Day 1- 34.06 miles (8,454 feet of gain) (all mileages based on Strava, which were quite a bit longer than the mapped distance, so take them with a grain of salt).
Having 5 days off from work, my ambitious goal for this trip is to attempt the full 155 mile Big SEKI Loop. Since this would amount to 30 miles a day or more for five days straight, I was leaving several bail-out options open to me—either the Colby pass shortcut or the Bubbs Creek option to do just the Northern Section of the BSL. In any case, today started with a bang, with 5000 feet of gain in the first 8 miles. Beautiful views back into Kings Canyon. Cruised the first 6 miles, then the elevation started getting to me for the last two up to the lip. Granite Basin was beautiful and remote, but the bugs were horrendous. Apocalyptic mix of mosquitos and black flies and gnats, and they literally chased me up Granite Pass (mile 11.7) but I could not escape. After the pass, they got better and I cruised down through Dougherty Meadows area, but near every water source they were similarly swarmy. I had my head net out this time, but I sacrificed my legs to the blood bath. The area was a beautiful open forest of lodgepole, western white, and red firs. Got up to the last little saddle at around 10,000 feet before dropping down 4000 feet into the middle fork of the kings river. My thigh had been hurting on the downhills, but jogging down actually made it feel better. The middle fork trail was overgrown in quite a few places, but I decided to continue on even though it was around 6 already and I was fairly certain I wouldn’t make it to my goal of palisade meadows. However, around 7:30 I came upon the devils washbowl, a beautiful waterfall and pool that had a little campsite near the base of it. Perfect. Didn’t notice that I set up my hammock on a dead tree that’s a bit wobbly, but was too tired to fix it. Really hoping it doesn’t fall on me in the night.
Day 2-27.26 miles (6,922 feet of gain).
Today was absolutely spectacular, and felt like a true high sierra experience. The rest of the kings river was gorgeous up to Palisade Creek, then joining the well maintained JMT was heavenly after the overgrown trails of the middle kings. I had to ford Palisade Creek to get across-knee deep about—and the shoes got wet of course. The jmt was cruisey, but I was still lagging a bit, and taking tons of breaks (in part to dry the feet). But the trail up the golden staircase to palisade lakes was phenomenal. I started seeing a lot more people of course, and I was leap frogging with this really nice guy from Oakland for a bit, but I didn’t mind the company. I took another long break at Palisade Lakes, then continued on up to Mather Pass. It took me a bit, and I was slightly delayed from the thunderstorms rolling through, but by the end I actually felt the best I had all day. The pass was stunning, and the big meadowy basin on the other side was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I wanted to stay and explore and just live up there for a few days, but I kept going to Lake Marjorie. About halfway up my last climb it started raining and thundering again, so I took shelter again thinking it would stop, but it was continuous this time so I kept on to the lake with my rain jacket on. When I got there, the lake was gorgeous, but the large trees had suddenly disappeared, so it took me a while to find two large-enough trees within hammock range of each other. By the time I did, I was pretty soaked. I also found someone’s shit that they didn’t bury underneath the hammock site. Since it was my only option, I flung it off the cliff into some bushes, though it still smells a bit. I’m pissed at whoever did that. Thank god for the Eno tarp though!! It’s super cozy and great. Overall an awesome day despite the wetness at the end. I think having only gone 27 miles, the whole big SEKI loop is out of the question unless I have a truly epic day tomorrow, but the shortened 120 mile version is still in play. However, I’ll still be happy if I cut it short at Bubbs.
Day 3-37.46 miles (5,448 feet of gain).
What a day! I woke up to a beautiful morning at Lake Marjorie, packed up my things, and was on the trail by 6:30. I realized about a quarter mile in that I forgot my trail toes at the campsite, however, so I turned around, fearing the worst for my feet without it. That put my start time closer to 7, but the morning was by no means wasted—a beautiful hike up Pinchot Pass with nobody around was the perfect way to start the day. On the other side, I started running, and kept running most of the way down to the Woods Creek suspension bridge, taking a few feet-up breaks along the way and chatting with several PCT hikers curious about the incoming smoke, likely from fires ignited from the previous day’s dry lightning. At Woods Creek, I officially joined the Rae Lakes Loop, and immediately ran into a Wilderness Ranger who I had met previously at work. We had a nice chat. I then continued up the trail before having lunch at Arrowhead Lake, a mile or so before Rae Lakes proper. After an incredible morning, feeling like I would surely cover enough ground to continue on the entire loop, my fatigue caught up to me. I started feeling incredibly heavy and slow. The rest of the hike through Rae Lakes was lethargic at best, though beautiful as ever, and my slow hoof up Glen Pass all but assured I wouldn’t be able to continue along the full loop, particularly since it would take me two more days, and would lead right up to starting work again on Wednesday (which was also a backpacking trip). I made my peace and decided I would turn at the Bubbs Creek Junction and start heading back towards Road’s End, to give myself some recovery time before going back to work.
Despite the clear morning, more weather started rolling in, and my traverse of Glen Pass was accompanied with even more thunder than the prior day’s passes, though the rain was seemingly holding off. When I got to the junction with Bubbs Creek, I started wondering if it would be possible to just finish out the trail that evening, and decided I would get as far as I could, beginning a light jog. Upon reaching Junction Meadow, the sign indicated there was another 12 miles until the trailhead, and despite being 6:30 already, I decided to give it a go and picked up my pace a little bit. The gods seemed to want to prevent me from finishing that evening and proceeded to dump an unprecedented and mind boggling amount of rain on me in a very short amount of time. The trails immediately swelled with water, the creek crossings started to require wading as opposed to the usual rock-hopping, and Bubbs Creek turned dark brown with sediment. It was like nothing I have experienced while backpacking, and was the closest thing to a flash flood I think I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, I was totally drenched, and despite running past the rain after an hour or so, I was more determined than ever to get to the trailhead and avoid having to set up camp for another night while soaked. The deluge provided a second wind, and I was able to get to the valley bottom by dark, walking the final and flat 2 miles by headlamp under the moon. Despite having cut my original goal short, I was still happy and quite proud of finishing the northern section in less than three days. What a trip!