9/11/2023
Section: Milepost 1050.2 to 1027.2
Total Trail Miles: 1910
Distance: 23 Miles
Moving Time: 10:20 hrs
Elevation Gain: 4386 ft
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I scared some ducks this morning. I was just walking to fill up some water and there was a pair of ducks near the lake edge. One was really working on getting something out of the lake floor and wasn’t paying attention. I swear it’s friend swam up and whispered in its ear like “hey, we gotta get out of here!” and then it noticed me and they took off. Might not seem like much but it put a smile on my face!
We enjoyed a bit of a slower breakfast on a rock outcropping overlooking Kinney reservoir - absolutely gorgeous. The granite basins are amazing up here. After enjoying the views for a bit we headed south. The time was about 7:30 and we were looking forward to inching ever closer to Yosemite!
The stage today starts above Kinney Reservoir and on the north slopes of Ebbet’s peak before crossing Ebbet’s Pass (Highway 4) and descending down to the head of Noble Canyon where the trail climbs 1000 feet in a little over a mile to the stage’s highpoint on a saddle just east of Tyron Peak where…it descends again to Lower Gardner Meadow. A lot of really annoying up and down today. From the meadow the trail picks up along the north side of a ridge capped by Arnot peak and crosses Wolf Creek at about the halfway point before climbing over the ridge and dropping down the south side. The path meanders through a grouping of little hills passing below boulder creek and eventually dropping, at the end of the stage, into a large north-south running feature called White Canyon.
So, I've been working on my Suunto watch for a while now and am just realizing it has a “trekking” workout which I like a lot better. Hiking is nice but i think it’s meant for like 2-3 hour jaunts where your mile time is important. I prefer knowing mph while hiking - it makes it easier to extrapolate when you will go a certain distance. Trekking just seems to be a way better feature for all day hiking - gunna be my go-to from here on out. We hiked a little bit down the trail, me still thinking about my duck encounter, before we reached Ebbet’s Pass (Hwy 4) and there we ran into some Trail Magic! A truly wonderful older guy had set his car up on the side of Hwy 4 and had a nice tent covering his kitchen where he served eggs with chili and like 30 different hot sauces. I didn’t get to try them all but the ones I had were excellent. We sat and chatted with “Chipmunk” who runs this trail magic spot as part of a co-op with a few other people for about 45 minutes. At one point he mentioned one of the other people who comes to trail angel every once in a while brings a pizza oven - which, gotta say, would be spectacular to run into as a hungry hiker! After we had gotten some charge out of his GoalZero Yeti and were filled up we thanked Chipmunk profusely and headed on down the trail.
Today passed fairly uneventfully. There is so much gorgeous granite everywhere, I keep tripping looking up and around. The Carson River valley which we passed towards the end of the day, is immaculate, but that is also where the annoying up and down really started. It was about here that I finished the book I had been listening to - “Why Fish Don’t Exist” by Lulu Miller. Amazing book which blended nicely with all day hiking.
Eventually the sun set and we walked into the dark for a bit until we found some nice flat spots on the East Fork of the Carson River. I definitely prefer camping up high than in river valleys. The river is nice to have nearby but it's darker earlier and for longer in the morning. We had dinner and climbed into the tent shortly after finishing up. It was a bit of an exhausting day but running into trail magic always lifts the spirits!
