Grouse Meadow - Lower Helen Lake 7/1/10 7 miles

Two weeks in the woods. They have been long and hard. We thought we'd be in te hiking groove by now, but we are still learning all the passes and the Sierras are our principal. You must do what they say. We started this morning about 7am and had a good 4 miles before break. Break was long and we discussed many stressful topics about the trail, our plans and expectations and how they have panned out. We continued on and took another break at 11:15am. This one lasted for three hours. More stress, figuring out whether we were happy out here and alternate plans if not. The pass was three miles away, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Low on food, energy and motivation, we took naps. Finally got up at 3pm and make it to the campsite before the pass. Turns out, the actual campsite was where we took our break. Ended up in a small patch of dry land "free of snow", and had to move many rock to make space for our tent. Frozen Lake beside us and snow all around. Kristi had to talk me into not backtracking and staying here. We had seriously debated going 4 miles back to the ranger tent and seeing if he could a) get us more food, b) give advice, or c) get us off the trail. Muir Pass, while not the tallest, does have the most miles of snow and we are sick of it. Yogi said if you don't go across it by 2pm, you will be postholing for hours. We're a day and a half behind schedule this week due to the snowy passes. Took another nap. Some friends we met on the top of Kearsarge came in at 5pm and made the push on to Muir. We discussed the trail and our growing tiredness of the snow. They gave us a couple of candy bars to help us out. They're shooting for Mammoth on Sunday and we are on Tuesday, because of our slowed pace. On a lighter note, I built a couple of rock walls on the snowy plateau. One around our tent and made another smaller site too. After dinner and had light conversation. Must get some rest for our long day tomorrow. Wish us luck. CM

S. Fork Kings River - Grouse Meadow 6/30/10 16 miles

The river was flowing hard last night, which made for a very good night's sleep. We were unable to cross the river to get to the trail this morning, we we followed along until the trail reconnected. We moved good and had a breather and a snack before we got deep into the snow prior to Mather Pass. We were able to locate the trail on the way to the pass, for the most part. We finally arrived at the bottom and of course, the pass was snow covered. We observed as two people slowly mad their way up in the footholes of snow left from others. The only way was to go straight up, similar to Forrester. I began to get very nervous as I watched. We put on our crampons and got out our ice axes. The first steps to the bottom of the mountains we postholed. This didn't benefit my building anxiety. We began our climb. Very slowly, I carefully followed behind Chris, trying not to slip. The snow was beginning to become slushy as the sun shined brighter. Nervousness exceeding. WE made it about a third of the way up and rested on a ledge to the side. My crampons were coming off and Chris adjusted them. I complained about the fears of the climb and pessimistically whined of the worse case scenarios. Got my breath and began again. I slipped a few times, got scared and shuffled my feet to a sturdy spot. We rested on another ledge, close to the top. Chris and I got into a disagreement. I broke down with my fears and cried. I said it. No shame. I was scared and had to vent. I was so nervous about the climb so far and was insecure in my abilities to reach the top. Chris and I rested, talked and I calmed down. We found parts of the trail out of the snow and scrambled among the rubble to the snow covered top. Shew! Relief!! I as so glad to have made it. I though Forrester was the most challenging, but for me, this pass was. Next, we made if off the back side and walked in miles of snow to reach the bottom of the valley. I began to transform into a starving, grumpy ol bear, so lunch was a must. We ate and continued on. We came across the Palisade Lakes, which were absolutely amazing and perfect. The gorgeous, clear water surrounded tall cliffs and waterfalls. A nice reward for a stressful morning. Next, we walked on switchbacks for what seemed liked forever on the "Golden Staircase." At our next break, we came across a cool fella by the name of Balls. We compared Mather and Pinchot stories and walked together for the remainder of the evening. Walked along the river and spotted several deep and even a six-pointer. Found an awesome camp spot next to a lake and own own little rock canopy above our tent. Had a nice fire and a tasty dinner. KB

Woods Creek - S. Fork Kings River 6/29/10 11.6 miles

Maybe not today, haha! Got out about 7 and had 3500 feet and 7/7 miles to the pass. We can do that by lunch, right/ Not really. I got us lost. I hate the snow. Got within vies of what I though was Pinchot pass at 11am. Lost the trail using the map. Kristi said it looked too easy and I said I was sure four times. We scrambled and climbed way to many rocks and got t the "pass." It looked right on the map, but there was no trail. I got scared. Kristi said to go back to where we lost the trail. I felt like an idiot. She knew we were going the wrong way the whole time, but I refused to listen. Navigator Kristi to the rescue. We backtracked and ate lunch, trying to figure things out. It was 1:30pm and we had done 5 miles, thanks to me. We started towards the right pass, slow going in the snow. No trail. Some footprints. We followed them and got to the approach. We felt better knowing we were going the right way. Sketchy trail, snow and loose rocks. WE made it to the top, relieved. It was 3:45pm and we were 7.7 miles from campt this morning. Nothing like adding 5 useless miles to the day. Oh yeah, I forgot about the five creek crossings onthe way up. Started down the back side, followed prints and lots of them this time. Got down to a lake where we had planned to camp last night. More snot, lots of water and losing the trail. We gave up on our hopes of 20 miles. Came across a note at a sighn that directed us to not cross the river due to being too high. I looked at it. No way. It looked more like a Calss IV rapid. The note warned us about a waist deep creek ahead as well. Luckily, there was a tree across it, off the trail a bit. made it to our unplanned camp at 7pm. Dead tired. Got set up and warm. Had Mel's couscous for dinner and it was perfect after a long day. Bedtime finally. Twelve-twenty two miles tomorrow, haha. We'll see how the morning goes. CM

