HST Day 4
August 18, 2019
Moraine Lake to Junction Meadow: 15 miles
After our incredibly long day yesterday, we decided we deserved some extra down time, so we slept in until 6 am, and took our time with morning chores. Even with taking our time, we were off by 7:15. The first mile was flat and we had really pretty morning light in Sky Parlor Meadow. The next 3.5 miles were downhill, as we were making our way down to the Kern River. It was already hot by 8 am. We eventually made it down to the trail junction, and then continued onwards toward Kern Hot Springs.
Pretty much the moment we turned north, a rattlesnake rattled at us and started coiling. I heard rattlesnakes are pretty common in this lower-elevation valley, so I was already on the lookout. It still caught me by surprise though! After about 2 miles of mostly exposed trail that alternated between being very rocky to very sandy, we crossed the Kern on a footbridge and then we were at the hot springs! The spring is a cute little stone “tub” and it’s situated right next to the river! Despite how hot it was, we decided we at least needed to soak our feet, and since we were the only ones there, we went for it! I even went all the way in, and then hopped over to the river to cool down. It was so refreshing!
The campsite at the hot springs was really nice, and we tried to take our lunch break there, but we were instantly swarmed by bees once we got the food out. So we packed up again, and walked a few hundred feet down the trail after a stream crossing and tried to eat there. We ate, but bees still found us. So we scarfed down our food, filtered some water, and then made our way down the trail.
This section was pretty long and painful. It’s about 7.5 miles in practically a straight line following the Kern with a gradual uphill. It was pretty exposed and so hot for about half of it though, which made for rough going. We took many snack breaks and water breaks. Mom kept pace with me for most of the afternoon and I was proud of her. The trail was monotonous though, and I was so over having random “Hamilton” lyrics stuck in my head, so I put on a podcast to help me through. It worked, thankfully. We did have some cool views of the canyon walls during this hike, but mostly this section was just meh - a necessary thoroughfare to get to the Whitney Area.
We had to cross Rock, Whitney, and Wallace Creeks today. Rock was easy, but Whitney and Wallace were fords. It was sad to have to ford Wallace because it was only about 0.1 miles from camp, so we had soaking wet feet by the time we got to camp, and since we are in a pretty deep valley, there was no direct sunlight to dry our shoes and socks fully. Thankfully, my wet socks from earlier today are completely dry now, and I have sacred sleep socks, so the sock issue is under control. But I have a feeling that my shoes will still be wet tomorrow morning. At least the insoles dried, so it shouldn’t be too bad. We also had to collect water at Wallace for the rest of tonight and tomorrow morning.
We got to camp earlier today, at 6:15ish, which was nice bc we were able to do camp chores and eat in the light. This camp has some really bad mosquitos though, and isn’t super scenic, so outside of the tent wasn’t very enjoyable. I had on my wind pants and rain jacket to keep them from eating me. We did chores and ate pretty quickly, and now we are just laying down inside the tent relaxing. I also have a weird toe thing on my second to last toe on my left foot. Kind of like an ingrown toenail I think? I put some Purell on it and will put neosporin on it tomorrow before putting leukotape back on it. It’s a little painful, but mostly only irritating when going downhill.
Tomorrow is all about setting up for Whitney! We have a really big climb first thing in the morning, so we are waking up early to tackle it in the cool morning air before it gets too hot!
Some iPhone pics:
