Stats

Start: Kearsarge Lakes – Mile 788.9
End: Bishop – Mile 788.9
Elevation Max: 11,751
Elevation Min: 9,205
Elevation Change: 863 up & 1,870 down
Average Heart Rate: 107
Walking Time: 1 hrs 24 minutes
Date: 5/22/2022

The Walk

I woke up feeling fresh around 6:30. We had a short hike up Kearsarge pass and down to the trailhead. Then an hour long hitch into Bishop. I’m excited to only have a mile of climbing, and less than 1k feet.

I finished packing up and Grahm and Jack rabbit started packing up too. I went down to the lake and was surprised by the mountains reflection on the water.

We all headed up the climb. As we ascended, we could see the trail and lakes below. I didn’t realize how big the second frozen lake was! This truly is an amazing place. The morning was cool and perfect for hiking. I had shorts and leggings on, which felt great since they were clean.

At the top of the pass we could see the whole view and the Kearsarge section below.

We kept walking and enjoying the views. On this side we started to run into day hikers, which was a good sign. Maybe we could get a hitch from one of them.

We had an hour or two of relaxing down hill hiking and soaking in the views. The highlight was a shimmering lake. Beautiful and crystal clear. We saw a few groups of people walking up with fishing poles.

As we finished the hike, we went to the parking lot and planned for our hitch. Speaker was down there and had been waiting for 10 minutes already. I was nervous a pile of hikers would show up and hitching im would be hard.

A car pulled in and dropped off a group of hikers. Woah! This could be our chance! We waited for 5 minutes as they said goodbyes and chatted. Then as the guy was turning to get back in his car, he said hey do y’all need a ride? Yes!

This was coconut from LA. He was in Bishop for the weekend and had planned to do trail magic at walker pass on his way to LA. He went an hour out of his way back to bishop for us.

He had hiked the PCT in 2016 and shared stories with us on the hour ride. He was a nurse and using his off day to drive hikers around. What an amazing guy!

We got to our hostel, the California hostel and enjoyed a relaxing night. Tomorrow we will have a zero day and stay here again. So I wasn’t worried about finishing many chores. I got laundry done and got snacks for the day. Plenty!

Tomorrow I’ll do everything else I need to and relax before another day on trail.