PCT Thru-hike #11: The Long Haul to Muir
Thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail was a life-changing experience for Arthur and Jill. This is our story.
Follow the PCT thru-hike adventure from the beginning and hike with us to mile 2,650.
Take ‘Er Easy There Pilgrim
Written by Arthur
Our spectacular campsite turned out to be warmer and better sheltered than we had anticipated. It was a pleasant morning, other than Bushtit’s little cold taking a turn for the worse. With a sorely sunburned face and a stuffy head cold, she had a rough morning and the early miles were off to a slow start. Though we had 900ft of elevation to gain to get over Kearsarge Pass, it was going to be a short eight mile day to get a hitch into town. Bushtit championed onward as she always does and picked up her pace as the exercise cleared her sinuses.
I saw a huge grouse and slipped on a random patch of sneaky ice before we reached the pass. As we crossed over the pass the landscape around us had changed drastically from an alpine winter land to a dusty desert once again. The path down from the pass was called Onion Valley. Though we were dropping back down to the desert, our path was adorned with lakes, streams, and cascading waterfalls from the high mountain snowmelt.
We passed many day hikers on the way down and found ourselves stuck at a campground parking lot. The trail went no further. We had made it to a backwoods road that few people visited on a Tuesday morning. A few long-term campers were going nowhere, and if we wanted a ride it looked like we would have to wait for one of the few day hikers to finish their hikes later in the afternoon. We were debating what to do with two other thru-hikers who were in our same predicament, Dino DNA and Etch-a-sketch. They decided to wait at the campground while Bushtit and I started walking down the road.
We were pretty sure we wouldn’t have to walk the remaining 13 miles to town (and not even the town we wanted), at least we hoped. It wasn’t but a mile or so down the road when a white pickup pulled over and a lady yelled out “Hiker taxi service!” and pulled over for us. We had seen the truck pass us moments earlier and we had waved and smiled at them. Turns out they were dropping off some other hikers back at the trailhead. We got in the back of the truck with DNA, Etch, and another hiker from Germany who went by the name Slip-N-Slide. The couple from Ridgecrest dropped everyone off at the Post Office in Independence. We needed to get to Lone Pine for a package. It was a slightly bigger town another 15 minutes down the road, and since they were heading in that direction they happily gave us a ride.
I sat up front in the third seat with the couple and chatted with them while Bushtit stayed in the back (the drop in elevation was so quick in the car ride it had given her a painful ear pressure problem, just not her day). We compared hiking experiences and talked a bit about Starbucks since they loved their local place and I once managed several stores. They dropped us off at the Whitney Portal Hostel and said goodbye.
We started our usual town stuff of filling our guts, getting a place to stay, and cleaning ourselves and everything else. Lone Pine was full of hikers not only from the PCT, but also the John Muir Trail and Mt. Whitney portal trail. We were asked several times by others what the snow conditions were like on Whitney. I suppose we looked like we had just come out of the wilderness.
Lone Pine looked like an old west town, and we learned that it was built that way intentionally back when it was used by Hollywood to make many old west films, including many John Wayne movies. It was a dusty town with old wooden buildings which had the Sierras as a backdrop to the west and The Whites as another set of tall mountains to the east. Very cool. The downtown had a nice strip of restaurants and shops, and we were even able to take advantage of an outdoor gear shop to get and fix a few needed things.
Why Glen? Why?
Written by Arthur
After a quick breakfast at McDonalds and a healthy dosage of morning talk shows we were given a ride back to the Onion Valley trailhead by a former thru-hiker, Tom Sawyer.
Tom worked at the hostel we had stayed at in town and he offered to give any hikers a ride to any nearby trail they needed access to, for a small fee. With us in the car was another hiker named Ego. We shared stories of the trail and the hour ride back to the trailhead flew by. Rain started to fall as we approached our destination. Tom offered for us to hang out in his car for a bit, but we all decided to hop out and move onward. The miles were calling to us. We bid adieu and hiked on into the light drizzle.
On our way uphill we ran into a hiker we haven’t seen in weeks! Kat, who now goes by Hummingbird, had taken a side trip to Vegas and we lost track of her. It was nice to catch up as she was heading down into town and we were marching out. We continued uphill, back toward Kearsarge Pass, when we noticed the clouds growing and darkening behind us. We could see the rain pour down on the towns we had just left behind. It started to snow a light flurry above us, but we could see the rain clouds and fog moving in our direction. We hurried up to the pass, passing by day hikers and short-term backpackers with ease. The fog began to surround us as we reached the top of the pass, but beyond into the Sierras was a sky of blue.
We hiked down the other side of the mountain and away from the storm. More JMT hikers and others passed by as they headed for town, asking us questions about how we got rides and where the good places to eat were.
