Feels so great to be back on trail after our week off!! Kyle and I definitely have our “trail legs”, the superhero-like state where our leg muscles adapt to the daily mileage and recover in time to rinse and repeat each day!
We hopped back into it doing days of 18 to 20 miles!
Bishop Pass is breathtaking and quite possibly our favorite place in the Sierras, for those of you considering a shorter loop hike, consider parking at South Lake Trailhead near Bishop and take the 395 shuttle up to Independence. Once there, get to the Onion Valley trailhead and hike over Kearsarge Pass to connect to the JMT. From there, you can take three days to hike over Glenn Pass (camping in area Rae Lakes area), then Pinchot Pass and finally Mather Pass before heading back out over Bishop Pass to your car! A great 5 day trip!
Kyle and I completed one of the more challenging passes to date, Muir Pass! While the ascent is not as aggressive as other passes (nor as high - Muir pass being 11,955’), it was the snowiest pass. We had continuous snow for 2 miles before and 2 miles after. Where there is snow, there are snow bridges (an arc formed by snow across flowing water. While they can be convenient to help keep your feet dry, they can also be dangerous as you never know when they could break sending the unsuspecting hiker into ice cold/swift moving water.
The bridge at the South Fork of the San Joaquin River was washed out last year. The river is deep and swift making for a difficult and advanced ford. As such, Kyle and I played it safe by hiking up and over a section of trail that avoided the river crossing. There was no established trail, so we had an enjoyable time finding our own path up a rock covered mountain side. We crossed granite slabs at the top and then down a rocky chute to complete our bypass of the river crossing. We were careful to tread lightly, staying on rocks when possible and avoiding stepping on any delicate plants. It was fun to get off trail in the back country.
In this section, we also did our most challenging river crossing, Bear Creek! It had swift moving thigh deep water, but we were relatively unscathed by the crossing.
We also hit the 900 mile marker (though we missed the sign on trail).
Next stop - Kennedy Meadows North (Sonora Pass)!
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