Independence

6/10-
Day 61 - Took a zero mile day yesterday at Kennedy Meadows where we picked up all of our heavy warmies and axes. Also eight days of food. Dropped some weight (Maria and Jonny are carrying bleach instead of a water filter this week) but the packs are full. I'm starting with 60-65 lbs on my back but am taking comfort in the fact that this is probably the heaviest my pack will ever get. - Squirrelfight

Day 61 - After a couple relaxing days at Kennedy Meadows, I am glad to be back on the trail. On Thursday, we enjoyed the company of many thru-hikers in camp, Pretzel & Stitch, Bootleg & Bluefoot, among others. Quite a potluck that night. On Friday, Stitch gave us lessons on building ultra-lightweight alcohol burning stoves out of two beercans. I used one to cook dinner last night - my old Whisperlite stove may be a thing of the past. The campground was full of zillions of weekenders last night, playing loud music & shouting (but also giving us lots of beer), until the wee hours. Surprisingly, I haven't seen a soul today on the trail. Right now I am sitting next to the S. Fork Kern river, on the shady edge of a lush green meadow, watching the sparrows swoop and the trout splash as I wait for the rest of the Veggies to catch up. What a beautiful place! How lucky am I! -Ez-

6/11-
Day 62 - Yesterday we only walked 14.5 miles to camp, but I barely made it before the sun set. The boys, or "girls" as I like to call them had been there for hours. They had already eaten, set up camp, and even had a fire going. The treat in that for me is that all I had to do was put on my warmies and dig into my food while sitting around the fire. The down side is that I feel like a loser for needing so much extra time to hike the same number of miles. And jealous, irritated and sad that someone else can sit around and enjoy themselves while I don't have time to take lax breaks. This time difference doesn't always happen to such an extreme, but it's usually the case. I just wish I had a little more time to sit and write, and not always feel like I have to keep going to catch up.
So today we had planned to hike 4 to 5 miles, wait for each other, then do a 3 to 5 mile side trip to a 12,000 foot summit. I of course got to our meeting spot last, looked at the immense, steep, rocky climb and quickly opted not to go. I was concerned over the time it would take me to climb and how much later I would make it into camp since it would make today a 20+. Truthfully I am very sad and upset at not having gone since side trip summits are one of my most favorite parts of hiking which is why all of this bitching is making it to paper. One, I have time to write, and two, I'm bummed out.
On another note, the past 2 days we have been rewarded by high mountain beauty. Sooo happy to be walking through the High Sierra instead of the desert for the next 300 miles. There will be plenty more side trip opportunities that I will not turn down in the future. - Maria Pickle

Day 62 - Is June 11, the two month anniversary. The Vegetables have walked 725.5 PCT miles. They have taken four 0 mile days, one 1 mile day, one 2 mile day, two 3 mile days, and two five mile days. They have been passed by more than 55 other thru-hikers. They have passed 0 other thru-hikers - Statistician

Day 62 - And now, after so much anticipation and climbing and slogging through the hot and the dry, is the feeling that we have finally arrived in the good stuff. From our campground at 5,200 feet last night, we quickly climbed to 10,600 and then made a fun, rock scrambling ascent of Olancha peak, our highest point so far. Fantastic views of the high Sierra and great western divide from the top. Since then, we haven't dropped below 9,000 feet (and won't for many miles). The trail has wound through forests of foxtail, lodgepole, and Jeffry pine, and past weird, isolated granite outcroppings. I'm camped tonight on the northern edge of "Death Canyon" - I wonder if I should be worried. -Ez-

6/12-
Day 63 - Now that we have entered the Sierra's, our water problems have been solved. With this abundance of water our mosquito problem has begun. To quote some other vegetables on the subject,
"It has gone from too dry to swim, to too cold to swim." - Krumholz
"I think if you want to avoid the mosquito's for the next month you should go to San Francisco." - Willie
"I'm hungry" - Pickle
"I made this" - Squirrelfight

Day 63 - Told myself I wouldn't do any 20 milers in the high sierra, but that's just what I did today. Lordy, I am tired! My feet feel like someone's been beating on them with a hammer. Camped at 11,500 feet tonight, our highest campsite of the trip. -Ez-

Day 63 - Best campsite yet. Tarn in a Cirque at 11,500.'

"Sure are fun to scratch!" - Ned Flanders on mosquito bites

6/13-
Day 64 - Camped at the Crabtree Meadows Ranger Station, where the PCT connects with the Muir Trail. For the next 200 miles or so, Ben & I will be re-hiking the trail we did four years ago. Which is just fine, because that was about the best backpacking I've ever done, and I'm pretty thrilled to be doing it again. In other news, I found a bottle of alcohol (the burnin' kind, not the drinkin' kind) at the ranger station, which I am using in my homemade beer can stove. It works great! -Ez-

Day 64 - It's dawn - at least it is everywhere else in California. We are camped at 11,500 ft on the shore of a tiny pond that sits nestled in a steep-walled, granite cirque. The basin walls are wrapped 270 degrees around camp, opening southwest to a spectacular view of the snowcapped Western Divide. Only now is sunlight beginning to tickle the tops of our snow-rimmed cirque. As I'm sitting here watching the sun creep toward me, the first heat of the day has set off a tiny avalanche above the tarn. -Krumholz

6/14-
Day 65 - Side trip today. The one side trip that most thru-hikers take. Mt. Whitney. At 14,492' it is the tallest mtn. in the lower 48. Amazing day. Ben & Ez had already climbed this one but Maria and I have never been over 12,200. - Jonny

Day 65 - Whitney is even better the second time around!! 6-person, 5-dish pot luck this evening - 4 of us + "Llama" and "Roma." -Ez-

Day 65 - Wahoo! - Whitney summit! What a weird place. We Vegetables along with fellow hikers Llama and Roma had the summit to ourselves all morning. But by noon the masses arrived whooping, stumbling around in a dizzy altitude daze, and making cell phone calls. Roma got his trail name today up to because he packed in a fresh roma tomato for us from town. Yum! - Krumholz

For this week's Ask Squirrelfight column, Perry from Los Angeles wonders: "Dear Squirrelfight, what are the origins of your trailnames?"

