The Start of Sierras (D-35 699

The Start of Sierras (D-35 699 - 709.5)

No, that's not what one gets in Sierras. Before entering the Sierra Nevada, there was the small matter of picking up resupply at Kennedy Meadows General Store. Headed out from campsite and got to the trailhead where very fortunately a pickup van had just dropped off some hikers. The van was going back to Grumpy Bears Resort where I wanted to get breakfast (it is sort of a thing-to-do on PCT now). Hopped in the back and after picking up some hikers, reached GBR.

No breakfast yet as it was only 7:30 am. Paid for WiFi and checked email & messages. Restaurant opened at 8:30 & there was a big line of hikers waiting to order.

Finally, got my Hiker's breakfast which is what you see at the top. Btw, it is all you can eat pancakes. I finished 80% of the first one 😋.

Got a ride back to Kennedy Meadows General Store - this time in the front of the pickup truck with a weed-smoking driver 😀.

Had 2 boxes of resupply (shipped by Ravin) & 1 bounce box (that I had shipped from Wrightwood with stuff I didn't need then).

Unpacked all, changed to my old backpack (since the newer one that I had been using all these days would not work with the bear canister that's mandatory to carry for the next 200 miles).

My weight without backpack

My weight with the backpack...40+ lbs 😱

Since it was still afternoon, I figured I might as well get a start into the Seirras.

Stopped after only a few miles as I still needed to get used to carrying the heavy pack and the next site was a bit far off.

Oh! Btw, crossed this in the morning.

Data:

Morning session

Afternoon session

Comments

In-town & Trail Activities (D-45 @ 903.3 and D-46 4.3 miles plus 906.7 - 924.5)

I am still surprised how busy in-town zero days can be. You think that you have a lot of time to take care of everything that you had planned to do while hiking earlier. Yesterday, in Mammoth Lakes, first I had a large breakfast (very important thru-hiker activity) & then visited 3 different stores to research and buy new shoes & glove liners. Old ones were completely gone. Post that, went to the big grocery store to buy the resupply food till the next stop & as usual, got overwhelmed by the number of the items available, picked up excess items, realized I can't carry all this, put back a lot of stuff and still ended up with extra food to carry. Next stop was the pharmacy to get blister-care bandages, then a decent sized pizza lunch and then back to the room to sort and repack. Speaking of blisters, I have got 2 till now and I had to prick one of them with a needle a few days back and then cover it up. First time, I had to sterilize the needle in a flame and the...

The High (& sometimes scary) Passes of Seirras - Part 1 (D-38 760 - 774.7; D-39 774.7 - 795.5)

The 7 main mountain passes (a pass being the low-point saddle between two mountains that one has to cross to go on the other side of the mountain) that I had to cross were as follows (south to north): 1. Forester Pass (13200 ft / 4023 m) 2. Glen Pass (11957 ft / 3645 m) 3. Pinchot Pass (12127 ft / 3696 m) 4. Mather Pass (12094 ft / 3686 m) 5. Muir Pass (11970 ft / 3648 m) 6. Selden Pass (10913 ft / 3326 m) 7. Silver Pass (10778 ft / 3285 m) All of these passes have some ascent and then a descent and essentially, the descent of one pass leads to the ascent of the next without too much of a flat area in between. Because this was a low snow year (some reports put it as only 43% of the average trail snow which means a bad summer drought for California 🙁), hikers like me are able to enter the Seirras and hike through these passes so early. Of course, this also means that there is still quite a bit of snow left on the passes and around them, which makes them more difficult and...

My gear and my tramily (D-97 @ 2148 - Zero day)

Some of you have asked about what gear I am using. Since today is a Zero day (the last Zero day was on D-57) and there is nothing much to report other than the fact that I shipped the last set of resupply boxes to different places in Washington state and ate substantial amounts of food today, I figured I might as well talk about my gear, and also a bit about the other most essential component on the hike - my "tramily" (trail-family). Tent : 1-person Rainbow Li from Tarptent (bought new). This has worked very well for me and as you know from my earlier posts, Tarptent has given very good customer service too. I haven't had the chance to use the tent in heavy rain or snow (luckily) though and can't comment on it. I use a Tyvek ground sheet (already owned), also from Tarptent. Backpack : Catalyst from ULA (already owned). I started with Zpack Arc Air Robic 60L (bought new) and used it for 700 miles, but it was not comfortable at...

A thru-hike attempt

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