June 20, 2008 Pacific Crest Trail

Destination: Upper Palisade Lake
Miles: 15

Adrian:
This was supposed to be a fun day but it turned out stressful and sad.

The Sierra has some of the best scenery and camping of any park I've ever visited. I must come back some time and take it in a bit slower.

Today we woke up with a few other hikers around us including Uncle Lorenzo whom we love hiking with. Since we hoped to climb two passes today we packed up and were out hiking pretty early.

The passes of the day were Pinchot, 12,130 feet, and Mather, 12,100 feet.
We positioned ourselves well the night before and only had about a 3-mile hike up to Pinchot. No problem right? Wrong. Most of the approach was snow covered and the trail very hard to find. We've had wet feet now for about 3 days straight due to hiking over snow and crossing big streams. That's right, many steams are not bridged so we walk right through them with our shoes on. Also, because of all the snowmelt, the trail is often a river itself.

We summited Pinchot Pass around 10:30 a.m. with Lorenzo not far behind. On top we were invited by him to visit Torino, his hometown. We hope to soon. The descent was snow covered and we separated from Lorenzo as we picked our way down to Lake Majorie. Upon reaching the lake I did some fishing with no luck other than a follow. The lake was choked with icebergs so maybe that had something to do with it.

Further down valley we had to ford the South Fork of the King River. It was about lower thigh high and very cold. We met Gloworm on the other side and had lunch while our things dried in the hot sun. We wondered about Lorenzo because he wasn't too far behind usually. After an hour break we began to move out for our second pass, Mather.

As we resumed our hike we came across Yak and company. Since they were behind us we asked if they had seen Lorenzo. That's when we heard the news that he had somehow injured his calf or something like that not far from where we had last seen him. His plan was to limp out to trailhead over Taboose Pass which is near 12,000 feet and over 10 miles, a tough proposition healthy, much less with an injured leg. Kirsten and I were very saddened by the news and still are concerned for our Uncle Lorenzo. He's is a very capable mountaineer though so I'm confident he'll be fine.

Lorenzo, if you read this, please get well soon and try to skip ahead after resting a few days, or even a week. Maybe get back on in Yosemite? Good luck my friend!

On to Mather with a heavy heart. The climb to the pass was easy and very scenic. Simply awesome mountains and rivers with many wet fords. Then we saw the pass itself; snow covered and steep.

We approached from the left on the trail (some kick steps up the snow slope directly below the pass) and soon hit the steep traverse up the snow slope. Steps were in place and near the top I wish I had my ice axe in hand. A fall there would have meant a 500-foot slide down the snowfield. The runout was relatively safe but risk of injury would have still been high. Kirsten did a great job even though the exposure was high.

We enjoyed the view from the top with Gloworm and then made our way down the snowy north face. Kirsten fell once and hurt her butt, but she was fine except for a bruise. At 7:20 p.m. we found a decent campsite above Upper Palisade Lake.

What a day...

Kirsten:
So ... falling. That's my job these days.

This morning we both hit the trail with an ambitious schedule - two passes in a day. The first pass went well.

Then there was Mather. The ascent made me nervous. I talked my self through it, kept my head down and kicked steps until we reached the summit. This is when the fun began. The descent was a slip n' slide carnival ride filled with endless postholing through soft snow and breaking through snow bridges into small creeklets.

Somehow Adrian floated on top while I wallowed in the dredges. And then I fell. And then I fell again. And again.

When we finally made it to a dry campsite I was a bit pissy and hungry. My mood improved with a hot meal and I was sitting in the tent about to fall asleep when I spotted a mammoth mule deer buck silently walk by. In that one moment I forgot all about my bruised butt and tendency to fall every five seconds.