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HIKE UPDATE - 2019
The team from Boy Scout Troop 93 (Fullerton, CA) met early Saturday morning, July 20, 2019, at their meeting place in Fullerton and departed for Horseshoe Meadows. They are scheduled to complete this 48-mile portion of the PCT from Horeshoe Meadows to Kennedy Meadows on Thursday, July 25, 2019.
The team will be using a "spot tracker" on their backpack. If you are interested in following them as they hike, CLICK HERE.
Below are text updates as documented by one of the Scout Leaders, Larry Bennett. Larry will try to give brief updates as the trip progresses and cell service allows.
The team will be using a "spot tracker" on their backpack. If you are interested in following them as they hike, CLICK HERE.
Below are text updates as documented by one of the Scout Leaders, Larry Bennett. Larry will try to give brief updates as the trip progresses and cell service allows.
Saturday, July 20, 2019 - Zero Day
We left the Scout Hut at 4:00am. Our initial stop was Lone Pine where we needed to pick up a permit. We stopped for breakfast at Mt. Whitney Café. After picking up our permit, we shuttled one car to Kennedy Meadows where we will end our first segment. We returned to Lone Pine for a late lunch at the Frosty Chalet. We then drove to Horseshoe Meadows for the night. After dinner, we all went to our tents to escape the mosquitoes. Tomorrow will be a long hiking day.
Sunday, July 21, 2019 - Day 1
We got up at 5:00am to shuttle cars down to Lone Pine and meet our third adult Steve Mayberry. With the cars secured at the museum of film history, a local shuttle driver brought our adults to Horseshoe Meadows. We were able to start our backpack at 7:00am. Our challenge was to get up to the top of Cottonwood Pass while it is still cool. It’s a 4 mile climb to the top and about 1200 feet of elevation gain. We all made it to the top by 10:00am. We now had another 7.5 miles to our camp at Dutch Creek. We arrived later in the afternoon. We made dinner and headed to our tents.
Monday, July 22, 2019 - Day 2
Given our long day on Sunday we agreed to get up at 4:30am. We were on the trail by 5:45. Our hiking plan called for a 12 mile day and 1500 feet of elevation gain. We moved very quickly and were able to make camp by 1:30pm. The boys enjoyed a long period of chilling in camp. Card games were the activities of choice. We ended at Death Canyon, but it didn’t live up to it’s name.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - Day 3
Our hiking plan for Monday worked so well we decided to get up at 4:30am, again. We had 1800 feet of elevation gain and about 2500 of elevation loss to conquer. We had a very nice overcast day for hiking and a few light showers. One of our younger scouts was having stomach issues and was walking very slowly. We did make it to Cow Creek but not until 5:00pm. We talked about our options for Wednesday. The original plan was to hike 10 miles, but if we pressed on another 4 miles we would be at our end point in Kennedy Meadows for our first segment. That means coming out early and a chance for a burger and fries.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 - Day 4
The consensus was to get up very early and hike into Kennedy Meadows. We got up at 4:00am and were hiking by 5:05am. We had about 1100 feet of elevation to gain but most of that was within the first 6 miles. We got that finished early and hiked at a constant pace. Our faster hikers came into Kennedy Meadows about 1:30. Our slowest group was in by 3:15. The reward was the burgers, fries and hot shower at Grumpy Bear. We feel great and will actually sleep in until 6:30am tomorrow. Tomorrow we will transfer up to the Lake Tahoe area to begin our second segment on Friday.
Thursday, July 25, 2019 - Day 5
Today we woke up in Kennedy Meadows at 6:30am. What a nice change from getting up early to hike. It’s a travel day to the Lake Tahoe area. We need to pick up a permit for our next segment and shuttle a car up to our end point at Echo Lake. It started raining on us as we approached Lake Tahoe. It stopped long enough at the Ranger Station for us to unload trash and repack our backpacks for this next segment. However as we left a vehicle at Echo Lake, it began to pour again and our phones warned of flash floods for the next three hours. We called an audible, booked two rooms at State Line for the night and went to Applebee’s for dinner. Of course everything at State Line has a casino attached. The boys suggested that they work on the gambling merit badge. We reminded them there was no such merit badge and that we needed to be on the road at 5:30am. So they went to their room and the adults went to theirs. The shower felt amazing before we turned in.
