Trail Day 69: Tentsite near Sonora Pass (mile 1010.8) to Highway 108 ( mile 1016.9)

6.1 PCT miles

The group packed up a little earlier than yesterday, but we were still in no rush as we only had about 6 miles to do today. In the very early hours of the morning last night the wind had picked up. I could hear it screaming, but my tent wasn't affected by it. Apparently other tents were.

As we were almost ready to go, we saw Pullout walking the trail. He stopped to talk and we all started down the trail together.

The first thing we did was switch to the other side of the ridge where there was a snow traverse. Nothing like starting off the day with a traverse.  The steps already kicked in on the traverse were icy, but it wasn't as steep or scary as that first traverse yesterday.

Starting the day with a traverse.

After slowly making our way across the traverse, we found we had cell signal/network , so we all took an extended break on the shale path to communicate with the outside world.

When we started walking again, we kept alternating between shale and snow for a while.  The ridge itself continued to have spectacular rock formations.

Phoenix walking the shale trail. 

The spectacular rock formations of Sonora Pass.

The snow cleared the the middle segment of out trek today, but I knew there would be snow, and perhaps some glissading,  right before the highway.  It was mentioned both in the water report and the Guthook notes from last year, which didn't have as much snow.

The PCT on Sonora Pass.

Finally getting a view of green, rolling hills and the highway. 

We finally rounded the corner and saw the snowfield and snow chute.  The trail itself kind of wrapped around a bowl to descend down to the trail head. I could see exposed trail on the other side of the bowl, but you would need a steep traverse to get there.

I also saw the trailhead near the bottom of the snow chute. It looked like people who had passed before us had kicked steps partway out on the traverse, and glissaded down. That is the way I wanted to go.

There was also rocks exposed next to the chute, that there were several notes suggesting not to scramble down them. However,  Songbeard thought he saw a good route down and Phoenix  was really nervous about the glissade/traverse and also wanted to take the rocks.

Luckily, Sage wanted to do the traverse and glissade too, so he lead the way, kicking out steps. However,  the steps were exhausting, so he didn't want to kick them out all the way to where the chute from the previous people glissading had gone.

Instead,  there was another glissade opportunity, but it was a narrower route.  If you went out of control you could potentially hit some rocks. Sage went ahead and glissaded down without difficulty.  I was pretty confident with my glissading skills and my ability to flip to my stomach and self-arrest, so I followed him.

The glissade was steep and bumpy, but I felt in control the whole time. The only bad thing that happened was that one of my trekking poles snapped. You are supposed to only glissade with an ice axe,  but I have been keeping my pole strapped to my wrist on my glissades because it takes too much effort to take my pack off and secure the pole before going down. On one of the bumps on this glissade, the pole flipped under my legs and then snapped as my leg came down.

Looking down the snow chute from the bottom of the glissade.

Sage and I waited at the bottom of the glissade for a long time waiting on Songbeard and Phoenix. They admitted that the glissade had been the right choice. There were a couple people who had managed to walk up the snow chute by the time they had made it down from from the rocks.

At the bottom of the glissade/rock scramble,  the snow was at a kind enough angle that we were able to walk the rest of the way down, find the dry trail and make it to the trailhead at highway 108.

My Trail Angel, who had been in Sacramento for a family matter, was waiting there to give me a ride. There was also another trail angel there who was spending the day ferrying people back and forth from Kennedy Meadows North, about 8 miles away.

My Trail Angel and I gave my crew a lift to Kennedy Meadows after we all took the time to congratulate each other on finishing the hard part if the Sierra.  We were all excited because this is the spot we get to ditch our ice axe, bear can, and crampons.  Some people were keeping their microspikes as a precautionary measure.

We took Highway 108 to Kennedy Meadows,  and it was one if thr most beautiful drives I have every been on. It went through pine forests and flanked huge, dramatic, granite valleys. Kind of like what we haf been walking through, but from the comfort of a temperature controlled vehicle.

Kennedy Meadows is a series of cabins tucked away in the woods with no cell signal and no internet, but it was hopping with people. There was a sign that asked hikers to hang out on the back porch, not the front porch. That's right, take that stench out back.

Kennedy Meadows. 

We hung out in the lobby while some of the guys took care of mailing back their ice axes and bear cans. After that, we all ate lunch in their restaurant.

We were ravenous. No one properly estimated how strenuous the last section would be and we were all short on calories.  I ordered a chili cheese burger with fries. I don't think I have ever eaten, or wanted, a chili cheese burger before, but I was really hungry.

After lunch,  my Trail Angel and I picked up my resupply package and went to find a hotel in civilization. We ended up going all the way to Modesto and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

My stench was overpowering and I had a huge tear opening up the entire seat of my pants. Luckily, I was able to sneak into the back entrance of the hotel and make it up to the room with minimal contact with other people.

I hit the shower immediately. It was also the first time I got to see how much my body had been eaten away due to the exertion of this section of the trail. It was a little too much.

Not good.

I showered, them hit the hot tub, then went to bed early.