9.24.2011 Saturday
We’ll never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it – Travis Rice Professional Snowboarder “The Art of Flight”
We went big. Bigger than we have ever gone before! And it was amazing.
This was a dream of mine for the past couple of years and last weekend we made it happen. My wife Kasia and my friend Christian Eggert made the choice to head up to King Canyon National Park with me and hike/run the Rae Lakes Loop. We backpacked this 43 mile loop a couple years ago in 5 days/4 nights and it was amazing. It truly is one of the classic Sierra Nevada Loops. If you have never heard of it or done it I highly recommend it.
We left Thursday night after work on my birthday. I know…….what a way to spend my bday. We got up to Tulare and crashed out in a motel. We woke up the next day and headed up into Kings Canyon. Giant Sequoias greeted us into the park. We stayed at Sentinel Campground. It was a ghost town. We got to pick from too many sites but eventually settled into spot 26. Had a chill day and car camped. Crashed around 8:30PM. It’s getting darker earlier and lighter later. I love fall.
We woke up at 2AM….early! The few campers around us were all crashed. Kasia had to remind me to use my inside voice, I don’t know how many times. I was excited. Had some breakfast that we prepped the day before, made some coffee, and hopped in Christian’s car. At the trailhead my Garmin took a while to sync up with satellites since we were so deep. We started at 3:15AM. It was pitch black and each of us had headlamps and poles. This was earlier than I have ever gotten up for any kind of endurance event ever. It was cool to be walking out in the woods so early. It had begun.
An hour or so in, we were walking and we all saw a set of eyes glaring back at us from the reflection of our headlamps. We paused and our hearts started to race. Was this a bear? We could not make out what it was. We yelled, made sounds, even blew a whistle but it would not budge. It just stared at us. It wasn’t charging us so I inched forward ever so close. Christian had an awesome head lamp and I could barely make out a pair of deer ears so I crept closer and could eventually see that it was a male deer just staring us down about 20 feet off the trail. We had to continue so we just made our way ever so smoothly by it and started to hike uphill again. The entire morning was climbing and before we knew it we were starting to see the sun crack the darkness out east. It was starting to be morning around 6AM and we had already traveled over 10 miles. As the sun started to rise we could start to see the marvelous glaciated valley that we were in. It was amazing to already be this deep this early. I was loving it. I also noticed that there were clouds out very early. Usually I don’t see clouds like this on days when it will turn out to be perfect. I had a hunch we were in for some weather. Little did I know at this point the extent……
The forecast called for a 10% chance of thunderstorms today, Saturday September 24th. We continued to climb as the sun came up and the morning moved on. We all felt really good and loved the changing terrain. As we were getting higher the views were getting better. The plants started to change. The forests gave way to little meadows filled with deer and some bugs. We got bit a couple times by mosquitoes. Crazy that they made it this late in the season due to snow pack.
Kasia and Christian both noticed the sprinkles before me but you could feel something in the air. It was only 8AM. An hour later I could feel that it was right around the corner so we stopped and filtered water for the first time. Just as I was putting away the filter the rain started.
We continued on the trail. Rain turned into hail accompanied by lightning and thunder. Since we were still below the tree line we continued to climb towards Glenn Pass.
As we reached the 4 way junction for Kearsage Pass the weather broke and the hail stopped. We had our window so we started to push the pace. We passed a group of backpackers that asked us what we were doing and we told them. Their response “You’re crazy”. I loved it. As we approached a ¼ mile from the pass it started to snow. No thunder and lighning but snow. I felt like I was up in the mountains snowboarding except there wasn’t a lot of it. It was barely sticking to the ground but it was snowing. Our hands were cold but the rest of our bodies were warm. We reached the summit at 12 noon, 8 hours and 45 minutes after we started. We had traveled 18 miles and were 7000 feet above where we started.
After a brief stop at the pass we continued on towards the Rae Lakes.
As we descended from the pass the lightning and thunder started back up again and it was close. We would see a flash and immediately hear some loud thunder. Loud as air show thunder. It was a bit nerving to say. Our pace was as fast as we could handle but was slowed down due to the wet rocks. It was slippery and we had to be careful. As we descended we ran into two other guys doing the loop in one day except they were headed clockwise. We said hi and wished each other luck and headed on. Shortly later we were at upper Rae Lake and decided to stop for some lunch and a break.
Our turkey sandwiches and potato chips tasted so good. I have always stayed at the middle Rae Lake so it was nice to spend some time at the upper lake with its two cool little islands and Painted Lady Peak right behind it. After almost an hour we were back on the trail. This time, Christian and I collapsed our poles. Kasia’s style of trail running includes the use of poles. So after we passed the middle lake we started to jog and it felt so good. We were so far out in the backcountry and we were running. It was everything I had dreamed. 20 or so miles into a hike and we started to move twice as fast.
We continued this for about 6 or so miles and then it turned to hike/running since the terrain got rockier and steeper and Kasia’s ankles were hurting her. We were at Dollar Lake before we knew it and shortly after almost at the Woods Creek Crossing. Before we reached the crossing we met the Rae Lake Ranger. He asked us what we were doing. We replied the loop in one day. He too thought we were crazy but he said we all looked good and we have about 16 miles to go. He wished us luck and we parted ways. The backcountry rangers in the Sierras are a special breed. The next book I want to read “The Last Season” is about a ranger from Bench Creek R.S. just a short day hike north of where we were. Don’t want to spoil it if anyone else is interested but it looks good.
16 miles left. That’s not so bad. That is what I thought. We continued to pass such beautiful scenery that I forgot it was almost 4PM and the sun would be setting in a couple hours. I told Christian that the valleys in the sierras seem to go on forever. Later that night he agreed with me. We spent the next couple hours heading west towards Paradise Valley. When we reached the bridge over to Upper Paradise valley the sun was setting and we had our last Almond Butter and Jelly sandwich. We were tired and saw some campers at their campsite. It looked so nice but reality sunk back in and we sucked it up and started to move again. It got dark quick and we had to use our headlamps again.
We had spent the entire day, every second of daylight out in some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever been in and it was now dark. We started in the dark and we would end in the dark. We had used our headlamps so much that our lights started to dim and it was hard to make out all the nooks and crannies of the trail. The last 6 miles felt like they took forever. I kept thinking of how fast I could run that distance at track on Thursday nights. We reached the car at 10PM totally shelled. We had to dig deep. We had moments when we didn’t speak and I am sure each of us had to rally inside to get ‘er done. We were headed back to camp and the car felt so good. I couldn’t imagine having to hike it back to camp. Modern society has it so easy but that is another story. We got back to camp and had some celebratory beers along with chili dogs, corn chips and veggie burgers. They tasted so good next to the campfire at 11:15PM or so. Christian and I sat by the fire until midnight discussing the amazing experience we had just undertaken. It was amazing and it has changed me forever. What’s next you say??? PCT 50 miler next May. Who’s in????
Overall Stats:
• 43 miles total.
• 19,500 feet total elevation gain and loss.
• Total time of almost 19 hours
• On our feet either running or walking 16 hours.
• Rae Lakes Loop in one day DONE!!!!!!
