June 2nd, 2022 by Jon
We didn’t wake up until 7:00. I had slept like a rock and completely passed out after going to bed last night. We had a very comfortable spot on the edge of the meadow and woke up to a nice, sunny patch near where we had eaten last night, so we packed up our tent and walked over to begin breakfast in the sunshine. Pretty much everyone but Wilco wanted to do a short day today, so it was a pretty slow, lazy morning. Biscuit and Raccoon had already left, but there was a creek 9 miles away at the base of Forester, which we were planning to stop at to decide whether we wanted to go a little further. We finished breakfast and then just hung out talking for a while since we felt like we had all the time in the world today.
Finally, around 9:00, we set out and climbed back along Whitney Creek to reach the PCT. We hit the PCT after some morning hiking, and then it was more sandy ground and pine trees everywhere. Now that we are on the other side of Crabtree Meadows, we have noticed much more grass on the ground between the trees. It’s been a pleasant change, and the trail seemed to take us by a number of large meadows that had amazing backdrops of granite and snow-capped mountains. It was a spectacular morning. There were also 3 creek crossings that required careful stepping over strategically placed rocks. We climbed a long hill to reach the top of the Bighorn Plateau, a massive, flat, rocky area. There were spectacular mountains all around us, and the views were out of this world. We noticed two hikers sitting by a nearby lake, and upon further inspection, we realized they were Raccoon and Biscuit!
We headed over to the lake to join them and sat there and snacked for a bit. Everyone still felt pretty tired, and no one really wanted to attempt Forester. We heard from some other hikers headed south that there was a lot of snow on the north side of the pass, which would mean postholing if we made it there in the afternoon. That’s when we step on snow, and your foot sinks in, sometimes as deep as your hip. We pressed on after our break and hiked 2 miles down a rocky hillside to reach the large, fast-flowing Tyndall Creek, which flows from the pass due to snowmelt.
Singsong, Andrew, and I took another break at some campsites that were just uphill from where we crossed it. We sat there for nearly an hour, reading, snacking, talking, and wondering where our friends were. Finally they came up the trail and laughed because they had taken their break a 30 second walk down the trail. We told them we wanted to go one more mile up the hill and then call it for the day, so we could stay in the tree line. They seemed down with the idea, and so with plans made, we headed out again. Andrew and I took an alternate trail to go check out an alpine lake, but unfortunately, there weren’t any fish. We made a plan to try to fish at a lake near Kearsarge Pass tomorrow, which we plan to use to exit the Sierra. We will likely camp somewhere on the way out, so we don’t have to have a huge day with two passes to climb tomorrow.
We joined the others at the campsite and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, stretching, and eating. We also played the classic “who can throw a rock at that thing over there” game. It’s an excellent backcountry game I would recommend to anyone. Tomorrow we plan to wake up at 4:30 so we can get on the trail quickly and get up and over the pass before the snow melts. Should be a blast!
