Day 21, September 26, 2017 - Chicken Spring Lake to Horseshoe Meadow and beyond

Link to Introduction here - start from the beginning


Day 21.  28f in the morning. Nice sunrise and early morning sun to warm us up. We left camp at 8:30, met up with Susan around 10 and got to the trailhead by 10:30.  A pretty but uneventful hike out. 

I tried riding my bike down to Lone Pine but the road was a bit sketchy and it was windy so I decided against it. 

We took showers down near Lone Pine and that was when Susan told me my mom died the day before.  Can't wait to see you again in heaven Mom.  

We drove back to Santa Barbara, remembering how we had spent the last 3 weeks of our lives.  While 3 weeks was a long time to be gone from family, we both would had a fantastic trip through the Sierras.  What a magical place it is.

No inreach location for the day 

Daily Statistics
Miles hiked:  5
Elevation gain:  0'
Elevation lost:   1290'
Precipitation:  none
Morning low temperature:  28F

Day 20, September 25, 2017 - Crabtree Meadow to Chicken Spring Lake

Day 20.  21f in the morning. Crabtree Meadow was covered in frost in the morning. 

View of Crabtree Meadow from near our camp spot, 7am

We lolligagged a bit and still got out of camp at 8:20.  We had a fairly uneventful morning, and it felt really good to be hiking.  A definite change of attitude from yesterday.  











We got to Rock Creek by a little after 11.   If you have not noticed, since we passed south of Forrester Pass and Mount Whitney, the terrain has softened a lot.  Gone are the jagged ridges and sharp peaks.  Now the terrain looks older and softer, more weathered.  

We ended up near the ranger station when we saw a uniformed person we assumed was the ranger. He turned out he was just a maintenance person cutting a tree. We saw a couple other uniformed NPS employees a bit after that.  We suspect one of them may have been a ranger, but as far as we know for sure we saw no rangers the entire 200 mile trip.  That was in stark contrast to our 10 day trip in August 2016, where we saw 6 rangers.  

We stopped up the trail by a small side creek and had lunch at noon. The afternoon felt like it was a victory lap. Fairly easy trail, much different but still pretty views in the southern Sierras.   It was a 15 mile day and we were just cruising. 



This area was interesting.  Just to the left of the picture was a mature stand of trees on a slope.  The near area pictured looked like pine cones had rolled down the hill, and likely been blown a bit by the wind, and started this tree farm on the flat.  Not sure why the area was devoid of large trees to begin with, so many little mysteries in the Sierras.


We continued on, lured into false hope from some trail signs with incorrect milage that told us we were getting near our camp spot.  



Big Whitney Meadow


Siberian Outpost



Unfortunately some very different included a two mile slog through a rather sandy trail.


But also a cool rock formation that looked like it offered some fun bouldering

We reached our camp for the day, Chicken Spring Lake, at six. 


We found a descent camp spot with a great cook area.  Our last dinner on the trail, and lots of joking going on. 



And some great sunset colors.


Fortunately it is also not as cold here, 34 f when we went to bed around 8:15. Chicken Spring Lake was also our highest elevation camping for the trip at 11,242'.  Basically right at tree line.  

Less than five miles to the trailhead tomorrow planned get up time is 6:30, and a no cook breakfast .just hot water for coffee.

No inreach location for the day 

Link to Day 21, the last day

Daily Statistics
Miles hiked:  15
Elevation gain:  2400'
Elevation lost:  1500'
Precipitation:  none
Morning low temperature:  21F

Day 19, September 24, 2017 - Tyndall Creek to Crabtree Meadow

Day 19.  23f in the morning. The water bucket was frozen harder than any other time. 



Mark left 1/2" of water in the pot and it was frozen solid.

We got a slow start and did not get out of camp around 9:30.  Lots of ice in Tyndall Creek this morning.

On our way out of camp we decided to climb Tawny Point, which had beautiful views in all directions. This was a very strenuous off trail climb over sand, ankle breakers and talus.  The picture below is near the top, looking down.  The JMT is on the lower left side of the lake in the picture.  



The climb took longer than expected, about two hours start to finish.  But the views were worth it. I took a panorama video, but it is too large to upload.  😒  Mark took some great panoramas

The lone soldier welcoming us back to the trail.  



And looking back to Tawny Point

The hike to lunch by Wright Creek afforded us our first views of Mt. Whitney of the trip.  We were sure we could see the hut in person, but I can't make it out in the pictures.  Can you?







