I have had a wonderful two days in Bishop. Thursday was spent doing chores. It pretty much took all day to do our shopping, resupply, laundry and other odds and ends. That Guy and I spent a lot of time at Eastmans Outfitter. I was able to replace the leaky bite valve on my hydration bladder with a new locking one. That guy got a new shirt & hat. We ran into Beardo, Scrambled Legs, and a couple other hikers at the store too. Friday, my friend Darlene drove up from LA to visit. It was so much fun catching up. We walked around, ran a couple more errands, had dinner, but mostly just talk, talk, talked. That Guy took the 1pm bus back to Independence with 14 other hikers heading back to the trail. I've enjoyed this much needed rest but find I'm ready and anxious to get back on trail. Back to the mountains. I'm looking forward to what lies ahead on the trail and the surprises that will come. The trail really does provide and can be magical. I'm feeling good and strong as well. Darlene is going to hike a couple of miles with me up the Kearsarge pass trail in the morning. That'll be great. It's around 8 miles back up to the PCT. My pack is heavy again since I'm fully resupplied. So it'll be slow going at first, but that's ok. Steady onward.
Dear Helicopter,
ReplyDeleteI promised Kent a blowdown lowdown and I thought I might send you one as well.
Numerous blowdowns after Silver Pass with easy walk arounds.
At around mile 888 after you walk under the branches of a blowdown, you will see more blocking the trail. Go down to your right and follow the bottom of a rock face to a switchback to continue.
Half a mile after 888 there are another series of blowdowns go down to the left; this detour is pretty easy to see.
A mile after that at the base of a series of switchbacks is a large blowdown. The way around this is down to the right and around and then climbing up cutting across the switchbacks.
On the descent to Purple Lake there are a lot of blowdowns. The best way around these is to just cut down the slope towards the south end of the lake. You will hit trail as it crosses there. As you encounter more do the same cutting down the slope trick. The terrain is very good for cross country travel.
The ascent from Purple Lake is the same. Just cut up the slope from the bridge to avoid the blowdowns. Then reconnect to the trail higher up.
There are numerous blowdown around mile 898, but they are easy walk arounds. After mile 900 they are cleared.
Follow the nice cleared easy to follow trail past Upper Crater Meadow to reach the trail junction for Mammoth Pass. Halfmile's waypoints and map are not accurate for the location of the PCT and trail junction in this area. The trails must have been relocated.
They did a Herculean task clearing the Mammoth Pass Trail.
I hope that helps.
Bob aka Atlas. bbiviano@gmail.com