HST Day 1
August 15, 2019
Crescent Meadow to Buck Creek: 10 miles
First day on the High Sierra Trail! Mom and I were so excited to start that we woke up super early even though the first shuttle didn’t come until 8. It’s ok, we packed up our stuff from our campground at Lodgepole and went over to the market to get a coffee and wait for our day to start. We finally walked over to the shuttle stop at 7:50 am since they were supposed to start at 8, but the first shuttle didn’t actually come until 8:30. Once we got to the Giant Forest, we had to take one more shuttle to Crescent Meadow.
When we finally got there, we loitered around for a bit, used the last enclosed bathrooms we’d have for a week, and waited for anyone to come so we could get a picture with the HST trailhead sign. Then we were officially off!
The mosquitos immediately swarmed us when we were still in the forest, prompting us to stop to get our head nets out. Once we broke out of the forest and got to Eagle View, just a little bit after starting, the views opened up and it was beautiful! We could see Moro Rock to the west and the Great Western Divide - the mountain range we’d be crossing - ahead of us to the east. It was so imposing and so beautiful. And hard to believe we’d be up there very soon!
The trail was relatively easy today. Mostly flat with some ups and downs thrown in, but no huge climbs or anything. Which was really nice because my pack was pretty heavy. I didn’t do an official weigh-in before starting, but my base weight for this trail is sitting around 14-15 lbs with a bear canister, so I’m probably at 30ish with over half of our food and a liter of water.
The trail meandered in and out of the forest and chaparral, with peek-a-boo sights of the Great Western Divide. Each time we got a look, we were closer, which was exciting. What was not so exciting was how hot it was! The high for today at our elevation (~6,500-7,400 ft) was 85*! On some of the more sustained climbs, I was sweating a lot just from minimal effort. I really liked the trail today though since there weren’t a ton of switchbacks. We were mainly just following a contour line across a large mountain.
We stopped for lunch at Mehrten Creek for about an hour. Since I’m with my mom for this hike, we are sharing lunches and dinners. We had very tasty cold soaked bean burritos with chili Fritos and a cheese stick thrown in. I wish I knew about these beans on the PCT bc they were amazing cold soaked! I could have had bean burritos all the time! Oh well, I’ll save it for the next hike. Once the sun crept into our shady spot, we took off for the afternoon. We had more amazing views of the Great Western Divide before it became hidden by some closer mountains as we descended to the spot where we originally thought we’d camp: 9 mile creek. But, we were feeling good, and the campsite was buggy, and it was still pretty early, so we continued down to Buck Creek where there was another bear box. We are basically constricted to sites with bear boxes right now because not all of our food fits into the bear canister. By night 4 though, everything should fit in.
We were very happy with this camp selection because it is way better than 9 mile! Not as buggy, and better views of mountains and canyons. And the creek is so beautiful, when we went down to get water, we soaked our feet in a little pool above the footbridge. The sloping granite around it created a natural backrest, and I felt like I was in nature’s spa! After collecting water, we went back up to our tent and got the rest of camp set up and started making dinner and filtering water and doing toiletries things and separating our smellables from the rest of our stuff.
After dinner, we chatted with our neighbors, Kristen and Richard, who we briefly met at Mehrten Creek earlier in the day. They were so nice! We chatted about the PCT and their JMT section hiking, REI, gear, trail-angeling in Tehachapi and all kinds of things. They are also camping at Hamilton Lakes tomorrow night, so we’ll be seeing them a lot! We talked as the sun was setting, and when it got dark, we said good night, got our things into the bear box, and crawled into our tent! The first climb to Bearpaw is ~400 feet over a mile, so not too bad, but definitely more incline at once than anything today! And my pack is still heavy since we’re eating the food that’s not in the bear canister first (aka the food in Mom’s pack). But it will lighten up eventually!
Some iPhone pics from the day:
