Chicken Spring Lake, camped at the base of a mountain
Today's Miles: 15
Trip Mileage: 47
Oh, alpine lakes; who needs heaven when you have an arc of stone cliffs, dotted with snow banks and pines; a see-to-the-bottom sapphire lake with a fine gravel shore that begs you to wade in. Sigh. I went for a (very) cold swim when we made camp, and now that the sun is going down I don't think I was to leave tomorrow. I know I'd get anxious to hike after a few hours but it's nice to fantasize about a long sunny day at the lake. Some younger people are doing just that - Hwy 395 isn't far from here and it looks like a lot of people camp long weekends here. Some kid in neon shades even gave me some Jolly Ranchers. My first trail magic!
Hiking today was stop-and-go for me. My arched are becoming more insistent that this long-distance hiking thing is not what they agreed on. I thought I could go at least a week before my feet affected my distance but apparently they require my immediate attention. Today we wrestled with the question of whether to keep our course to Mt. Whitney and then hike over Kearsarge Pass, or to drop down to Horseshoe Meadows this morning and get a ride to Independence. The idea was I'd buy a new, hopefully more supportive pair of shoes there and take a few easy, low-mile days. After much torturous indecision, my aversion to a hotel and civilization, after only three days out here, won out out over my aching feet. But I did concede Whitney, knowing that the tough climb might be too much too early, and the time we save by skipping it means fewer miles each day. So, my first difficult decision on the PCT: done. We'll see how it works out.
Shaggy says:
Today we hippied it up. We walked 14 miles to a lake and while Lauren
swam, I did some stretching (yoga). This lake has some cold water in it.
This didn't stop Lauren from swimming to the middle and back, I will tip
my hat to that.
I didn't sleep super well last night. Drank a lot of water before bed,
so was forced up a couple times. Sometimes its so hard to get up
though. So comfy wrapped up in my down bag. Its also strange to me to be
camped near a large group of folks, and several were gone before
daybreak. We followed shortly, leaving just after 7 AM.
The Sierras slowly showed their true colors today. The colors are
mostly grey! No snow, except in tiny patches high in the mountains. The
meadows are really green still, but I suspect that even the greenest of
meadows will die this year as well. It makes me wonder about a few
things. Will the bears be more actively searching for food? Will there
be fires on the trail further north? And most importantly, will there
still be berries up north? These questions and more ran through my head
today along the dusty trail, only time will answer them.
Lauren's feet were a big part of our discussion today. Her feet have
bothered her everyday so far, but mostly after yesterday's 18 mile day.
I wish we could have trained for this more, hard to get big mileage
days in winter, but we should have tried. We debated for awhile if we
should go into Lone Pine today so Lauren could find new shoes and rest
up her feet, but we opted not to. Instead we will try to hike slower and
skip hiking Whitney in a few days. I have done Whitney before, and
Lauren says shes ok skiippin it. So we will. I just really hope her feet
can handle the beating that our feet are in for. The numbers are
frightening. 2000 miles in just over 100 days. But anything can happen.
Tonight we will enjoy Chicken Spring Lake.
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