PCT Section I September 2023 – Kennedy Canyon

Goal for the day: Dorothy Lake Pass

Fortunately, the wind had died down overnight and the skies were clear for some star watching and then to see the sunrise behind the mountain ridge to the east. Great way to have breakfast and pack up my gear.

I didn’t even consider turning around and returning to my Jeep at Sonora Pass. The worse day of hiking was behind me, so finishing up in a day or two should be possible.

Dorothy Lake or the Pass above it was my goal for the day. In keeping with the general rule of things: The first half was downhill and the second half was uphill. Such is life on the trail.

Descending into Kennedy Canyon was a breeze. I did add about an extra liter to my Camelbak as I hiked by a small creek that would eventually feed into the West Fork of the West Walker River (what a mouth full).

As I approached the foot bridge that crossed over that river, I was shocked to see a group of 8 to 10 people posing for a picture on top of the bridge. It wasn’t that those were the first people I had seen that day or that such a large group would want a picture together that surprised me.

It was that they were taking the picture on top of a bridge had suffered severe damage in the previous winter’s heavy snowfall (some places got 300% of average snowfall). It wasn’t as badly damaged as some of the bridges along the John Muir Trail and was by all reports passable on foot, but tempting fate by having a lot of people on it all at once wasn’t the most brilliant thing I’d seen.

After they moved on, I carefully crossed over the bridge and continued heading south. This is where the trail started climbing again. Fortunately, it wasn’t a steep trail like the trail on day 1 so it just took time to navigate.

I had gotten within a mile from Dorothy Lake Pass when I saw Lake Harriet near the trail. I took a brief break there, but not brief enough. One of the scattered showers I had been expecting that day hit and I sheltered under some trees waiting for the rain to pass.

That was enough time for me to decide the lake would make a good campsite for the night. The look of the sky reinforced that. I caught a break in the rain and got my tent up before another wave of rain swept thru the area. Even if it wasn’t heavy rain, getting to sit out the rain inside my dry tent was nice.

After the rain seemed to have stopped, I had dinner then went down to the ‘beach’ to look around. The beach wasn’t more than a somewhat level area next to the lake’s edge, but it did have a great view of the lake and the mountains around it.

I couldn’t see the sunset directly from the lake, but did catch some light from it on the mountainsides around me. Even if I stopped short of my goal, it was a good end to the day.