Goal for the Day: Kinney Lakes
Since I had stopped short the day before, I knew this would be a long day if I wanted to reach Ebbetts Pass and then Kinney Lakes beyond it. That would still leave me behind schedule at least a day and it seemed more like a day and half if I was honest with myself. I’m rarely honest with myself about mileage when hiking. 🙂
I awoke and saw a lot of clouds in the skies, but at least it wasn’t raining. I packed up and headed back to the PCT. I could have used one of the use trails leading up from the north side of the lake where I had camped, but I decided to retrace my steps and go out the official Asa Lake trail on the other side of the lake. A little more walking, but I did want to cover this entire section of the PCT as I went. No shortcuts for me.
Then it was a long hike up to a pass next to Tryton Peak. That hike had discouraged me the previous afternoon from continuing, but wasn’t steep so I made it up without too much trouble. Just took time.
The sky was pretty blue and clear by the time I made it to the pass and got a 360 degree view of the area. Fabulous.
The barbed wire fence I had to go through also meant the cattle were behind me now! The pass had a great view of the way I had come and where I was headed. There was a little tent site next to the trail up there, which would have been a great place to camp for the night. Not for the first time in my life, I wished I pushed myself to continue hiking yesterday. Even if I didn’t reach Noble Lake, camping up at the pass would have been spectacular.
After enjoying the view for a brief moment, I started down to the lake. As I suspected, Noble Lake was more open and would have had some nice views for sunset and sunrise (although not as good as from the pass).
Not as many camping spots as Asa had, but it would have been a good place to stay if I had reached it. I took a longish rest there before heading downward towards Ebbetts Pass.
The terrain started to change to a more rocky one, with obvious volcanic origins. This is what I was expecting as I hiked past Ebbetts Pass, so it wasn’t surprising.
Some of the choices the trail makers made in designing the switchbacks that wove their way down the side of the cliff were a little surprising. Seemed to be some spots where they made the switchbacks longer than they needed to be.
But at least they were all going down. Down is very nice.
The skies were growing very threatening as I reached Ebbetts Pass. I decided to take a short side trip to the Ebbetts Pass Trail Head to dispose of my garbage, use the toilet (pit toilet, but better than using the forest), and maybe get some cover from the rain that was starting to come down.
As I reached the trail head, the heavens opened up and a thunderous deluge came raining down. The only cover at the trail head was the awning for the toilet, but it at least did help keep me dry as I waited for the rain to stop.
In the meantime, I tried to see if any of the day hikers scrambling back to their cars had any Diet Coke they could give me. No luck. 🙂
No cell service either, so even if I could get a ride to the nearby Markleeville I may not be able to find a hotel room to rest in. It was a small town, so there was no guarantee I would be able to find a place to stay for the night. As much as a overnight rest appealed to me, I didn’t want to take the chance of leaving the trail with an uncertain destination.
When the rain started to clear up, I decided I might as well continue north on the PCT towards my original destination as long as the skies cooperated. I did find a nice campsite shortly after crossing Highway 4 and climbing up the ridge on the other side, but the skies were clearing up and it was still early afternoon so I continued north.
I reached the trail for Upper Kinney Lake and headed towards the lake. It came into view and was a great sight. I looked around for a good campsite, but there was nothing far enough from the shore in the area that was at water level.
So, I started looking around the rocky outcropping around the west side of the lake I was on.
Then I started to feel some rain drops.
I ended up scrambling for a location to put up my tent. It wasn’t a large area and I ended up having to use my paracord to secure it to some small trees and rocks in the area to keep it in place.
As I crawled into my tent, the rain started coming down in a steady stream. At least it wasn’t heavy like the first downpour at the trail head, but it was a pretty constant for the rest of the evening. I didn’t even have time to cook a hot meal, so had some trail snacks for dinner.
I did have to go out between showers to reinforce my tent’s rain fly, but it held up pretty well and kept me dry for the evening. The rain did let up a bit before I went to sleep, but my hope to take a swim in the lake was obviously a lost cause.
Goal achieved!!! (although I was a little damp)
10 miles (9 miles on PCT)
10.5 hours on the trail
33 total miles hiked on this section of the PCT
42 miles to go until Echo Lake
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