The Pine Creek Trailhead sits at 7405 feet (2257m). After a night camping near Lee Vining, a really long stop in Mammoth Lakes, and a tasty but highly overpriced sandwich, we left the car and started walking around 2pm. The first day took us up to Honeymoon Lake, which sits at 10435 feet (3181m). It took us about 5 hours (including stops, for Skeena of course) to ascend the 6.4 mile, 3000 feet climb up to the lake.
Our Honeymoon Lake site, looking away from the lake
A very colorful sunset
Monday morning, feeling fairly well-rested (especially Ken who, in forgetting his backpacking Thermarest, was lugging around his car camping Thermarest which meant that his sleeping pad was 3X as thick as mine and took up approximately 2/3 of the tent), we began our ascent of Italy Pass. Now, numbers-wise, crossing Italy Pass from Honeymoon Lake isn’t that big of a deal. At about 12400 feet (3779m, 10 feet higher than Mount Fuji), it was only 2000 feet to gain over what we guessed to be 2 miles. It took us 5 ½ hours to go that distance. Maybe it was the altitude, maybe it was the heavy packs (I could barely lift Ken’s), maybe it was the cross-country route. Likely, it was a combination of the three. It was steep, it was rocky, and it was beautiful. The worst part of Monday, however, wasn’t crossing the pass but was having to navigate a large talus field after we descended to Lake Italy. There was no trail around the lake, so we had to hop/jump from boulder to boulder. This is something I am not quick at without a pack but doing it with 35 pounds on my back was really tough. I was very glad to finish that section and pitch the tent for the night at Teddy Bear Lake. Our mileage for the day, around 7 miles.
The view from the top of Italy Pass
Ken with the talus field behind him.
Our (windy) site on Teddy Bear Lake
Tuesday was even slower. We dropped down about 1500 feet (457m) before climbing back up 1200 feet (366m) to our third night at Marie Lake. A wicked blister erupted on my right heel, which made the ascent to Marie Lake more of a hobble than a hike. At this point, we were planning to spend an extra night on the trail. I wasn’t sure how fast I was going to be able to walk the rest of the trip, and we were enough food for an extra day (for us and for Skeena).
Marie Lake was quite spectacular although the place was crawling with Forest Service folk. I felt really uncomfortable camping at the lake, actually, because of the Forest Service presence. Paranoid, perhaps, but it seemed like they were watching us, waiting for us to do something wrong. They did tell us not to camp in our first site because it was too close to the lake, but I’m pretty sure it was more than 100 feet from the water. I was happy to leave in the morning.
Ken pulls a colorful fish from Lake Marie
Ken cuts another fish loose
Looking along Lake Marie from our campsite at dusk
Looking over Marie Lake from Selden Pass
Wednesday was a fairly easy day. We hiked up 300 (91m) feet from Marie Lake to Selden Pass and then began the long descent to the John Muir Ranch. By this point, we had hooked up with the John Muir Trail, a pretty popular 211-mile trail that runs from the Yosemite Valley to the top of Mount Whitney. A lot of people hike the whole trail. It’s possible for such ‘thru-hikers’ to send food packages to the John Muir Ranch, who will receive and hold boxes for $20. Needless to say, the JM Ranch is a pretty popular destination. However, our reason for heading that way, which was about a mile out of our way, was not to go to the ranch, but to hit Blayley Hotsprings. Yes, hotsprings.
The quick, 5-minute soak we took in those springs made the whole trip worthwhile.
The springs were empty when we arrived although another guy arrived to announce a group of 10 were making their way across the river to join us. He was either gracious enough to let us enjoy a few minutes in the hotsprings alone or too embarrassed to strip down and join us, so we made our stay quick so that he could also get a soak in before the mob arrived. We never did see those 10 other folk.
The Blayley hotspring poolAfter we finished soaking, dressing, and crossing back across the river, Ken and I sat down and did a real bang-up job wrapping up my blistered heel. In fact, the job we did was so good, I didn’t need to re-wrap it and I could walk uphill without limping. Man…a properly dressed blister makes such a big difference. We camped at a brilliant little spot along the South Fork of the Joaquin River. Ken fished and I puttered about.
A doozie of a blister to be sure
Our kitchen at our spot along the South Fork of the San Joaquin
A cozy morning in the tent for Skeena
A cleanly-wrapped, well-dressed heel
Thursday was our last bit along the John Muir Trail. We headed up Piute Canyon right before the JMT entered the Kings Canyon Wilderness where dogs are not allowed. The 1500 feet (457m) up the canyon was brutal. It was hot and we were feeling pretty weary. We stopped several times on the way up, which helped. By the time we found our camp site for the night (a seemingly never-before-used horsepacker’s camp in French Canyon) I was beat. We did about 10 miles that day and had 10 miles left.
The last night's campsite
Skeena is happily wrapped in my puff jacketAs it turned out, we didn’t need the extra day to complete our loop. We had planned to get out on Friday, and at about 4pm Friday afternoon, out we were. The walk through the rest of French Canyon and up over Pine Creek Pass was uneventful. Once we hit Pine Creek Pass, we descended back towards Honeymoon Lake, thus completing the loop portion of our trip. One back at the lake, it was 6.4 miles and 3000 feet back down to the trailhead.