Dear Perry,
My full name on my birth certificate is Jonathan Squirrelfight Lane. My parents were big fans of the relatively unknown 60's band, Squirrelfight, and used me to pay homage to them, I use my middle name on the trail.
We call Maria Pickle because this is her favorite trail food. Not many people pack pickles on the trail, but you don't want to be around Maria if she hasn't had her morning pickle.
Kaptain Krumholz took his name from the Austrian mountaineer, Baron Von Krumholz, who developed the finest remedy known to man for alpine chafe. To this day this remedy remains a secret among mountaineers.
Staggerin' Willie came from a long line of Willies. It all started with his Great-Grandpa Stranglin' Willie - He ran into some trouble with the law and lived out the remainder of his days huntin' and trappin' in the High Sierra. His son, Slobberin' Willie, was a half-wit and a social outcast. It's a bit of a mystery how he raised someone like my pa, Swaggerin' Willie. Ol' Swaggerin Willie thought pretty highly of himself and fancied himself quite a ladies' man. He had almost as many legitimate children as he had enemies, and often had to take to the hills to escape both. By hiking the PCT, Staggerin' Willie is following in their footsteps.

6/15-
Day 66 - Krumholz and I have been carrying full crampons since Kennedy Meadows. With no opportunities to use them, so far, we have been resenting the extra weight.
I will say they have come in handy when the tempers flare. The expression, "I'm going to kick you in the throat" has taken on a whole new meaning. Maybe we'll get to use them tomorrow on the north face of Forester Pass. - Squirrelfight

Day 66 - It's amazing to think that, just two weeks ago, we were pulling water from nasty, cattle contaminated trickles, knowing that the next water was 15, 18, 20 miles away. On the trail today, water was rushing and gushing at us from every direction; pure, clean snowmelt, covering the trail for hundreds of yards at a time. In the Desert, "dry camp" meant any campsite far from water sources. Tonight a dry camp will mean any dry, flat patch of ground large enough to pitch a tent on. -Ez-

Day 66 - Oh boy, I finally got to play in the crampons. Jonny and I just made a snowy, moonlight circumnavigation of the lake we're camped on. It's mostly under ice still, perched above 12,000 feet in the basin below Forester Pass. - Krumholz

6/16-
Day 67 - OK, so I've been meaning to write for days and days, but everything has just been too captivating and beautiful. Even now, sitting at the top of Forester pass (13,200 ft - the highest point on the trail) I find it difficult to tear my attention away from the breathtaking views and the little pika that keeps getting closer. A pika is a cute, tiny animal that is a cross between a rabbit and a chipmunk. This week I have seen many adorable creatures - marmots, deer, birds. The deer were frolicking around the high mountain meadows and lakes. The marmots like to hang out and sunbathe on rocks, eat grass and beg for your food. There is water and gorgeous high mountain lakes throughout this area. The water is amazingly clear and almost inviting except for the cold factor. They are fed by snow melt. The day before yesterday we climbed Mt. Whitney (14,495 ft - the tallest mountain in the lower 48). The climb was as easy as it could be since we had no packs and had been above 10,000 ft for the last week. We all blew by the day hikers. By the time we left, 30 people had already visited the summit - busy.
We are now all about to glissade down to northface of Forester Pass. Finally I'll be using the heavy ice axe I've been carrying since Kennedy Meadows. - Pickle

Day 67 - Even though my pack was too heavy, and even though they made me walk 100 miles, this was still my best week yet. I've had some good weeks, but it doesn't get much more scenic than this. I mean, look at it! - Squirrelfight

p.s. Remember when we used to have to carry 6-8 quarts of water a few weeks back? Now we never carry more than one quart and we seldom even treat the water. It is gushing all around us.

Day 67 - Today has been, without a doubt, one of the finest days of the trip. From our stark, icy camp, we climbed up to Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT. The N. side of the pass had a 400 foot snow slope with a perfect, flat runout - ideal for therma-sledding. We all took turns sledding down the soft slope ( I went 3 times! ), then Glissaded over 1000 ft to the soggy trail below. From there, we dropped below the trees into a classic u-shaped glacier valley, and rested at Vidette Meadows before climbing again. Halfway to Glen Pass, we took a side trip to fish-filled Bullfrog Lake, ringed by Whitebark Pines and snowy granite peaks (one of the loveliest places I have ever camped). At the lake we feasted on fresh-caught trout (the first of the trip), then watched the full moon rise over Kearsarge Pass - What a day! -Ez-

Day 67 - About 30 feet below Forester Pass today, Jonny and I strapped on the crampons and took the icy snowfield up rather than the switchbacks. It was a steep but manageable pitch until the last 7 feet where it turned into a small ice cliff. Jonny led, handing his pack up to Ezra, patiently kicking steps into the ice and finally hoisting himself over the top. The work was done for me, so I passed up the pack, got acquainted with the wall, and in a burst of adrenaline pulled myself over. What a rush! - Krumholz

6/17-
Day 68 - Up in the high country this week. The elevations for our campsites each night this week were - 8,260', 10,400', 11,500', 10,640', 10,600', 12,250', 10,550. - Statistician.

6/18-
Day 69 - Krumholz's 29th birthday! No time to write! Time to party Independence style!

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