We ate lunch around 1pm.  We had our last session of Sierra corn cup of the trip, which Mark won.  He won the trip 3 games to 2.  Congratulations Mark!!

Other than a pack train with 8 or so people hiking behind it we saw maybe 4 people all day. There has definitely been way less people since going up towards Palisades, and even less after the cold front came through. Still seeing snow on the ground in places. 

We got to Crabtree Meadow a little before five. A couple going north confirmed what we thought which was the next water is 5 miles down the trail, so we decided to stay at Crabtree Meadow.  

View of Crabtree Meadow from near our camp spot, 5pm

We did evening chores and were in bed at 7:30. Last temperature report was in the high thirties. Sleeping cowboy tonight, as there were very few clouds today.  The hike beyond Wright Creek was not terribly enjoyable for either of us.  Mark and I agreed this was our least favorite day of the hike, even with the views from Tawny Point.  We both were very excited to go over Forrester Pass, and now we are just sort of on a march back to civilization.  Plus, we both have hiked much of this part of the day’s trail before on past High Sierra Trail trips.  


Perhaps tomorrow will dawn brighter . . .

Our inreach location for the day is here

Link to Day 20 page is here

Daily Statistics
Miles hiked:  11
Elevation gain:  1960' 
Elevation lost:  2420'
Precipitation:  none
Morning low temperature:  23F

Day 18, September 23, 2017 - Vidette Meadow to Tyndall Creek

Day 18. 30f in the morning. We got a dusting of snow overnight, so I was very glad I was in my tent. We were out of camp at 8:20. I hiked in my fleece and sweatpants all day for the first time. The hike up Vidette Meadow was another beautiful hike. Some of the pictures give you an idea of how chilly the day was.  

Around this point in the trail we came across a small stream that was totally iced over, with the water flowing beneath.  I thought it looked pretty cool . . .  😜

And then we kept on climbing.

Shortly before lunch I was waiting for Mark and saw a man with two horses coming down from Forrester pass. This was the first horse sighting on the trip, but unfortunately not the last.  At the transition from a small snow patch back to rock the rear horse fell and really struggled to get up, thrashing about on the rocks.  

The rider brought the horses right next to me, like 2 feet away, and started asking me if I could see if the horse's leg was gushing blood. 

I told him it was bleeding, so he got off and tended to the wound as shown above.  While he was tending to his horse we chatted a bit. He was doing the PCT on his horses. He had gone over 2400 miles since April with these two horses and was on his way to Onion Valley to get more supplies.  During the trip we met several PCT hikers who came back to this section of the Sierras to complete their hike, as the snow on the passes was too much early in the season.  He and his horses were doing the same.  

We ate lunch by a lake at 12,250', 

and left there at 1:15. 
 








We made the pass at 2:15.



This is what it was all about.  Forrester Pass is the 2nd highest pass on the JMT, about 400' below Trail Crest near Mt. Whitney.  We did not go to Mt. Whitney on this trip, so no Trail Crest for us.  So on this trip we were at the high point.  We loitered and took pictures for some time, enjoying the moment.  

On the way down we met a gut who claimed his son held the JMT speed record at 3 days 11 hours. He told us the guy we saw trying to break the record mentioned earlier in this blog tapped out at Red’s Meadow.  This guy we met and his future son in law were doing a loop that included Forrester Pass and the JMT route before Forrester was created. It sounded hard and pretty sketchy. When writing this blog, I did find information online regarding an unsuccessful for a speed record on the JMT (AURELIEN SANCHEZ), and also found that Darcy Piceu had successfully completed the JMT in 3 days, 7 hours and 57 minutes.  More info here.  We definitely saw this gal running the trail, and did not think she was the one attempting to break the speed record, she just looked like she was out running.  


It may sound trite by this point, but the views walking at 12,000’ through a barren plateau were just incredible, we are so blessed to be able to hike through this beautiful country.  







This is a view looking back at Forrester Pass.  It is hard to see from the other (north) side


And the descent continues

We got to Tyndall Creek at about 5. No fires (elevation around 11,000’), very cold with a breeze, so we were in our tents by 7:15.  Likely could have camped cowboy, but with the breeze we were both looking for maximum warmth and minimum distraction.  Tomorrow we head to Crabtree meadow or possibly beyond.  



Our inreach location for the day is here

Day 19 page is here

Daily Statistics
Miles hiked:  12.6
Elevation gain:  3560'
Elevation lost:  2145'
Precipitation:  slight snow dusting overnight
Morning low temperature:  30F