The few miles back to the PCT were easy hiking, but as we reached our trail again we began a steep hike up toward Glen Pass. At 12,000ish elevation, Glen Pass is known as the steepest pass on the trail. We had already gone over Kearsarge today, so this was going to be our second mountain pass of the day. We climbed higher, talking with hikers going in the opposite direction. Storms rages up ahead. Some hikers said turn around, some said go forward. Either way the clouds were darkening again and it started snowing once more. We climbed stone steps up the mountainside. The higher we went, the steeper it became until we were doing switchback stairs near the peak.
Once we made it over we could see the trail was once again missing under a field of snow. The weather made us hurry, but we had to be cautious down the steep snowy slope of the mountain. We followed trails cut into the snow, and it wasn’t too bad until those paths crossed into cliffsides of crumbled and jagged rock.
In a way the rock was better for traction and felt more safe to traverse, in another it was the total opposite of that. The rocks were wet with snowmelt, and the terrain was so steep that the small gravel just slid out from under our feet, and larger rocks rolled and shifted under our every step. It was a terrible mess of these insecure rock fields and swaths of snow in which we had to navigate down the mountainside. I fell a couple of times on the tricky rocks, bashing my knee, slamming down on the meat of my butt, and slipping off a rock which then slid down under my weight and crushed my calf between itself and another rock. All of these instances turned out better than they could have been. Each time I lurched forward I had to save myself from slamming my face into a rock further down the slope.
We did make it down after some pain (Bushtit never fell, but her knee joints sure did ache). Other hikers started climbing up the path we had just went down, but we came across plenty who had stopped short of the pass for the night, and one group who was watching everyone else go up and down the mountain. They were smart to wait until the next day as it was getting late. We continued downhill and walked around a handful of big lakes. They were loaded with golden and brown trout with red fins. It was a gorgeous valley we had descended into with pristine lakes surrounded by snow covered mountains.
Around one of these lakes were some deer and a sign pointing toward a bear box. A bear box is a steel container where campers can keep there food safe from bears and away from their tents. We put our food inside with a few other’s items and found a nice tent site near the lake which was covered by trees.
Pinchot Pass
Written by Jill
We slept in again today! I think it’s because we don’t sleep very well off trail anymore. There are so many distractions (mainly TV and Internet) and we end up staying awake way past our bedtime. Plus we’re used to sleeping on the ground in a cozy tent now : )
Once we got up and retrieved our food from the bear box we hit the trail. There was a six mile downhill from where we camped all the way down to 8600 feet — pretty low for our standards now! The morning was beautiful and we walked around the Rae Lakes. We continued to see a lot of weekend hikers doing the “Rae Lakes Loop”, although we neglected to ask them where the loop went or how long it was. It seems like a popular hike, though.
A few miles in we caught Cashmere and Physio having lunch near the trail and we stopped to chat. Nips caught up to us as well and the five of us snacked and talked. We hiked the rest of the downhill together. We rounded a corner and saw an amazing suspension bridge crossing a river. Nips exclaimed that we were very near the 800 mile mark. We took lots of pictures and reveled in the fact that we’d all walked eight hundred miles : )
After the bridge, however, we started up the eight mile ascent of Pinchot Pass. The pass is at 12,100 feet and we’d spent all morning going downhill. Bummer. All five of us leapfrogged for the next three hours as we climbed. There were a lot of stone stairs and everyone was on the struggle bus. We ended up climbing above tree line at about 4 o’clock and we were greeted by dark clouds and rumbling thunder. We didn’t see any lightning, though, so we pushed on toward the pass. A few minutes later snow began falling from the gray sky. We climbed up into the clouds until we were hiking in a bit of a whiteout. Visibility wasn’t awful and the trail was still obvious, so on we climbed. This was the first time I had hiked while it was heavily snowing and I thought it was pretty fun.
We reached the pass right as the snow stopped. The clouds cleared in a matter of seconds and we were treated to grand views on both sides of the pass. So cool! It’s crazy how quickly the weather can change up here. The north side of Pinchot was the easiest pass descent we’ve had so far. There weren’t too many snow fields and it was relatively short. Tomtit tried glissading (when you slide down a snow hill while seated), but it didn’t really work.
We passed a few more lakes on our way down and had dinner on the shore — we had been trying to eat before we made it to camp to keep our stuff from smelling yummy to the bears. Dinner was salami, mayo, and cheese tortillas with figs and cookies for dessert. Two more miles past the lakes brought us to our camp for the night.
We were at 10,000 feet at the bottom of the valley between Pinchot and Mather Pass and we should be set up nicely to do Mather tomorrow.
Snow Sun Rain Hail
Written by Arthur
Snow had covered our tent during the night. A wet, quick melting snow. We woke up late and started hiking very late, around 9:30.
Quite a while was spent defrosting and drying out the tent and other gear. We couldn’t put anything soaking wet into our packs because everything else would get wet too.
When we finally left we had to cross a mighty divided stream, hopping from rock to rock and walking across fallen trees. The ascent to Mather Pass then began. It was a beautiful sunny day and quite a nice walk along many streams and meadows. The pass itself was a rocky mound, still at 12,000ft, but less of a climb than any other pass so far since we had not dropped much elevation since the last pass.
Despite the easy climb to the pass and the rest of our day being downhill, I had a rough time. Plagued by countless little pains, a headache from all the altitude and climate change, and any other reason I could come up with to further my misery, I also was miffed because the lunch break I had been looking forward too was cut very short by a sudden hailstorm. Not my day.
Though the descent from Mather was full of amazing scenery, it was difficult to enjoy it because little hail balls were pelting us and we had to keep our faces turned down low. The thin, high-altitude trees provided little protection from all the weather we were experiencing! We dropped further into an enormous canyon and the snow turned into rain. We hustled down a steep set of switchbacks to reach the shelter of the large pines and sequoias at the base of the canyon.
On the way we passed southbound JMT hikers who kept asking us if they were close to Mather Pass (at this point they weren’t and it was a looooooong climb up). “Are we almost there?” one of them asked. “You’re almost somewhere.” I replied.
Some had warned us of the upcoming Muir Pass. It was to be tomorrow’s climb for us, and a long 4000ft elevation gain over 11 uphill miles. We knew the climb would be tough, but they also warned of the deep snowfields miles long on both sides of the peak. We would be post-holing like crazy in the deep snow, but especially so if we were up near the pass during the hot and sunny part of the day. We heard the advice, but continued on with a “meh, we’ll deal with it whenever we get there” sort of attitude. We found shelter under the large trees and had a nice dinner alongside a river. Ramen is really good with some olive oil and a boatload of sunflower seeds, by the way.
After a couple more miles of downhill we reached the bottom where all sorts of streams and waterfalls converged from every direction. There was a piece of solid ground with some sheltered campsites in the middle of it all. We grabbed a great spot and had the area all to ourselves. We made a small campfire to warm ourselves with before going to bed. The rain had ceased and we shared some candy by the fire. It was a pleasant way to end the day.
Falling asleep with the sound of rushing water roaring nearby was much nicer than expected.
The Long Haul to Muir
Written by Jill
The alarm on my phone woke us up this morning — we didn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s late start. We started moving around and packing up by six o’clock. A deer joined us while we were eating breakfast — he seemed unfazed by our presence.
One of our friends, Sundown, had camped right next to us and none of us had noticed! We chatted a bit with him (the last time we saw him he was coming down off Whitney) and told him what we’d heard about Muir Pass for today. Postholing for hours. Worst day of our lives. Well, we’ve only got one way to go and it’s up and over Muir no matter what!
Since our camp was at the bottom of the valley last night we had an eleven mile climb to the pass. Luckily it was a relatively gradual climb and a very beautiful one. We ran into some kind of grouse and plenty of tiny chipmunks. Tomtit was also pretty sure he saw a pika scamper under a rock : )
We were leapfrogging with Cashmere and Physio and a new couple Touché and TooShy for most of the climb. When we finally made it above the tree line the snow we’d been promised appeared, but it definitely was not “worst day ever” snow. We did some postholing, Tomtit made a new glissade path for Hot Mess, Limp Noodle, Cashmere, Physio, and I, and there was a lot of rock scrambling. All in all it was very tiring, but sort of easy compared to the other passes we had done.
A southbound hiker passed us near the top and told us we were almost there. I assumed by “almost there” he meant quite a while more, but a few moments later we crested the ridge and the Muir Hut stood before us! I had seen pictures before, but it was very exciting to see it in person. We hung around for a bit and checked out inside the hut (smaller than I thought!) and then started down the other side. More postholing awaited us and it was a little worse than the ascent.
A few times we postholed straight into a creek running under the snow and got our feet soaking wet. Even Tomtit’s Goretex boots couldn’t keep his feet dry — the snow snuck in through the tops when his feet punched through the snow. It took a while, but we made it to a snow free zone near a frozen lake and collapsed onto a rock. Food was the first thing on our minds — all the climbing and slogging had taken a lot of energy and it was lunch time : )
Cashmere and Physio joined us and we all took our socks off to dry them in the sun. Eventually we got moving again down the mountains. The views were so stunning — sometimes it seems like everything up here is fake because it’s so perfect. We had dinner by a lake and then went another two and half miles to a camp site. Sadly the mosquitoes were starting to show up so we hurriedly pitched the tent and jumped in. We both journaled while huddled inside the protective mesh walls of our mosquito free sanctuary. Tomorrow we’ll head to Selden Pass. It is the shortest Sierra pass for us yet at 10,000 feet, though we heard it was just as difficult as the others.
Top of Muir Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail
Want to start from the beginning of the hike? Click here.
See more pictures from Arthur and Jill’s Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike by downloading the Adventure and The Pacific Crest Trail eBook. A print version is available as well. All sales help support Better Hiker.
