Day 49 - Tuesday, June 15

Tenting next to Palisade Creek (mile 823.5).  Walked 19.4 miles today.

Woke up to no mosquitoes hanging out on my tent, but as soon as I went out of it, there were two or three right around me.  Packed up quickly and set off up the trail.

Met up with Bougie, Heather, Arugula, Clockwork, and Thin Mint on the approach to Pinchot Pass.  Had a couple of small snow patches on the south side of the pass which is unusual.  The climb up was tough despite us being told that it was easier than Glenn Pass.  It was not.  Made the slow bit steady climb up and reached the top of the pass at 12,123 feet.

Hung out here for the rest of the crew to arrive.  Those that I ascended the pass with started down the other side and shortly after, Frank, Jedi, and AB showed up.  Our music tradition continued with AB playing Party Rock Anthem.  Headed down the north side with no snow to deal with.

Passed some streams and lakes and went down into a forest.

Reached the South Fork of the Kings River for our first semi challenging water crossing.  It wasn't too bad, we just had to search for a good spot.  I rock hopped to an island and then walked 50 yards downstream to a log across the steam.  Jedi and the others went upstream to a good rock hopping spot.  This is the stream where a hiker died in 2017, the year AB hiked the trail.  She thinks she took one of the last ever (if not the last) photos of that hiker.  Frank and I hiked ahead of the others up through a meadow and found a good lunch spot.

We were joined by the others and we all ate lunch together before climbing up towards our second pass of the day, Mather Pass.

So back in Bishop, Rambo left her knife at the hostel and texted AB to bring it to her. AB had been carrying it for the past few days but I asked to carry it today, explaining that it would make me look more bad-ass. AB agreed. At our morning break, Frank asked me about carrying it and just said "No" when I explained it would make me look more bad ass. I don't think she understands...  Well, at lunch the following conversation ensued:

AB: Bill Nye, that knife really makes you look bad ass.

Frank: No [shakes head].

Bougie: I saw that too. It does look bad ass

Frank: [Still shaking head]

Clockwork: You know, I saw Bill wearing the knife earlier and thought I'd never seen him wear it before, but then I thought, 'You know, it does make him look pretty bad ass'

Frank: [Looking at the ground shaking her head]

She's in denial...

It was an easy ascent and we all hung at the top for a bit to wait for Thin Mint who was struggling with the altitude.

AB played Lizzo's "Good as Hell" at the top.

Photo: Me looking bad ass at the top of Mather Pass with Rambo's knife on my hip.

We all descended together and after a few miles, ran into a ranger who did the first permit check of the trail on us.  He said he had run across 53 hikers today, most of them PCTers.  Thin Mint gave him a wallet she had found earlier today and we pushed on.

Had some great scenery through this section and then descended very sharply and came out into an incredible valley.

We hiked a few more miles and got to camp late (almost 7 pm).  We would have stopped earlier but there were no spots that could accommodate all nine of us who are hiking together today.  Jedi says that despite our best efforts, we've become The Borg.  A bunch of us sat around camp with our bug nets on cooking and eating dinner as the mosquitoes are really bad here.  Photo : Thin Mint and Frank at camp.