For all of the folks that didn't join me on this excursion (which is all of you) - it was a great time, all but about three miles on new trails to me.
This actually starts on Friday Aug 31, as I drove from City of Industry to Lone Pine, arriving in the Alabama Hills just before midnight. It was so windy going up the 14 above Mojave that the bed cover in my Ranger blew off - that was made of 3/4 inch plywood and hinged down inside the bed. Fortunately there weren't any vehicles behind me. That meant that I had some work to do once I arrived, dismantling the frame so I could have a place to sleep. I awoke to a great view of Lone Pine peak in the early morning sunrise and leisurely packed my stuff for the journey south of town to the Interagency Visitor Center. For my usual 7:55 arrival, I was greeted by the sight of approximately 2000 people waiting in line. Fortunately I knew that lines don't matter here, they have a lottery at 8am for the walk-up permits. That brings up a point of contention for me, since Inyo believes that 11am on the day prior constitutes a walk-up. I think that is a reservation and used a hotel analogy when talking with one of the rangers, all to no avail since most of the permits were already gone before a single person had been served. Anyway, I drew number 17 and still felt pretty good about my chances to score something out of Bishop, with Lake Sabrina my preference. Since after about five minutes a general announcement was made that 90 percent of the permits were gone, by the time I got called I was left with the backup plan of Trail Pass since it does not have a quota. That's another tricky one, since one ranger said it's a loophole, another didn't know and a third said it was not allowed to go north on the PCT. Fortunately by that time my permit already showed High Lake as a campsite so I got out of there before anyone changed his mind.
All of that plus breakfast at McDonald's and filling up water in Lone Pine creek before driving to Horseshoe Meadows took a while, and it was nearly noon before I actually hit the trail. After crossing a sandy meadow, this trail meanders gently uphill through plenty of shade before arriving at Trail Pass in a couple of miles. I didn't have a map, relying instead on my faulty memory which told me this was a T-intersection, so I went straight at the junction. After going downhill on a few switchbacks I felt that it wasn't right, and finally remembered that I have the Halfmile PCT app on my phone. A quick consultation with that told me I was indeed off trail, so I retraced my steps back up to the junction where I found the trail I had overlooked before. It's hidden behind a deadfall, and I was expecting the PCT to be a bit more prominent - lesson learned there. I topped off my water bottle at the only spring along the way, and had a very nice walk for a few miles over to Cottonwood Pass. Never having been to that spot, it was great to take a lunch break and soak in the views of Horseshoe Meadow and Big Whitney Meadow on either side. There were plenty of folks moving both ways there, so I expected a pretty good gathering at Chicken Spring Lake, which was my destination for the night. It took me a little while to figure out that the lake is on a spur trail off the PCT, but I managed to find a somewhat secluded space for my tent. The lake didn't have any flow - no inlet or outlet - and seemed a bit dirty, so I had to actually use the Sawyer filter for drinking and dinner prep. That evening and all night, the wind once again made its presence known - not too much at ground level but definitely loud in the trees above. I got up once to snug down one side of my tent, using a longer line to anchor in some rocks nearby.
Total for this day was about 8 miles.
Pics and parts 2-3 below.....
Cows grazing in the meadow below, this about a mile before reaching Cottonwood Pass.
