6.7.18. 20 miles.

Brrr last night was pretty cold! When I went to one of my water containers that I left outside the tent, there was partially frozen slush inside! Thankfully I was comfortable in my tent with the temperature. We got started hiking at 6:30 this morning, a little later than usual, just because we knew it would be a cold morning and we only had 20 miles to hike, and we knew there were no river crossings or snowfields ahead.

Our big climb of the day was first thing, and it was gorgeous! I was stopping to take pictures so much, out group thinned out a little since we all had different morning agendas (poop breaks, picture taking, layer shedding, power up the climb, etc.). At one point we had a view of the desert on the east side, and I also had cell service and was able to contact my Uncle Rick, who lives in Bishop, about plans for kearsarge pass. Thankfully, he is going to pick us up at the onion valley trailhead when we get there, which is super helpful!

After breaking for a few minutes there, LOL caught up and we finished the climb, admiring all of the trees and open space and views of the mountains along the way. We took another small break before arriving at the water source/ lunch break spot and meeting back up with Butters and Hot Mess. We took a decently long lunch, and then got back to hiking. The rest of the day was uphill, but mostly gradual. Butters & I hiked most of the afternoon together. There were so many pretty sights! The last few miles seemed to drag by, but once we reached our campsite I was pretty excited because it was so beautiful! We are camping near Chicken Spring Lake, which is a gorgeous alpine lake just off the PCT. We decided not to camp by the lake bc we don’t want our tents to be frozen with condensation in the morning! Sometimes you have to sacrifice that picturesque camp spot for something way more practical.

We did go up to the lake and spend some time there taking pictures and soaking our feet before going back down to camp to cook dinner and get to bed! We have a shorter day tomorrow, as we are headed for Crabtree Ranger Station to set up for our Mt. Whitney summit attempt the day after! We also have our first major river crossing tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes!