Date: June 12, 2017
Miles: 787 – 789.1 plus Kearsarge Pass to the Onion Valley campground
I woke up a couple times during the night to a soft pattering noise on the rain fly to my tent. I reached my hand up to push the tent roof upward a bit and snow slid in all directions to the ground. When I got out of my tent this morning, everything was covered by a couple inches of white.
It was beautiful, and cold, and it filled in the footsteps ahead of us making navigation a little more challenging. We made it up and over Kearsarge Pass, however, and started the looooong descent down to the Onion Valley Campground.
There were several other hikers who had already been waiting around at the campground because it is a long way from Independence and getting a ride in to town was tough. After at least an hour we snagged a ride with Santa’s Little Helper, whom we met at the Bird Springs Pass water cache, and who had now rented a van to shuttle hikers back and forth from the trailhead to Independence and on to Bishop. He dropped us off in Independence, which basically consists of a minit mart and a French restaurant, and then came back a little bit later to drive us in to Bishop to resupply. We ate some decent Mexican food (again!), then we packed in to a hotel room. Tomorrow we’ll figure out whether to head back in to the Sierra or to skip north.
