Miles hiked: 20
My morning routine is up to about 40 minutes now with making hot coffee and having to pack a bit more carefully around the bear can. But this is fine with me. The hot coffee is worth it, and since I get started pretty early anyway, I don't really need to rush at all to get 20 miles in a day. I'm planning on 20's at least during the early part of his leg into the mountains, which should put me on schedule to meet Libby at Vermillion Valley Resort in another 7 or so days. I may have to bump up the mileage toward the end, but my pack will be much lighter and the last 20 or so miles before VVR are fairly mellow.
This morning started with a couple miles climbing up a the shoulder of a ridge, leaving the Lodgepole Pine forest where I camped and entering into what I'm pretty sure are all Foxtail Pine, with little understory except for the occasional candy red Snow Plant poking up through the coarse sandy soil. I love being out and hiking during the sunrise, and now that I'm up into the mountains I get to watch the sun's first light start on the high cold peaks then creep down across forested slopes and finally reach the big meadows way down below.
After the climb he trail followed the ridge, alternating between circling around the steep slopes of the snaggletooth peaks that made the high points off t he ridge and crossing broad park like saddles. Once again I was on he eastern-most ridge of the mountains, and at times the view straight down to Owens Valley was dizzying. There was also an expansive view west out over what I guess is still the broad Kern River drainage. Way off to the north are high barren peaks of piled granite boulders, getting closer with each step.
After 8 miles along the ridge the trail dropped down to water at Diaz Creek. Even though I'm up in the mountains now, water is still a bit scarce and I still have to pay some attention to the water report. At Diaz Creek, a small downcut creek flowing through a little Meadow with scattered willows along the bank, I chatted some with St. Croix, Lost and Found, and Smiley, then later with Omw (pronounced Ohm, but stands for Old Man Walking), a retired man I met at Walker Pass and who I was a bit surprised had gotten this far by now. After getting water and having some lunch, I laid down to put my feet up and ended up having an hour long nap.
Back on trail, now climbing up toward Trail Peak and some side trails that head down to Horseshoe Meadow and one possible exit for resupply in Lone Pine. At one of these junctions I saw 2 women with horses, and ended up getting to do some professional networking. It turns out one is a fisheries biologist for the Forest Service, and they were out for he day to evaluate how much grass was in the Meadow before letting cows in. We talked a bit about how grazing in the NF is managed, and she said they often hire summer biologists and gave me her name and number. Totally productive day!
The trail wound around the east side of Trail Peak, with great views down into Horseshoe Meadow and Up to some high dome shaped peaked just to the morn but which are off my map. Then it wrapped around the west side of a steeply sloping hillside, passing beautiful hanging meadows every mile or so, before finally reaching Chicken Spring Lake nestled in under the high steep walls of Cirque Peak. Just before the lake I heard what I'm pretty sure was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet singing. Apparently they do breed in the Sierra, but according to the Sibley range map this is perhaps just a bit south of their summer range.
I was semi-planning to just eat dinner then do a few more miles to make tomorrow's climb up Mt Whitney a bit shorter. But the last couple miles to the lake I got pretty tired, and just ended up staying here for the night. As I ate, more and more hikers showed up, seemingly popping out of boulders or something since I didn't camp with many of them last night and didn't see them today. Turns out most of them just got back on he trail after Lone Pine. I met some new hikers: Saint Nic, Super 8, Trampon, Benjamin, Spoon, Dannis the Mannis, and a couple others. As hiker voices trailed off in the growing darkness, frogs in the lake and Common Nighthawks overhead took their place.
Birds:
Northern Pygmy Owl
Oregon Junco
American Robin
Hammond's Flycatcher
Fox Sparrow
Northern Flicker
Western Bluebird
White-breasted Nuthatch
Stellar's Jay
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Mountain Chickadee
Rock Wren
Hermit Thrush
Brown Creeper
White-crowned Sparrow
Mountain Bluebird
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Wilson's Warbler
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