Trail Day 54: Tentsite near Woods Creek (mile 799.7) to near the Kings River (mile 813.1)

13.4 PCT miles

I woke up early to try to get ahead of the group on the 7 mile climb to Pinchot Pass. I got going pretty early and crossed the suspension bridge. It was a little wobbly, but I’m glad it was there.

Crossing the suspension bridge.

Directly after I crossed were the stones marking 800 miles.  I didn't have anyone around to take my picture, so I spent way too much time trying to prop my camera up on my bag to get a picture of myself.

800 miles.

The trail leaving the valley was flooded in a lot of places.  All the snow melt was coming funneling down to Woods Creek. The water report warned about a stream that would need a group crossing. There were several waterfalls flowing swiftly over the trail that I thought was the stream, but, when I checked my GPS, were not.

Woods Creek Waterside near mile 800:

Flooded trail.

More flooded trail.

Even more flooded trail.

I saw a southbound solo hiker and asked him if he had crossed a difficult stream, snd he said it was right behind him. He told me the best pool to cross was right where the trail was, that it was a little swift and deep,  and to face into the current and lean into it.

I reached the stream and saw a couple people on the other side. I stepped into the pool and was OK until I hit a spot where the water funneled between two rocks. It was really strong and I  had to step down off a rock, which was making me lose my balance.  I retreated back out of the pool to regroup.

There was a couple across the way that was trying to give me advice,  but I couldn't hear them over the roar of the stream. They were mimeing to bend my knees and dig in with my poles. I tried it again,  but got turned around in the same spot.

Now I was getting a little upset. The one crossing I was having problems with was the one crossing I  was doing without the group. The man on the other side yelled across that after that one spot that it wasn't so difficult.

I tried it one more time.  Nope. It wasn't happening. I was on the verge of crying. I was embarrassed that other people could do this by themselves,  and I couldn't.  I shouted across to the man that I would wait for others. If that meant waiting for the group, then I would have lost all the extra time to get a jump on the uphill climb to the pass.

Since I  had just gone in snowmelt three times,  I put on a lot of extra layers to stay warm and sat on a nearby rock feeling a little defeated. Eventually,  I saw a hiker approach. It was one of the solo hikers I had camped with at Woods Creek. His trail name was Stick Figure.

I convinced him to cross with me, so we linked arms, and tried it again. He had problems in the exact same spot that I did,  so we turned back again. After that we scouted out potential other crossings, something I should have done (and usually do) in the first place.

We decided to cross in one of the pools slightly upstream, where we had a little trouble in the section by the shore, but were able to make it across. That was by far the hardest water crossing we have done. Stick Figure told me he was glad I was there and didn't think he could have done it by himself.

I dried off as best I could and started climbing uphill. I got another mile or two before the group caught up to me where the big patches of snow started. They took a break, so I was able to get some more distance on them. The climb out of the valley was annoying,  but pretty. I saw a pika carrying a bit of pine tree and also a buck with a decent set of antlers.

Scenery from the climb out of the valley.

More scenery.

More scenery.

Swollen creek and waterfall.

Pika. 

Buck.

The group finally caught and passed me when we got to the snowfields. There air was a lot thinner and I was breathing pretty hard. I was still ahead of Phoenix and Songbeard, so that made me feel a little better. Dragonfly was moving pretty slowly as well and I felt like I was playing “world's slowest car chase” with him for a while.

Mountains seen on the way to Pinchot Pass.

Snowfield on the way to Pinchot Pass.

The traverse heading to Pinchot Pass. 

Snowy mountains surrounding Pinchot. 

I finally  (and slowly) finished the pass with Songbeard and Phoenix. Phoenix likes to go really slow in the snow as well which was good because I could take my time with the steps and feel safe. This pass wasn’t as steep as the others, but still had some traverses to get to the top in soft snow. I am really glad once the passes are done because the ascent is exhausting,  even if it is “easy.”

Looking back at the ascent to Pinchot Pass. 

Looking towards the descent. 

Eveyone else in the group was waiting at the top of the pass and lingered there for a little bit before the faster group started heading down.  I chose to head down with Songbeard and Phoenix,  since they seemed to take their time. Another hiker who had latched on to the group, Sage  (I met him before Big Bear) also chose to stay with them because the others went to fast.

Descending from Pinchot Pass.

A little further down.

Passing a frozen lake.

Finally reaching the edge of the snowline.

We leisurely made our way down the snowy decent. We took a couple rest breaks and some water breaks. Because of this we started running out of time. The group was still hell bent on getting to the bottom of Mather Pass by the end of the day.

When we were lower in elevation,  and alternating between large snow patch and dirt, the pace picked up a little. So did the sliding and falling on the soft, uneven, suncupped snow.

When we got out of the majority of the snow,  we found the rest of the group waiting impatiently for us at a shallow creek crossing.  It was a fairly easy cross, and for the rest of the descent I was racing down the trail, chasing the backpack in front of me

It is not the best way to see the Sierra, but I really wanted people with me for Mather Pass.

We got to a pretty challenging creek crossing near the Kings River. It was raging at the trail. Crossing. One of the guys crossed it, but rated it as “advanced.” A couple of the other guys scouted out further downstream and found a spot where the stream split in 3 around a couple of islands,  and we crossed there.

We took the trail to the Kings River. There was no question of crossing it. It was absolutely raging. Fortunately,  the trail crosses the river twice, so if we stayed on the right bank, we would eventually meet the trail again, only crossing the river’s streams and tributries, not the river itself.

The Kings River at the trail crossing. A whole lot of nope.

We started up the banks,  which was all uphill. I tried to keep up, but I fell a little behind. I could still see their backpacks though. The group stopped at one point and huddled around,  which I thought was weird.

They were talking to two other hikers. At first I thought it was an information exchange. However, it turned out that two hikers had misunderstood the crossing information and tried to cross back over the river itself. The man was knocked down and swept downstream a little ways. He managed to get out with only some scrapes to his arms and legs, losing his phone and GPS in the process.

After Stranger Danger and Songbeard discussed it, along with a meeting of the “original” group (so not me or Sage), the group split in two. I was going to join Songbeard and Phoenix, and we were going to help the other hikers get to Vermillion Valley Resort (several days away), since the closest bail out point was back over Pinchot.  Songbeard kept telling the two hikers (Dad Jokes and Taco Slap) that there were good stream crossers in the group, and kept saying that I was one of them. The ironic thing about that was that these two hikers were the ones trying to give me advice to cross that diffucult stream this morning when I was having trouble..

We kept hiking until it was almost dark, setting up camp overlooking the raging river. I had wanted to get as far down the river as we could because we need to hit Mather Pass as early as possible before the snow got slushy, and I have a hard time hiking uphill at elevation.  We are still 3+ miles away.