I greet the morning with a combination of excitement and a quiet sense of dread – we’re getting back to the PCT again, but to do so, we have to go back up Kearsarge Pass. Down was such a drag that I’m not looking forward to the opposite, but it must be done. So it’s off and back up towards Kearsarge. Continue reading →

I’m up at 8 and think I’ve slept in; the rest of the room isn’t up until 9. You think we’d be well-rested after yesterday, but not so much. We’re apparently not taking the morning bus, which leaves soon, back to Independence, so I guess we’re getting out at 1. Continue reading →

Waking up on zero days is the best – you’re kind of leery about sleeping in, but then you realize where you are and that you’ve got time and it’s like 8am before you shoo yourself onto the internet to start working. And even later when you actually get up, since everyone’s decided to take a zero and we’re staying in the hotel again, if they’ll have us. Yoda goes down to negotiate for another night, comes back successful. This is the life. Continue reading →

I wake late-ish, but most everyone’s still asleep, hungover on the excellence of yesterday evening. I pack up, head over to the fire, where there’s coffee and conversation to be had. We throw our extra food Pineapple’s way – she’s not going to Bishop, but heading straight through to Vermillion Valley Resort six days ahead – and give her so much love before Outro, Yoda, Homegrown, Sprinkles, and I all head off towards the Kearsarge Pass junction. Continue reading →

It’s so easy to get up this morning after yesterday – cold, but easy, the anticipation that comes with new challenges thrumming through me. Today, we head for Forester Pass – the tallest point on trail – to suss it out, see if we can’t get over it. I’m hoping to do more than the nine miles we’ve got to the approach today, but I’m not assuming anything. We’ll see. Continue reading →

My alarm goes off at 11:30pm, Yoda’s nearby at 11:45 – thank goodness, because I’d fallen back asleep. I hate everything a lot less than I think I will, particularly since I was smart and did most of my packing last night, but after clothing myself and grabbing my food out of my bear can and stuffing everything I need into what turns out to be my now absurdly light pack, it’s still 12:30am before I leave camp. 7.5 miles to the summit, sunrise at 5:15-ish – it’s gonna be tight, I think, but I’m trying to stay positive. Continue reading →

I roll over and out of my bag and into a normal-yet-weird morning. I do everything the same as I normally do, grab the bear cans, pick out the food for the day, pack up, stride off into the flat behind both Yoda and Outro. But today’s the setup – we’re climbing Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states, for sunrise tomorrow, and it’s got me bouncing through the morning’s flat in anticipation. Continue reading →

I’m one of the first ones up this morning. My tent is pitched all weird, deeply involved with a tree branch – and it bothers me until I take it down, trying to be quiet for all the still-sleepers. Outro’s out first – how quickly she manages, even with the bear can! – and then it’s me, off into the rocky ups awaiting us. Continue reading →