beginning of the climb to Glen Pass, saw Tiphane and Jackie Ray who had stopped for a break. We continued on and started UP Glen Pass. Up. Steeper than Mather Pass! And way longer! We went up, up, up and then Daveed was wagging his tail thinking we were nearly at the top! Nope. False summit! Darn it! We stopped for a quick break to catch our breath. I took about 100 pictures as we went up Glen Pass because I couldn't believe how steep it was! The pictures of course do not convey the steepness, but man o man, it was steep and turned out to be the most challenging pass for me.

Rae Lakes as we started up Glen Pass

There was a lush, random meadow a few hundred feet up Glen Pass, with a serene little stream running through it

The steepness

The steepness!

False Summit!

As we went up the last couple dozen switchbacks, we passed an older guy who looked in rough shape. Both his shins were covered in blood and he was kind of talking to us nonsensical. He was saying he hadn't gotten any sleep  for 2 days, was out of water, didn't have any food etc etc and was pushing on to meet a friend up over Kearsarge Pass later that day... We were headed up and over Kearsarge Pass the next day so we were pretty shocked to hear he was headed there today. We don't know if he ever made it as we didn't see him again and we were camped at one of two trail junction options to get to Kearsarge Pass.

Looking up at the actual top of the pass

The steepness! The slight dip in the center is the knife's edge top of the pass

Two pretty tarns towards the top of the pass, the one on the far right has the coloring of glacial silt, like what we saw in Glacier NP

When we finally got to the top of Glen Pass, we were surprised to see how narrow it was. Quite literally a knife's edge. There was just enough space for the two of us to stand together to get our picture taken! If you took two more steps toward the south, you were already headed down! Thankfully there was a random guy at the top who took our picture. We stopped for a candy bar and some water and took in the amazing views to the south!!!!! We could feel Whitney getting closer!

Glen Pass 11,924 ft

Looking south from the pass

Looking back north from the pass

South, The Painted Lady

To the south

Much needed candy bar break at the top! These dogs are barkin!

We started down the switchbacks on the south side of the pass and before we knew it, were essentially at the bottom. The south side of the pass was really steep too! The really steep business was "shorter" but the uphill approach was very long.

Halfway down the steep switchbacks on the south side of the pass

Charlotte Lake

And then we round this bend above Charlotte Lake and BAM- this was our view!!

Huge Bristle Cone Pine, with Daveed used for scale

Center Peak 12, 725 ft (on the right) would dominate our views for the next 2-3 days.

We climbed 3000 feet today and then down 1500 feet. Woof. Our feet and legs are beat. Even Daveed, who really never complains of being tired, said his wheels were falling off the last couple miles to camp. Our last dinner and campsite with Jackie Ray and Tiphane was tonight. We head out to resupply in the morning and they continue on to Whitney in 3 days! Will miss their company but we're psyched to resupply and sleep in a bed tomorrow. And shower. Our only motivation tomorrow are these things! For food I have only oatmeal for bfast and 2 Clif bars for the rest of the day tomorrow. All other food has been eaten! Motivation is high to make it to the shuttle pick up on time! Food!

Camp at Bullfrog Lake trail junction, elevation 10,595 ft