I’m a glutton for punishment…

After 3 failed treks in August, I was ready to give up hiking and become a hermit on some mountain somewhere. But that would require hiking, so after a week back at work I decided to tempt fate and use the long Labor Day weekend to see if I could actually complete a hike this summer.

That would mean trying something easier than the three hikes I’d already failed at. I stripped down my backpack to remove some ‘luxury’ items. My water/camp shoes, ditching some extra clothing to get me to the bare minimum to not walk around naked and keep me warm at night, switching to my smaller bear canister, and an assortment of small items that would hopefully get me a lighter pack. With 1.5 liters of water, I got it under 35 pounds. A lot lighter than the 50 pounds for my two PCT section G attempts and maybe 5-7 pounds lighter than my section I attempt.

But where?

Looking at my list for the year, only one would probably be easy enough and have some easy abort options should my body, equipment, or resolve to continue hiking fail me.

PCT Section K.

I had to abort this section of the PCT last year due to injuring my left foot. While the foot still occasionally gave me some pain when I hiked, I’ve learned to control it with Ibuprofen, orthopedic insoles, and being a little more careful about rocks on the trail.

Unfortunately, as the weekend approached the first two days looked a little iffy weather wise. I decided to go for it anyway, since I’d probably not start the hike at all if I waited to start until Labor Day Monday.

So, I drove my Jeep up to Barker Pass to begin. This is where I had aborted last year when I was hiking northbound from Echo Lakes towards Donner Summit (PCT section K’s end point). Since there was a paved road and parking at the pass, it was a perfect place to stop the year before and now re-start this section K hike. I decided to take the first day easy and didn’t expect to go beyond Twin Peaks, so I only started with 1 liter of water to keep my pack’s weight down.

Goal for the day: Get to Twin Peaks Trail junction

The cloud cover helped keep the temperature down as I started northwards. Before the trail climbed a set of switchbacks up to the ridge that ran between Twin Peaks and Five Lakes, I filled up on water since I assumed I’d be camping on the ridge near Twin Peaks.

As I reached the junction with the Twin Peaks Trail, I identified the area where there was flat space for tents and decided to continue along the ridge. It was still pretty early in the day and the further I got the less chance that I’d give up and return to my Jeep.

The one problem with continuing was it was pretty much six miles on an exposed ridge between that point and the Five Lakes Trailhead, the next known water and camping on the trail. The stormy weather that was forming also caused a cold wind to be blowing up the west side of the ridge, over the top where I’d be hiking, and then down the east side.

I almost turned around a couple times until I had gotten too far to return to the junction. After that, I had no choice but to push forward.

I reached a part of the ridge that would have had great views of the sunset and sunrise if the clouds weren’t filling the skies. It even had a tent site that had a large boulder as a wind break (although not much of one).

But the wind blowing was too cold and too strong for me to consider staying there for the night. Maybe if the skies would be clear enough for a good sunset that evening I’d have put up with the cold wind, but I continued along the ridge. After this, I had pretty much committed myself to continuing the full 6 miles to the Five Lakes Trail junction.

While mostly level, there were a number of ups and down before the final descent to the Five Lakes junction. The ridge also separated the Alpine Meadows ski area from the Granite Chief Wilderness, which was the first of several ski areas that I’d be seeing along this stretch of the PCT.

Once I began the descent towards the Five Lakes Trail junction down some minimally annoying switchbacks, there were some intermittent light sprinkles. Nothing heavy, but I was glad I was almost done hiking for the day and I started looking for possible campsites. The PCT info didn’t show anything until the junction, but sometimes the best campsites are those you find yourself. On one of the final switchbacks, I hiked a bit off trail to an area that looked mostly flat and should overlook the Five Lakes basin. I could not find any areas without boulders or downed tress where I could setup my tent. Had a good view, though.

I reached the junction with the Five Lakes Trail and surveyed the area for campsites. I chose a spot on the north side of the creek and setup my tent. They don’t allow camping in the Five Lakes basin, so this was the best place to camp for that night. I thought about popping up to the Five Lakes after setting up my tent, but the bad weather discouraged me from doing that. It was too cold to take a swim in one of the lakes anyway.

I went to bed feeling pretty good at doing twelve miles on the first day of this re-started hike. Very encouraging start.

Miles hiked on PCT section K: 12

Goal: Got 6 miles past Twin Peaks Trail junction!!

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