Day 56 – Thursday, June 5

The Sierras are truly a wilderness place. I’ve never hiked in an area so remote before. Communication with the outside world does not exist. If you had a problem or got hurt out here, it would be very tough to get any help in a reasonable time frame, three days at best in many areas, and that’s with someone else helping you.

Either way, I’ve been plugging along and doing just about as many miles off the PCT (side trips) as on the trail these days such as: Mt. Whitney 17 miles, Kearsarge Pass Trail 15 miles, VVR 8 miles and on and on. All good and still having a blast! I’m in Mammoth at the moment and plan to take a number of days off the trail to tour around the area with family and friends. I’m super excited that Mary and Bill are headed this way from Atlanta and will be here later this afternoon.

The photos below are from my side trip up Mt. Whitney. I had to do that one :).

The day after Mt. Whitney I crossed over Forester Pass with Ninja Tank and Blue Yonder. It is the highest point on the PCT at 13,200 ft.

I decided to go into Independence which meant going up and over Kearsarge Pass to the Onion Valley Trailhead and then hitching a long ride into town from there straight down the mountain.

From Independence I had several more passes to go over Glenn, Pinchot and Mather.

Sierra wildlife.

Muir Pass was very cool. The neat thing that happened the night before is that Air Force One went right over us at camp about thirty minutes before dark. It had a four fighter jet escort. Very cool to see.

Crossing Evolution Creek…the water level was fine.

Another side trip for me was VVR which is a very remote resort.

Red’s Meadow and on to Mammoth.