Katie and I had a wonderful, if fairly short, resumption of the PCT together this year. Agnew Meadow (behind Mammoth) to Tuolumne Meadows.
Day One:
I'm starting to wonder about my older daughter Katie. Can she see the future? Can she summon spirits? Is she some kind of backpacking witch-doctor?
Consider the following facts: She did the scheduling for this year's PCT resumption in May, four months ago. The three days she planned? We had glorious weather. And finished hours before an early-season snow storm. How did she know? She told me on day two how much fun she was having, but oh, wouldn't it be great to see a bear? Twenty minutes later I see Katie ahead, stopped in the trail, forcefully telling something unseen that we "needed the trail." Ursa Conjures? On this trip she had a solution to everything that failed or was forgotten: a broken tent pole, the left-behind battery, a toenail that hurt.
What's going on here? I'm not quite sure. Yet. But my "Dirtbag Barbie" daughter continues to be an ideal backpacking partner.
This trip covered the same part of the PCT as the trip Tricia and I did in September, 2013. And like that trip, this one was just a joy. Here's a link to that report for anyone who wants to time travel:
http://www.mudncrud.com/forums/index.php?topic=1917.0This trip started cold and early - the rules of Mammoth state that one must drive past Minaret Vista Entrance Station before 7:00 a.m. or ride the dreaded shuttle bus down instead:
Northbound, the PCT leaves Agnew Meadow, destination Thousand Island Lake. Luckily taking "the High Trail" to get there. The High Trail requires serious uphill straight out of the trailhead, but, speaking from 2,500 miles of other PCT experience, gives some of the most incredible views of anywhere on the trail.
The cold-morning uphill:
One of my longest-time climbing partners decided to join us on this first day. He had friends staying back near Thousand Island Lake and so joined us hiking to there. I've been climbing with Dave for nearly 40 years and he's known Katie since "before she was born." A shared love of the outdoors has created nice friendships between my daughter and many of my "older" friends. So, many of my friends are her friends too:
Listing Dave's High Sierra climbing achievements would take a longer paragraph than readers here might want. Katie got to hear some of his best stories, though. It took some prompting from me to get him talking, but Dave is a great storyteller with great stories.
Here's a view of the Minarets, Mount Ritter, and, fading rightward into tree branches, Banner Peak. I asked Dave how many Minarets there are. His answer (if I remember correctly without looking it up): "There are 19." How many have you summited? "All 19." This "all 19," by the way, includes Dyer Minaret - so obscure and hard to reach that when he did the summit, a then-decades old register there listed seven prior ascents. It was quite pleasing to me (and I think, to her too) that Katie got to hear all of this:
Dave's a little slower than he used to be, but hey, which of us that has been doing this for more than a decade or two isn't:
Rest breaks involved the usual food and water. And continued staring at the Sierra (and therefore, here, Pacific) Crest:
Katie is built for this type of walking. When she was littler, one of her nicknames was "Legs." It still fits:
On the High Trail:
Looking south, toward Mammoth (at San Joaquin Mountain and Two Teats):
First view of Thousand Island Lake:
Katie's planning had put us here on an absolutely perfect Sierra day:
Dave said goodbye to us here. And, although we'd considered staying at the lake, we knew about incoming weather and thought that a few more miles would be smart. The views got better as we continued:
The location of that last shot in particular brought back memories of my 2013 trip with then-11 year old daughter Tricia:
Tricia and I were to have finished our continuous footsteps on the PCT this year (she and I have done a total of 2,540 miles out of 2,650.1 to that border from Mexico - starting with sister Katie and me, with my wife's constant help, the day after Tricia turned five years old!). Until a fire in northern Washington closed that part of the trail three weeks before we were supposed to hike. A mere 109 miles to Canada for us and we couldn't even start this year.
On this trip, Katie and I went another four miles to Island Pass. We found a nice little lake to camp near. And views:
Dinner followed, and then a restful and crystal-clear but not-too-cold night:
