lake – Russell on the Road

Day 27: Glen Aulin to Stream Confluence

A bright morning walking through wide, grassy meadows led me up to Miller Lake, a crystal clear pool complete with tiny beach! Tossing my shoes aside I stepped in to the cool water to soothe my calloused feet. Digging in to a tortilla sandwich with my toes in the sand, I mentally prepared myself for the pass ahead.

The approach to Benson Pass looked simpler than many of the previous hair-raising passes I had crossed farther south. Despite the apparent ease, I still managed to make it into a challenge by losing the trail and having to shove my way through thickets of manzanita bushes until I eventually found it again. The path followed a small creek through a canyon before making a sharp turn to the west and over the pass. The top offered some nice views but the real prize was another gorgeous lake just below, where I took off my (by this point probably very smelly) clothes and attempted a swim. Mosquitoes swarmed as soon as I revealed my bare skin, cutting my time sunbathing on the rocks short.

A short distance down the trail from the lake I found a copse of trees with some nice flat tentsites. The streams on either side meant more mosquitoes though, and both I and a Japanese couple camping nearby dove straight into our tents after dinner. Little did I know this was just a taste of the true horror the next day would bring.

Day 20: San Joaquin River to Marie Lake

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Leaving Kings Canyon in the cold shadows of the early morning, we took a short detour from the PCT to Muir Trail Ranch. In the long stretch of trail between Independence and Mammoth, shipping a food bucket to MTR is one of the only options if you want to resupply. I collected my bucket (they don’t allow boxes because of the rough overland journey it takes to get there) from a shed near the entrance and we began the process of dumping trash and sorting food. While divvying up oatmeal and ramen packets we met a friendly family hiking the John Muir Trail, who offered us their extra oreos and non-perishable bacon (I had no idea this existed). We greedily scarfed down everything they were willing to give us, and with contentedly full stomachs left the Ranch to continue our journey.

The path back to the PCT proved difficult, as we earlier had descended to MTR and now faced a very steep, hot, and exposed trek up toward Selden Pass. Soon enough, however, we were back among the snowfields, waterfalls, and placid alpine lakes of the high mountains. After dealing with some slick ice on the north side of the pass I went on the hunt for a dry campsite next to Marie Lake. When I walked over to a promising spot near the water, I heard a piercing yell and glanced to my left just in time to see a pair of naked hikers leaping into the half-frozen lake. The hikers later joined us for dinner and one, a photographer from Bulgaria, showed me how to take photos of the perfectly clear night sky with his SLR camera, capturing the light of a million stars.

Day 7: Death Canyon Creek to Chicken Spring Lake

After a beautiful sunrise, I trekked up to a ridge overlooking the desert valley to the east. I passed a hiker talking on his phone, likely one of the final spots with cell service before we got into the remote Sierra wilderness. The trail then took a long circle around the appropriately-named Horseshoe Meadow, a popular entry point to the high mountains with a narrow road snaking back down to the town of Lone Pine.

In the late afternoon I reached the junction for a short spur trail to Chicken Spring Lake, where a thru-hiker wearing a kilt was filtering water at the lake’s outlet. At an elevation of 11,000 feet, a thin sheet of ice still covered the shady side of the lake, and the surrounding snowfields made finding a dry spot for my tent difficult. Luckily a friendly section hiker had staked out a small clearing, and as dusk descended several more hikers rolled into the makeshift camp. A large blister had formed on the inside of my left foot, and previous attempts to drain it myself ended in miserable failure. So I was even more lucky when another section hiker stopped to make dinner at the lake and kindly showed me how to properly deal with the increasingly painful blister. Enjoying the company, we swapped stories and advice before the cold and exhaustion sent everyone to their sleeping bags.