Friday, July 26, 2019 - Day 6
We were up and driving to our trail head near Ebbets Pass. We had 12 miles to cover and 1800 feet of elevation to gain. Our destination was Pleasant Valley Creek. The hike was more challenging as snow banks covered parts of the trail and had to be carefully traversed. The crew was hiking strongly. But the combination of attitude and snow kept us on the trail until late in the afternoon. We did have time to relax and have a leisurely dinner before the mosquitos chased us to our tents.
Saturday, July 27, 2019 - Day 7
Today was the most strenuous day of our trek. 13 miles, 2500 feet of elevation and snow banks too numerous to count that had to be crossed. We had all but 500 feet of elevation done by noon. The views were spectacular today. We rewarded our efforts with an extended lunch break. I personally had an hour long nap under the Sierra skies in the shade of a giant pine. We finally forced ourselves to move on from lunch. 3 1/2 miles more to a trail side creek just before the next big climb. We got to camp about 4:00. After camp was set, the boys all climbed into their tents for a nap. The adults weren’t tired so we got the water and began the process of filtering it for our group. In every long trek, there is the point I call the physiological point of “we’re going to make it.” Today was that point. Everyone knows tomorrow is a shorter easier 9 mile backpack. And Monday is our 10 mile exit hike. Although we still have to complete 19 more miles, we know we will succeed. It's getting close to 7:00pm, so we’ll be heading to the tents soon.
Sunday, July 28, 2019 - Day 8
Today was suppose to be a relatively easy 9 mile day with 1500 feet of elevation gain. We got up 5:30 and were ready to hike by 6:30. The first 4 miles was a strong uphill segment that covered the majority of elevation gain. The snow fields were large and the going was slow but steady. One of our Scouts, Connor P, was struggling with an ingrown toe nail. It was getting progressively worst. Connor rarely complains and is a strong hiker, so when he told me he wasn’t sure he could finish our hike, I was concerned. At Carson Pass, we encountered a forest service volunteer who happened to be a doctor. He examined the toe and recommended that he seek treatment ASAP. We did have to continue on in order to find cell phone service to arrange for a shuttle ride to Echo Lake. However, we did manage to cover 9 miles for the day. Once at Echo Lake, we made plans to have Connor’s toe examined at Urgent Care. We were able to schedule an appointment for Monday at 8:00am. We also met up with a Troop 93 Alumni Harrison Portz in Minden for dinner. Harrison was with us in 2016 for the John Muir Trail trip and in 2017. Currently he’s living in NV and going to college. After dinner we picked up our second vehicle and settled into our forest service camp ground.
Monday, July 29, 2019 - Day 9
We got up at 5:00am and were packed and ready to leave at 5:20am. We had an hour drive to State Line where we enjoyed breakfast at the Red Hut Cafe. This gave us plenty of time to get to urgent care before Connor’s appointment time. The staff and doctor were terrific. The doctor is an Eagle Scout who, himself, was an accomplished outdoorsman. He was able to cut out the ingrown toe nail and dress the wound with Ointment and Rx designed to promote healing and avoid infection. With this our trip concluded and it was time to head home. We completed 86 miles of the PCT. While that is 10 miles less than planned it was a strong performance and more importantly set up an even greater accomplishment.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 - THE GREATER ACCOMPLISHMENT
Connor P. has one month more as a Boy Scout before he turns 18 and graduates from the program. He has already completed his Eagle Scout project and only needs to finish a Scoutmasters conference and an Eagle Board of Review in order to become an Eagle Scout, but that will have to wait until mid-August. Connor’s plan was to hike 9 days with our crew and then join a second Troop 93 crew on another 9 day backpacking trip in the Sierra’s. Thanks to the treatment he received at Urgent Care, he was able to join that second crew in Independence, CA, as we headed home. If Connor could continue on he would break the all time Boy backpacking record finishing with approximate 1050 total backpacking miles! The current record is 1012 miles. Late this afternoon I received a text from Connor. His toe is doing well. He’s currently at 1000 miles. Therefore, it looks likely that, tomorrow or Thursday, Connor will break the record. Our entire crew and Troop are cheering him on! We gladly skipped our last 10 miles in order to set Connor up to succeed in this record breaking feat!