Kearsarge Trail - Woods Creek 6/29/10 11 miles

We started out the day with a 19 miler in mind. We didn't realize the length of time it would take us to cross and come down the back side of Glenn pass. If I've realized anything about this trail, it's to never underestimate the Sierras. We partly assumed that there would be little snow. We were wrong. Snot covered most of the trail on the front side and we were forced to scramble up rocks and gravels along the mountain. The back side was completely covered. No postholing (thank God!), but we did have to take our time. The climb down was steep and slick. We finally make it down and had to attempt to find the trail. The downhill resistance caused me some irritating knee pain, therefore I was taking it slower than usual. At the bottom of the mountain, we walked around several crystal clear, sparking lakes, feeling with clean, mountain snow melt. I was tempted to put on my bikini and chill next to one for the rest of the day, but still work to be cone. WE continued walking down, crossing several creeks and making our way as fast as possible with hopes to tackle another pass today. Soon enourgh, 5 o'clock rolled around. We dicided to cut the day short and start early inthe morning and hopefully complete two passes tomorrow instead. I became somewhat bummed due to holding us up today. I felt like I was going as fast as possible, but it just wasn't fast enough to follow our planned schedule. Maybe tomorrow. KB

Independence - Kearsarge Trail 6/27/10 9 miles

Got up and had a good breakfast at the Courthouse Hotel. I think I could live there, haha! Simply a simple clean place. Got packed up and made our final phone calls. Hitching was terrible. We sat in town for two hours, and nothing. Gave up and went and got some ice cream and a local offered to give us a ride up to the trail head for gas money. Bryan/Marmot had hiked from Campo to Kennedy Meadows and stuck around the area when he finished. He had a cool truck. Stopped by to say goodbye to Peanut Eater. Got our rediculously heavy resupplies packs on and started up the mountain. I could feel that we had taken a day off. Took a breart and ate our leftover Pizza and did some testing before we lost signal. Hiked on to the top of Kearsarge pass, not as bad as we thought, but a long process, 52 switchbakcs. Met some hikers at teh top and informed them of Peanut Eater. They were excited and needed the motivation because they had done the 23 mile day that we had hoped to do over Forrester and Kearsarge. Tristan and two guys from Corvalis, OR. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways. Took it easy down the backside of the pass and set up camp just short of the trail intersection. Ate our 90 second rice and it was delicious! Talked and researched our future town stops. Twenty miles tomorrow to catch up for our late start today. hope we can pull it off. CM

Independence 6/26/10 O miles

Took it easy all day, ate some continental breakfast and ate more Subway. Blogged and spent $18 for computer time! CRAZY! Ate dinner at Hooligans and had pizza and fries with lots of Ranch dressing! MMMMM! Talked to all of our friends with updates. Good zero! CM

vidette Meadows - Onion Valley 6/25/10 11 miles

Today was a big day. We were so excited to get to come into town! We jumped out of our warm sleeping bags and hit the trail this morning. The hike up to Kearsarge Pass was a tough one. The trail was so scenic. We got some awesome pics of the lakes on the way up. They didn't even look real! The Kearsarge Trail was still covered with a lot of snow and was really rocky. When we finally made it to the backside of the mountain we caught up with our friends Pacer and Square Peg. We carefully stepped in the slushy snow, trying our best to get to the bottom. Finally, we made it down. Trail Magic appears! A cooler full of beer, bacardi and snacks! A cold beer never tasted so good. There we sat, drank, ate and waited on our trail angel, Peanut Eater, to take us into town. It was a nice 13 mile ride down the ever winding road into town. We parted from Square Peg in Independence, as she went back to Hawaii to spend time with her husband. We will miss you! We appreciated Peanut Eater's generosity and hospitality in dedicating his vacation time to taking care of hikers. From his experience in hiking the PCT last year, he is well aware of the difficulty in getting rides into town. First stop in town, Subway! We had been building subs in our heads for miles and miles along the trail. We ate, checkec into our room, showered, did laundry and rested. We picked up our AWESOME mail drop box from Melanie and received many yummy goodies! Thank you so much! Tonight, we went to dinner with Pacer, Sky, Marianne, Your Mom, Pony and Hui. We ate some good greay food and drank 50 cent beers! Fun times. We made calls to families and realized even more how much we miss them. Sleeping good tonight in a REAL bed and happy about a zero day tomorrow! KB