I took four days to drive from Birmingham to Bishop California, where I was planning on meeting an old friend of mine who I shared the Continental Divide Trail hike with back in 2016. Deco and I went through hell together walking the Rockies, and I was very excited to get another adventure in with him. He was hiking the PCT with a couple of other guys, Gavin and Boomer. They had all partnered up in Kennedy Meadows, because the snow in the Sierras was just bonkers this year! There was scarcely a spot of trail that wasn’t covered in white, which makes trying to hike and camp a whole lot more difficult.
I met up with them at the hotel and we all went out for beers and pizza. The next day, they took a zero and helped me get equipped with the right gear for the mountaineering habitat we would find ourselves in once we dropped back onto the trail. I did some trail magic for them by cooking up a huge slab of bacon and sausage on my camp stove in my car. Thru-hikers never turn down protein. It’s hard to come by on the trail!
The sunset before launching onto the JMT at Kearsarge pass, taken during a zero day in lovely Bishop, CAReunited at last! From left to right, me, my hiking partner Deco from the Continental Divide Trail, Gavin, and Boomer2019 was a 200% (double) average snow year, meaning we had to come prepared with ice axes, microspikes, and crampons to tackle any winter conditions we find. Almost half of the hiking was snow, meaning you’ll be lucky to make half of your usual daily miles.Our beautiful campsite overlooking Kearsarge PassOf course, I got an awful stomach bug the first night from drinking melted snow water! I had to tell my friends at midnight (when we were supposed to start hiking) that I would have to meet back up with them later, hike back to the trailhead, get a hitch back to Bishop, stay at a hostel for the night, catch the morning bus to a different trailhead, and hike up and over Bishop pass to meet back up with them! What a pain! Always filter your snowmelt!!At the peak of Bishop pass, a difficult detour route that would reconnect me with my friends on the PCT/JMT inside King’s Canyon National ParkSome people may complain about the snow, but on the bright side, there were no mosquitoes!It looks beautiful, but make no mistake, the sun’s rays are twice as strong in snowfields and will burn you to a crisp in half as many hours as usual. My face got burned even through my buff and my eyes were hurting despite sunglasses after just one day of hiking through this terrainThis seemed like the perfect place to camp for the night!Finally getting down into Kings Canyon National Park to rejoin my friends and the John Muir TrailAmazing.Some deer at the campsite
Some people may complain about the snow, but on the bright side, there were no mosquitoes!
