Day 71 (29 June) - Mile 782.53 - 788.47 + 7.45 miles

Campsite at Mile 782.53 to Dow Villa Hotel, Lone Pine, California

Wow…I really slept well last night.  It is no surprise since we had an enormous hiking day yesterday.  I woke at 6:30 AM.  It was great being able to sleep in an extra 30 minutes today.  After breaking camp and eating breakfast we were ready to hike just after 8:00 AM.

Let’s get going to Lone Pine.

We gave ourselves an extra 30 minutes sleep time today because we thought it was going to be an easier hike than the last 2 days. We have just over 13 miles to do with the first 5 miles all downhill. We then have a pretty good uphill that lasts about 1.5 miles.  Then we will hit a side trail that goes up and over to the city of Lone Pine, California.  Even though we know we have to go over a pass to get to Lone Pine, we don’t think it will be too bad because it is a very popular trail for both day and thru-hikers.  A popular trail can’t be that bad…right?!?

Before that, first thing’s first…check out our amazing views during this morning’s hike:

After continuing downhill, we left the mountain views and entered a beautiful pine forest complete with water crossing:

Beautiful pine forest

Brad crossing a river.

We then popped out into an amazing meadow with lakes and views:

Alpine lake.

Self-portrait "Mountains behind"

How about a picture with everything…mountains, pine trees, and water:

Great shot

Up to this point the hike has been very pleasant.  We managed to get the first 5 miles done in pretty good time.  We even took a pretty long break thinking that this day is going well and we have some time to relax.  We did have a 1.5 mile climb up to our turn-off for Lone Pine, but we can handle that.  Even though the 1.5 mile climb was tough, we had some really nice views as we did it:

Share Bear climbing

Share Bear & view

Boulder field with mountians

I know…who can’t climb a hill looking at those views?!?

Now we just have the 7.5 mile trail to Lone Pine.  We decided to take the first side trail called Bullfrog Lake Trail because we heard it was amazing…well at least the first 1.7 miles were.  Check it out:

Share Bear admiring Bullfrog Lake

Amazing Bullfrog Lake

Wow!

We stopped for lunch around 12:30 and had this amazing view to look at while we ate:

Lunch with a view

Now we have just under 6 miles to go.  We figured we could knock that out in 3 hours tops since we are hiking more than 2 miles per hour.  That should put us in Lone Pine by 3:30…cool.

After lunch we hit the trail and then it started climbing and climbing and climbing.  The rest of Bullfrog Lake Trail was as steep as any trail we have been on so far.  There were no switchbacks, the trail just went straight up. We then hit Kearsarge Pass Trail and hoped this would be a bit better, but no…this crazy trail climbed straight up and steep as well.  Luckily the views we had on our frequent and long breaks were amazing:

Brad climbing

Self-portrait "Taking a breather"

Finally, we made it to the top of Kearsarge Pass at 2:30 PM. 

Atop Kearsarge Pass, 11,760 feet

We now have 4.7 miles till we make it to Onion Valley where Tim is supposed to meet us.  We thought we would be there by 3:30, but now we are hoping to get there by 4:30.  Even though the 4.7 miles were down, it was hard and exhausting, especially after the last 2 giant days we had.  We kept hiking down and down and down and we felt like we were never getting there.  Even worse…we know we have to go back up this same trail to Kearsarge Pass in 2 days when we come back to the trail.  

Surprisingly, about 2.5 miles from the bottom Tim was there. He had hiked up to meet us.  This made the last 2.5 miles better, but still at the back of my head was the climb back up here in 2 days.  Not many pictures were taken during the way down except for this nice picture of Tim and I:

Cute picture

We finally got to the parking lot at 4:30 PM exhausted with tired legs and hungry bellies.  But first thing is first…we have to go to the hotel and take a shower.  Share Bear and I haven’t had a proper shower since we left Walker Pass 10 days ago!

After showers we went to the pizza place across the street and filled up on salad and pizza and then took a short walk up and down the main street in Lone Pine to walk off a bit of dinner and to keep our legs from tightening up.

Tomorrow we have a “zero day”.  No hiking, but lots of work to do to prepare to get back on the trail the next day.  

Tonight we are staying in the historic Dow Villa Hotel where John Wayne, Gene Autry, Errol Flynn, and other western stars stayed when they were filming in this location.  Tonight there are mostly other thru-hikers (both the PCT and the JMT) and people who are hiking Mount Whitney.

Time to get some sleep to prepare for our “zero day”.