PCT 2024 Section G Day 1 – Walker Pass

Goal for the day: Get at least to where I stopped and turned around the previous year with the majority of my water and sanity intact.

Since I had decided to start mid-afternoon from Walker Pass, I could just sleep in and enjoy my last mattress for at least a week, if not more.

NOT.

Having been in Lone Pine before, I know how great the sunsets AND sunrises could be. So, I drove out of town and looked to the mountains to the east.

NOT x2.

Like the sunset in Yosemite casts a golden glow over the face of Half Dome in Yosemite draws large crowds, the sunrise in Lone Pine can cast a golden glow over the face of the Sierra Nevada Mountains dominating the west side of the valley.

Since my hotel room faced the west mountains, all I had to do is go out onto the walkway in front of my room and enjoy the show. If I drank coffee, I’d have drank it watching the orange light descend like a window shade over the mountains. What a glorious sight to behold.

Once the show was over, I got dressed, walked across the street to have breakfast, took a swim in the pool, and finished putting any food or scented items I was not taking with me into the resupply bucket I was leaving at the hotel.

Around noon after getting confirmation that my shuttle driver did not forget me and would pick me up, I drove up the twisted road that lead to Onion Valley. After parking my Jeep in the large parking lot with a copy of my permit and some contact info, I looked around as I waited for the shuttle. It was a nice valley that I hoped I would see at the end of my trek.

My shuttle driver arrived and we began the long (and expensive) shuttle ride down highway 395 towards Walker Pass. It was still blazing hot in Owens Valley and as we turned onto highway 178 I hoped that it would be cooler at the pass.

Well… maybe it was. It still felt pretty hot to me and since the trail started at 5,200 feet I hadn’t really expected it to be that much an improvement over the valley.

Unfortunately, in addition to the shuttle driver picking me up a bit early, he was also pretty fast during the drive. So, it was only 1:30pm instead of closer to 3pm as I hoped.

The complete lack of any shade near the pass was annoying. You’d think they’d at least have a small info board with a roof to provide people a safe place to start hiking from.

Wishful thinking.

I knew the first mile had no shade of any kind, but I didn’t want to just wait until it got cooler, so started my hike along PCT section G.

It was as hot and arid as the last time I tried to hike this section. I did make a point of keep my eyes on my water bladder to make sure it didn’t leak this time. When I reached the first set of switchbacks, I also reached the first burned set of trees that provided the first bit of shade.

Ah… Thank goodness for this little oasis in the desert.

As I made my way slowly up the switchbacks, I took shade breaks whenever one presented itself. It wasn’t a lot, but every little bit of shade helped keep me going. It did seem to be getting cooler as well. It seemed to take forever, but I reached the first ridge of many I’d be hiking up, across, and down during the next weeks.

Fortunately, there was more cover and at 6,200 feet it was cooler. It helped that it was after 5pm and the sun was starting to dip slowly towards the western horizon. Not fast enough for my tastes.

The hike had been taking about as long as it had the previous year, so that much was consistent. No water leaks either. Stamina… that was leaving me pretty fast.

I had hoped to get further along the ridge than I did the previous year, at least a mile or two. But when I reached the campsite I had used in 2023, my body and soul wanted to rest. There was some shade and would be more once the Sun ducked behind a nearby peak.

So, I decided to setup my tent and call it a day around 6:30pm (which was later than I usually stopped when backpacking, but I usually started early in the morning). I was happy to see that I had only used a single litter of water. That left me with 6 liters left compared to half litter I had left last year. Not having a leak sure helped. I also made a point about having a big lunch from Carls Jr. in Lone Pine so I wouldn’t have to cook dinner using my precious water.

Then I got confirmation I wasn’t the only person on this part of the trail. Since I was pretty much directly adjacent to the trail, a young woman passed me and said hello. Several more people passed by, who obviously left Walker Pass at a later time that I had.