6/8/14 Sunday. We're in the Sierras, Hooray! 6/9/14 Monday. 9,000-10,000 Feet Takes My Breath Away.

4:30 alarm and on trail by 5:45 we climbed steadily for 8 miles into green meadows, big sky, long vistas, ponderosa pine and our first sighting of Sequoia trees. 

Green meadows and ponderosa trees. 

We are happy girls, out of the desert and into trees.  Peggy is hiking where she loves to hike, she feels at home here.  Our first water is in 7 miles at a spring fed trough. 

I'm filtering water at the trough. 

I've never seen this flower that Peggy tells me is called Lewisia after Meriwether Lewis. He never was in the Sierras but it was named to honor him. 

At the spring Peggy found a full snake skin, even the face was intact! 

Hard to capture the details but it was amazing!

We sat out some of the afternoon heat then hiked to the Kern River to bathe our feet and rinse socks. Many other hikers were there enjoying the river as well. 

We left the river at about 4:30 hoping to hike to the next water source and camp. 

We miscalculated and didn't recognize the trickle as a water source so we hiked beyond it.  I had to try to get water in a small plastic bag then filter it, a labor intensive process while the mosquitos discovered me.  We created a camp spot that was just tolerable, had dinner and went to sleep.  We'd done only 12 miles today but we need to get used to the elevation and the rhythm of setting ourselves up each morning at the base of a climb.  

The Kern River is down in this meadow, we hiked into the mountains beyond and camped there.

6/9/14 Monday. 13.5 miles

This morning we were hiking by 5:45 knowing it was a pretty steep climb up through the meadows to the granite peaks and over saddles to other meadows.  We traveled at 9-10,000 feet elevation.  I had to keep stopping to gasp for air, my lungs just couldn't get enough oxygen and I kept yawning! 

A high meadow. 

Our first view of Mt Whitney far on the horizon.

Our water today is from 2 tiny springs that were hard to filter so I had to gather water in a plastic bag and try to filter from that.  My filter us getting hard to pump and I think I need a new one which Robin is bringing me in a few days. 

We descended to 8,000 feet to a meadow with another spring where we may camp and we both have the umbrellas up,  it's hot!

A view of the trail through granite sand.

A boardwalk over the fragile meadow. 

The white sand is hard to walk through and reflects the heat up under our umbrellas. 

We pulled up at the water and laid our packs under the trees among boulders. This is a big camp area but only Sunny Side & Pink Poles are here just now. 

We rested, got water and decided to eat our dinner here then move on a few miles to get some of the next mornings uphill section done today.  While we were eating there were fighter jets from the nearby Edwards base that flew through.  One about 500 ft above the trees and over our heads, the other flew above him and turned his jet sideways 90 degrees to fly through the pass between two mountains.  Very loud but so thrilling to see.   They use the wilderness to do their practice runs. 

Big puffy clouds have appeared so Peggy is watching them.  The Sierras have a cycle of clouds building for about 5 days then rain coming in the afternoon, then the cycle begins again.  One never wants to be on top of a mountain when the storm hits. 

Our dinner finished we packed up and started hiking upward.  The trail wound through granite buttes, gorgeous old twisted trees that we learned are Bristle Cone Pines and some very old Sequoia.  They are just beautiful trees & I can't stop admiring their color, size and tenacity to grow in this harsh environment. 

A huge old Sequoia. 

We ended up only hiking 1.5 miles up where we camped in among the old trees on top of a granite field.  Our tent stakes wouldn't go into the ground at all!

Camped at 9,500 ft elevation.