Day 23 - The return of Kearsarge Pass

 

Yifat, Bob and Rob at the Onion Valley trailhead

Onion Valley Trail head to pass Vidette Meadow 10400ft elevation. 

We climbed up to Kearsarge Pass again

Today we traveled: 11 miles. ft elevation gain ft elevation loss. 

JMT mile marker: 183mile.

At 5:30am the alarm woke us up. We were both in deep sleep. I use the morning to get another hot shower in, we drank coffee, used the bathroom and off we went back to Mt. Williamson hotel where we had breakfast - vegan waffle and fruit and got a ride back to the trail. We had a fun conversation over breakfast and we compared stories and tips with a German couple going north, another solo hiker going north and Rob going south. The mood was light and positive. 

We were back to the same trailhead they picked us up from 2 days ago but this time we were rested, fed and warm and excited to be back. 

The trail start to climb right away to Kearsarge pass and within 2.5hr we are at the top. No need to catch our breath, no need to stop - just constant movement in the right direction. Men it feels good to feel good. It was partly cloudy and not so warm. We wore our rain jackets as an outer layer for warmth. We didn’t linger at the top like last time we were there, we wanted to cover a little bit more miles and distance before the rain started. 

We started going downhill for about 4-5miles. After 10miles in, we saw Rob and I said “ the weather seems to hold up ok”.  That jinks it! It started raining about a sec after that. We started looking for a camp site, well first we waited under a tree to see if it’s only a passing cloud. Then we geared up in rain coat and pants and backpack cover and we walked for about a mile and a half because we agreed it was too early to call it a night. 

Waiting it out location #1

Waiting it out location #2

Then we saw that there’s no end in sight for the rain and we looked for a place to camp. We set up the tent and made sure everything was dry inside and waited it out. I even made tea in-between rain starting/stopping and hailing.  We ate cookies with our tea and waited some more. 

After about an hour of putzing around we got in the tent to warm up. We checked the weather report and it supposed to stop around 8pm. We might need to cook and eat in the tent tonight. Not ideal. Yifat