And, we’re hiking: Day 1
I woke up not feeling great from the smoke. Very dry mouth, general malaise, and maybe starting to congest.
Received a text from “L” a little before 7:00AM they’d be at Roads End at 9:30. I said ok and would get our permit changed from Aug 6, to today. The permit took a while and it was 8am before I was done. And by the time I went back to the campsite and packed up, I wasn’t leaving until 9. Needless to say I was late meeting the team. It was 11:00 when I arrived at Roads End.
Bear!!!
Less the 5 minutes from leaving Lodgepole a big ole “golden brown” black bear cross the road in front of me. A good reason to not speed. Too quick to get a photo.
California was home to a population of grizzlies until around 1924 (wiki source) and biologicaldiversity.org. 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of their known extinction. Efforts for reintroduction are controversial.
Fueling up and Getting on with it
After meeting the team at Roads end and shuttling back to Lodgepole, we saw a black, black bear cross the road.
Back at Lodgepole we got food from the concession and parked in the long term area. It was 2:30 when we began walking and the first couple miles weren’t bad, forested but it was so hot. Then we began the off trail section which was probably running 25% up granite slabs.
This team is made up of Andrew Skurka guided hiking trip alumni. I met “L” on an Olympics trip in 2022. the three, L, D, and J have all done trips together. I got a random invite last winter and felt it was a great opportunity to get back in the Sierra.
We got to camp around 6:30 pm. I really struggled and fell way behind on the climb. A bit worrying. I my pack was heavier than I wanted and should have been. Sitting at 30-31 lbs with a couple meters of water. It should have been no more than 25. But I was carrying fuel and battery banks for 12 days and some food that didn’t get into the resupply box.
We took a couple good breaks on the climb. More than one involved airing our feet out. A practice common with Skurka and many hikers. Air them out, dry out, clear the dirt, rocks and dust. Keep them healthy.
We made it to Silliman Lakes. 2 other small groups but we found camping no problem and were not on top of each other. Each had their own areas.
I was so tired when we got to camp. I was starting to question if I should have pulled out of the trip when I got injured which impacted my training. I had really struggled to talk as we hiked because I had developed throat congestion – I assumed from smoke. In hindsight, it might have been a virus.
The Kings Canyon High Basin Route is 124 miles, has over 40,000’ feet of gain. Our plan was to carry 4 days food to Charlotte Lake where we would get another 8 days via the mule packer we’d scheduled.
A lot of work went into mapping the route by a team member so only sharing photos of the general plan. Anyone can buy the Andrew Skurka KCHBR dataset
Every foot forward, is a step in the right direction 