When at first you don’t succeed, try try again…

Having learned from my failures to hike more than a single day from Walker Pass and Kennedy Meadows on the PCT Section G the prior year, I set my sights on challenging this section once again.

First, I’ll start in late June to try to avoid the hotter August temperatures.

Second, I’ve been counting ounces and have slimmed down my backpack weight. It’s not really any lighter than last time (approximately 48 lbs each time), but I’ll be able to carry 7 liters of water this time. And hopefully no leaks that doomed my attempt last year.

I’m also planning on either starting the hike pre-dawn or late afternoon to beat the mid-day heat. The fact that I am 6 days away from starting my hike and am still debating those two options in my head is a concern. Mostly it’s the logistics of staging my Jeep at Onion Valley (my primary goal for this trek) and getting to Walker Pass at a better time than last time.

I’d prefer to make the first day a short day, but that does mean I have to deal with the waning heat of the day and hope things cool down as the Sun starts to lower behind the first (treeless) section of the ridge I have to climb to start this section.

Starting before dawn would mean camping at the nearby Walker Pass Campground and would leave a full day’s hike ahead of me. Even with some tree cover once I reach the ridge line, it may still get too hot on this first part of section G for a full days’ hike to start.

The 12 miles to the first water on the trail is also a concern and the reason for wanting to start with 7 liters of water to start. I had 4 liters, plus the leak last year. That is the longest water-less stretch of section G, so once I conquer that I hope to be on the way.

So, resupply at Kennedy Meadows, Horseshoe Meadows, climb up the West side of Mt Whitney, then return to the JMT/PCT and go north to Kearsarge Pass and end there…

Well, the JMT/PCT North of that point is one of the hardest and most beautiful part of the trail. During planning, I kept thinking I should just continue up the trail all the way to Yosemite.

I have resupply buckets ready and detailed goals for each day…

It will end up depending on how I feel at Onion Valley, how much my company begs me to come back to work, and how badly I want to use all my vacation time to be away from civilization for 5 weeks.

At the very least I’ll take a zero day or maybe 21 or 28 zero days to decide. I could always split it in two parts, after all.

Stay tuned…

PCT Section G Day 0 – Planning, preparation, and getting there…

PCT Section G Day 1 – Walker Pass… Again

PCT Section G Day 2 – The quest for water…

PCT Section G Day 3 – To boldly go as far as I can for the day…

PCT Section G Day 4 – Ye Old Fox Mill Spring…

PCT Section G Day 5 – Shade, what shade?

PCT Section G Day 6 – Salvation comes in many forms on the PCT…

PCT Section G Zero Day – Kennedy Meadows

PCT Section G Day 7 – On the trail again…

PCT Section G Day 8 – A long hard slog up to Heaven…

PCT Section G Day 9 – A hike to nowhere in particular…

PCT Section G Day 10 – Looking down on Owens Valley in the best possible way…

PCT Section G Day 11 – One boot to few...

PCT Section G Day 12 – Descent to Zero

PCT Section G Zero Day – Lone Pine

And then…

PCT 2024 Section G Day 13 – Why did Chicken Little cross the mountain pass?

PCT 2024 Section G Day 14 – Rock Creek Rock Hop

PCT 2024 Section G Day 14 – G is for…

PCT 2024 Mt Whitney – Inch by inch

PCT 2024 Section H Day 1 – Wait, there’s more?

PCT 2024 Section H Day 2 – The dreaded Forester Pass

PCT 2024 Section H Day 3 – Onion Valley crawl

And then… …