29 July 2024
Gardiner Pass to Onion Valley
(14 miles, +3,100/-4,500 feet).

I din’t sleep as well last night as I did the night before. I can feel that there is something wrong with my back. It’s not exactly painful, but it feels like it might go out.

Perfect for a rocky climb!

Oh well. Mornings in the mountains always make me happy, so I shrugged it off, packed up, and started the brief climb up to Gardiner Pass.

Unlike my travails of yesterday, there was a clear trail all the way to the top this morning. It felt good to turn off my brain and soak in the morning light and the crisp cool air.

On the south side of the pass the trail disappeared. But it was cruisy decomposed granite through a lightly forested slope so the first thousand feet of descent were easy.

But it got complicated when I came to a massive field of blowdowns.

Instead of following the USGS route, I followed a route indicated on Caltopo that veered around the western edge of this mess. I had to find my own way, but the hiking was nice and easy. Soon I crossed a fork of Charlotte Creek and headed east.

I was worried about the next stage of the route. It follows a steep slope above Charlotte Creek.

But just when it started to get steep and overgrown with manzanita, I found cairns and eventually a narrow but well-marked cut through the brush.

The trail was quite scratchy on my legs and I felt a little annoyed with the sun in my eyes and the twinge in my back. But still I was happy. I looked forward to getting off the cliff and into the woods.

I took a VERY long break at the lake. SO pretty.

And I needed to decide what to do.

I was supposed to camp at Charlotte Lake last night and it is already late morning. I am behind schedule. I think I just have enough food to stick to plan A. But I know that today’s distance will force me to make a hard choice later on.

Either I camp early in Center Basin, or I take a risk and head over Junction Pass very late in the afternoon. With luck, both the light and my back will hold out while I am heading down a trail-less 2,000 foot scree slope on the other side.

Hmmm….

Well, shoot.

I guess I need to bail.

It’s not the worst place to do that. Kearsarge Pass is just a couple of hours away. And then Onion Valley. And home.

I guess Junction Pass and Shepherd Pass will have to wait!

Once I made my decision I really enjoyed the rest of the day. I never stop being amazed by the Kearsarge basin. So beautiful and so easy to get to. I am amazed there are not even more people here.

And what a gorgeous trail! So wide and well-engineered! There is nothing like working one’s way along poorly maintained routes to make one so, so grateful for such a beautiful human creation.

I made it down to Onion Valley by 3pm. It took only about 10 minutes to catch a ride down the hill to my car. A nice young couple who recently immigrated from Russia picked me up.

Coincidentally, they were from Rostov-on-Don, the same city a close colleague of mine is from. As they described the problems they had in Russia and how happy they were to be in the United States, it put all my aches and pains into perspective.

What a wonderful, gorgeous life we all have here. If we just take a chance to open our eyes.