Post by davesenesac on May 21, 2019 11:06:43 GMT -8
This Kiwi hiker, a PCT neophyte though experienced hiker, is a good read with good writing skills, with many images though does not use many topo names on the trail that I'll fill in a bit. I like his journal because all this was new to him and he does make rookie mistakes though he had obviously done his homework, and joins up with others that wisely work as a team. And not surprisingly as soon as people got into continuous snow, losing the trail or common snow track became frequent. The reason it is currently quite interesting is this is now one of the snowiest Mays in my lifetime that PCT hikers were not expecting with the major storm beginning on his day 54, May 19. And here in the SF Bay Area today May 21, another storm is passing through thru hikers will be dealing with.
This is Google Map mode (manually select copy paste link that forum SW mutilates).
caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.04127,-118.11394&z=12&b=map
Use the legend upper right to change between different map modes, with the USGS topo more useful:
caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.04127,-118.11394&z=12&b=t
Below link starts at day 51 from Kennedy Meadows where thru hikers first get into higher elevations with snow travel beginning the next day 52. On that day he camps at Ash Meadow and in the morning learns what happens to wet socks and shoes overnight if not kept above freezing. For each day's hiking there are links at blog bottoms for previous and next days.
www.restlesskiwiadventures.com/2019/05/20/day-51-12-may-19-the-start-of-the-sierras/
On day 53, I think he camps at Siberian Outpost. The first "river" on day 54 is Rock Creek and second Whitney Creek. On day 55 they camp near Wallace Creek. Day 56 they cross early over Bighorn Plateau. Because of the deep snow they are not having to deal with usual dangerous stream crossings. They luckily went across high Forester Pass at 13.2k during a sunny lull between storms and to that point the new snow looks rather shallow south of Forester as it did not storm as much as forecast to the south. That day 56 night they camp at Vidette Meadow. On day 57 he hikes out over Kearsarge Pass down to the town of Independence where I expect he still is until storms subside that may be May 23.
This is the main PCTA community page where his blog is linked from and one might read many others blogs:
This is Google Map mode (manually select copy paste link that forum SW mutilates).
caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.04127,-118.11394&z=12&b=map
Use the legend upper right to change between different map modes, with the USGS topo more useful:
caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.04127,-118.11394&z=12&b=t
Below link starts at day 51 from Kennedy Meadows where thru hikers first get into higher elevations with snow travel beginning the next day 52. On that day he camps at Ash Meadow and in the morning learns what happens to wet socks and shoes overnight if not kept above freezing. For each day's hiking there are links at blog bottoms for previous and next days.
www.restlesskiwiadventures.com/2019/05/20/day-51-12-may-19-the-start-of-the-sierras/
On day 53, I think he camps at Siberian Outpost. The first "river" on day 54 is Rock Creek and second Whitney Creek. On day 55 they camp near Wallace Creek. Day 56 they cross early over Bighorn Plateau. Because of the deep snow they are not having to deal with usual dangerous stream crossings. They luckily went across high Forester Pass at 13.2k during a sunny lull between storms and to that point the new snow looks rather shallow south of Forester as it did not storm as much as forecast to the south. That day 56 night they camp at Vidette Meadow. On day 57 he hikes out over Kearsarge Pass down to the town of Independence where I expect he still is until storms subside that may be May 23.
