Day 57 – Bubbs Creek to Independence – 12 miles


Up before the sun today – we were aiming to get to town before the post office closes since it’s Friday. It we manage to hit the PO we’ll also be able to make the last bus to Bishop and save ourself a 40-mile hitch up the highway. It was a good motivator and we were ready to go in about an hour. That’s really quick by our standards!


The first section along the floor of the canyon was level and fragrant as it took us through the pines. It stayed cool long enough for us to hike a few miles in our jackets. Normally we have to stop after a couple minutes and pack them away as we warm up. As the sun rose it started to paint the western walls of the canyon with the same glow as last night. We trailed the creek for about 3 miles before peeling away and tackling a ridge. The trail switchbacked up more sharply than we’re used to. The steep terrain and the density of green growth around us reminded me of the Wonderland trail. After a mile of this we reached the Bullfrog Lakes junction and left the PCT for town. This new trail took us past the picturesque lakes it was named for and gave us a glimpse of the scenery behind the Kearsarge Pinnacles, which make up the eastern wall of the canyon we’d been hiking through since Forester.


We traveled east across the floor of this drainage, heading for the pass. Before long we started to climb up the wall towards the pass and we were once again trying to guess where the trail would take us. It was a steep climb topped off with a few tiny switchbacks and at last we were at the top. The view of the Kearsarge canyon was incredible. I took more pictures here than I have any previous day in our trip. After one last shot of us at the summit we started down the other side to the trailhead nearly 5 miles away and 2500 feet down. This will be a tough climb when we come back to the trail weighed down with 7 days of food. The trail took us down past more lakes and streams and little cascades of water. We kept passing dayhikers heading the other way and thruhikers returning to the trail after their days off.


After a few hours of easy hiking we reached the trailhead and all its luxuries – clean pit toilets, trash cans, and a bear box full of soda. With surprising ease, we stuck up a conversation with a really nice couple and they offered us a ride into town. In about 20 minutes they dropped us right outside the post office in Independence, 5000 feet below the trailhead. Suddenly the mountains we’d been hiking in were just huge hills on the western horizon. It made our heads spin.


We’d gotten to town much earlier than expected and had plenty of time to eat and buy some snacks before we needed to catch the bus. We picked up our packages – including our new gaiters! – and found a place to stay in Bishop. Keith also took care of an important gear issue. His pack has been failing around one hip support, with the metal frame tearing through the webbing. This seems to be an issue with this type of Osprey packs. If it tears completely through he wouldn’t be able to support his pack on one side – already it was causing it to lean to one side as he hiked. He called Osprey and explained the issue, and before we knew it we had a replacement waiting for us at an outfitter in Bishop! The rep even called the other store to confirm they had the right size and model to set aside for us. All we have to do is pay shipping for the outfitter to send the old one back, which would be cheaper than is we shipped it ourselves. His old one wasn’t even purchased new for this trip. It’s a few years old and they still replaced it for free with no hassle. What awesome service! We’d been worried about it failing during our next stretch and not sure how we’d get a new pack to our next resupply in time, but they took care of everything.

Finally there was nothing to do but wait around for the bus. Since we had a few hours we decided to try for a hitch and after a while someone actually stopped. We hopped into Bob’s truck with another hiker, Black Hat, and we were off to Bishop and a few days off. As it turns out Black Hat is from Duluth and went to school near Ely. Small world! We’re looking forward to some time off to catch up on our sleep and calories. It’s been tough to make ourselves eat over the last week and we think that being at a lower elevation and resting will help our appetites.

– Posted from the PCT

Location:Pct mile 788

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