I took my second zero day after our first section of the Sierras. It was nice relaxing in a bed all day. We got some laundry done, ate a ton of food, and our air conditioner broke. It was over 100 degrees. Eventually they moved us to another room, but it was brutal.
The next day, we bought groceries for the next week of hiking and hung out at the Hostel California. I had some new shoes shipped there and it is pretty much the main thru hiker hub in Bishop.
On the way to the hostel, we walked a couple blocks too far and as we were turning around a man asked if we wanted a ride to the trailhead. Talk about trail magic! The trailhead was over 40 miles away, so this was amazing luck.
We met up with the man, a former hiker himself, and he gave us some beer and a ride. We picked up some more hikers on the way and even filled the bed of his pickup truck.
We got to the trailhead late in the day and our first obstacle would be Kearsarge Pass. We wanted to wait until the snow was firm so we camped about two miles up the trail at a lake.
Being late paid off. All the “good” spots were taken, but nobody thought to use the massive rock as a campsite. It was big enough that we fit two tents on it.
We made it up Kearsarge and navigated our way back to the PCT. It felt good seeing the trail sign poking out of the snow. Today we would have lots of challenges, the first being Glen Pass. It’s a steep pass with a lot of snow.
The pass was the easy part of the day. Next, we would have miles of snow hiking with some creek crossings sprinkled in.
First, we had to cross the connection between two of the Rae Lakes. In a normal year, it’s only a foot or so deep and there are logs you can walk on to get across. This year it was waist deep and freezing cold (the lakes were mostly frozen.)
After that, we made it to a ranger station where we talked with a ranger for a bit. He had some skis with him and has been taking advantage of the late season snow.
After some snacks we made our way to the next crossing. It was the outlet of arrowhead lake. It was raging so we walked around looking for another way. We eventually decided on walking all the way around the lake it drains into. It only added about half a mile and it saved us a sketchy looking snow traverse. The outlet of that lake was a bit calmer and wasn’t hard to cross.
Then came Baxter Creek. We knew this would be a tough one and we were prepared to camp nearby. We saw a couple that had made the decision to wait until morning, but they told us two guys had just crossed a half hour earlier. Armed with the knowledge that it was doable this late in the day, we went for it. We found a place where the stream split and crossed the first two parts without issue. The last braid was deep and fast. The runout looked good with a bit of ground poking out that you could grab if you left your feet. I made it mostly fine, stumbling onto the bank. The guy I was hiking with fell in and lost his hat, but managed to grab a tree, and I grabbed his arm, and he pulled himself in.
After that should have been smooth sailing but since there was so much water almost the whole trail was flooded for the rest of the day. There was even another creek ford that was pretty sketchy (although very narrow) that we had to do that wasn’t in our ford report.
When we arrived at a campsite, some other hikers had built a fire to dry off their shoes. We joined them while we made dinner and settled in for the night.