Up at Pine Creek Pass
Little grasses at the pass
After loading our packs back into the 4Runner, we hopped in the car and found a secluded spot to pull off and use the sunshower to rinse off some of the grime accumulated from 6 days in the backcounty. We stopped at the Virginia Creek Settlement (on 395 not too far from the Bodie turnoff) for what turned out to be really good pizza and made it home around midnight.
Of course, for me, one of the highlights of backpacking is cooking. I had some hits and misses this trip, but everything was edible and pretty tasty. Our backpacking meals, rough recipes, and descriptions:
Night 1: Chicken and stuffing. This is a super simple, high-volume meal. I whip up a package of Stove-Top stuffing (I prefer the chicken or corn bread flavors), add a package of chicken, and mix up a package of gravy to pour over it. This is actually a meal that Ken introduced me to. This meal as is tastes alright, but I like to improve it a touch with a dash of Sriracha hot sauce (I always pack some with us!).
Night 2: Couscous cooked with a package of Lipton’s French Onion Soup and a pack of chicken. This was the first time I made this and it was awesome. The only change I would make is that I would reduce the serving of dry couscous per person from ½ cup to 1/3 cup. Even for Hungry Ken and Hungry Kirsten, ½ cup of couscous is too much.
Dinner #2: Highly reccommendedNight 3: Coconut & cashew brown rice with satay sauce. This meal was quick and tasty. I first boiled enough water for the rice and the packet of satay powder. I mixed the powder in a bowl with some of the hot water then whipped up 2C of Minute Brown Rice (1 cup per person is the perfect amount for us). As soon as the rice was cooked, we divvied it up, added copious amounts of coconut and cashews, and poured the satay sauce over the whole thing. Very delicious. We debated adding chicken, but decided not to. However, I don’t know if I can replicate this one again because I bought the satay packet in New Zealand.
Our night #3 kitchen at Marie Lake
Mmm-mmm...coconut and cashews!
Night 4: Ken’s favorite: Chicken and dumplings. This is another excellent and easy meal. In the pot, I put in about 2C of water and threw in the carrots and corn I had cooked and dried in the dehydrator. After the veggies had rehydrated (I did this in warm water and it took maybe 10 minutes before the veggies became pliable), I turned the stove back on and added a pack of cream of chicken soup and a can of chicken (we had to bring one can of chicken because we didn’t have any packs left and packs of chicken are really tough to find). While this was heating to a boil, I mixed one cup of Bisquick in a bowl with a packet of macaroni and cheese cheese sauce and added enough water to make a thick paste (think biscuit or cookie dough consistency…not much water at all). After the pot had boiled, I added spoonfuls of the dough on top of the water, closed the lid, turned off the stove, and walked away for about 10 minutes. The steam from the liquid steams the dumplings and when the dumplings are cooked, voila! An excellent meal. Adding the cheese powder to the dumplings was a new idea and although it was okay, I think I prefer my dumplings plain. The corn definitely took this meal to a higher level.
Whipping up dumplings
Perfect placement of dumplings in the pot (my hands even seem relatively clean!)
The finished productNight 5: Spaghetti couscous. Again, another terrific meal. The last time I made spaghetti sauce (which I usually make from scratch), instead of freezing the extra, I threw it in the dehydrator overnight. I decided to use couscous as our base for it in the backcountry because couscous cooks quickly and is a tasty, non-fussy grain. To cook/rehydrate this meal, I put 2/3 cup of couscous in the pot, dumped the dried sauce on top of it, and covered it with water about 2 fingers above the top of the contents. I then let it boil for a few minutes and then let it sit for about 7 minutes until the spaghetti sauce had rehydrated (for this sauce, I thought it was sufficiently rehydrated when the turkey chunks were soft and pliable and had lost their chewiness). This was very tasty. Next time I do this, though, I think I’ll just cook up some spaghetti noodles, mix them in with the sauce, and dehydrate the whole thing. The couscous was good, but adding noodles before the dehydration process would be easier.
For desserts we had a few packets of instant pudding. I highly recommend Jello brand pudding over Flavorite. The Jello brand seems to mix and set up better using powdered milk than does the Flavorite variety.
For breakfasts I had mixed oats with sliced almonds, shredded coconut, and strawberry-flavored cranberries with powdered milk. In the mornings all we had to do was add hot or cold water for an easy, tasty breakfast. This time, we had packets of instant coffee, Folger’s brand. They were okay, but I far prefer Nescafe instant coffee. Maybe next time we’ll just bring ground coffee.
Lunches consisted of tortillas, gorp, jerky, and either hummus or a black bean mix (this I made and dehydrated myself, the hummus mix I bought at Winco). The black bean mix was really good. In the food processor I blended a can of drained and rinsed black beans; a can of stewed, diced tomatoes; a can of chiles; a bit of garlic; and the juice of ½ a lemon. I then dehydrated this paste. When it was dried, I threw it back in the processor to grind it into a fine powder. This did turn out well although next time I’ll use 2 cans of beans, 2 cans of tomatoes, hotter chiles, but keep the amount of lemon juice the same.
Even though we may not have time before I leave for Kosovo for another trip, I'm already formulating improved food ideas in my head!
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