2023 Fall Trip - Day 7-of-21 - Sept 13, 2023

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 - Once again, I was up-and-at-em for 7 AM breakfast at Jack's - hash and eggs-over-easy:

(Don't worry, I won't show you my breakfast every day - I'm just having fun.)

Hey, I'm very pleasantly surprised that, after yesterday, I feel great. So I'm going to keep to my itinerary and hike Kearsarge Pass Trail to Kearsarge Lakes. It (supposedly) is 12.4 miles long, taking 7:13, and has a rating of 4.8 out of 5.0. The map on the top is from AllTrails, and the map on the bottom is from caltopo.com:

After breakfast I then headed south:

I went through Big Pine at 9:22. Maybe I'm just used to 128-traffic, but this seems REALLY QUIET for a Wednesday morning:

Driving up to the trailhead, I am filled with awe:

Because I got lost (I went to "North Lake" instead of "South Lake"), I started at 10:24

Can you see my Subaru Crosstrek down there? It's the Red One:

Entering the "John Muir Wilderness":

At 11:44 I hit Gilbert Lake:

Don't forget to look behind you once in a while - you might see some other hikers:

Looking down at Heart Lake at 12:34

Up above Big Pothole Lake at 1:05. How cold do you think that is?

A final push up to Kearsarge Pass:

which I reached at 1:25

We made a pact - none of us are telling that guy's wife what he is doing:

And of course being up at "a Pass" means you can look over into the basin/valley on the other side:

Unfortunately the name of the trail IS NOT JUST "Kearsarge Pass Trail" but rather "Kearsarge Pass Trail to Kearsarge Lakes". So I headed down into the valley:

It was a great hike, but it was a great hike DOWN - which means every step-down is a step-up I'll have to make later. I made it down to "First Kearsarge Lake" (in the "Sequoia and Kings Canyon Wilderness") at 2:17

Heading back out, it was awesome saying "Goodbye" to this Beautiful Valley:

I was tough hiking back up to the Pass. Do you see the hiker ahead of me?

At 5 PM I see my car:

I finished with 11.62 miles in 6 hours 44 minutes. This was ONE OF MY BEST HIKES EVER!!!

Once again, Very pretty driving back to Bishop:

I drove 106 miles today. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Hiking Adventure Day!

Music for today - 2 Beach Boys "Greatest Hits" albums:

Endless Summer, 21 songs, released in 1974:

Sounds Of Summer, 30 songs, released in 2003: