Following up on our Big Sur trekking adventure, we decided to try another outing, this time down south to the Golden Trout Wilderness. This time it was just Michael, Anjel and I (Christine was unable to make it). Michael had found a great trail review on someone’s blog that described a 26 mile loop that sounded like it would make a perfect Memorial day weekend trip. 3 days (a planned 10-10-6 mile breakdown) would be challenging, but looked like an amazing trip.
The trailhead we interpreted* (*an important distinction which will come up later) to be their starting point was Quaking Aspen – located in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Fresno and Bakersfield and on the East side of the central valley, in the Sierra range.
After a leisurely drive down, stopping to pick up some last minute supplies, we got to the campsite around 6:00. Rapidly losing light we found a spot and set up the tents while Michael got the fire going.
The first night we ate like kings. Michael pulled out some tri-tip steaks that had been marinating all day, along with 3 sweet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil. As a side note here, for the last 12 years, Anjel has been vegetarian. It was a decision made largely for ethical reasons (her thought being that if she is willing to kill it herself, then she’s ok to eat it – which is why technically she’s a pescetarian. In recognition of the fact that we’re going to be visiting a number of places where food selection is going to be limited, and also to allow herself to to fully experience the cultures we’ll be staying in, she has slowly been reintroducing meat into her diet in an attempt to re-acclimate her system to it. One thing she hadn’t had yet though, is a great steak. I had suggested a trip to a great local steakhouse, but it just hadn’t happened yet. Cut to Friday night.
Anjel hikes off into the manzanita grove right next to our campsite and comes back with two good manzanita sticks. She sits down and proceeds to whittle the ends into sharp points, upon which we impale the steaks. Michael had a great fire going so with a little coal management, Anjel props the meat up over the coals to let it roast. For the first time in 12 years and without any timer, temperature gauge, or even good lighting (as it was dark at this point and we only had a little pocket flashlight) she managed to cook three of the greatest steaks ever cooked. Between the steaks, the sweet potatoes and the beer we picked up at a bait shop at the bottom of the mountain, that meal will easily rank in the top 10 ten I have ever eaten. The night wrapped up with s’mores and it was off to bed.
The next morning we had a great breakfast of fire-cooked sausages and scrambled eggs and headed out on the trail. The hiking was gorgeous though most of our vistas were meadows and amazing Giant Sequoia groves as we immediately descended 1300 feet from the trail head to the valley floor. We managed to add an extra mile or so to our pre-lunch distance by missing a poorly marked trail junction but after a fantastic lunch of Salami, Hummus and Naan we were fired up and optimistic.
Which is just about where things took a wrong turn. A few hours later and 3 miles away from our final destination we came across another poorly marked trail junction and took a wrong turn. 2 miles later (mostly descending) we arrived at the Jerkey Meadows Campsite. After returning home and rereading the blog post – now familiar with the area – we realized that Jerkey Meadows was actually supposed to be our starting point for the day – though at this point we already had about 12 miles under our belts. We also realized that there was not great camping at Jerkey (it was mostly a horse corral) and that where we really wanted to be that night was still 5 miles away. It was at this point, trying to motivate people that Michael said “Alright, only 5 more miles!” And of course to top it off, of the 5 miles remaining, the first three of them gained 1100 feet in altitude (up to 7000 ft), while the final mile or so descended about 800.
By the time we reached the Little Kern River we were absolutely destroyed. Unbelievably no one had any blisters, but the bottoms of our feet were aching, and our hips were raw from the ~35 lb packs we’d been carrying all day. I took my boots off and plunged my bare feet into the icy cold water, which helped a bit and after a few minutes to recover and refill our water, we trudged off to find a place to camp for the night. Tents were set up, dinner was cooked, and we went to bed. That was it.
We decided to spend the next day at the Little Kern, recovering and fishing, which was a good idea as even standing up that morning was a challenge. Michael managed to snag a couple fish and the day passed generally peacefully. However we were still so tired from the previous days hike that we literally went to bed by 8:00.
The next morning, to get a jump on the day, we were up at 5:30, and broke camp by just a little after 6. We had no trouble finding our way back, though we seriously underestimated the final climb back to the truck. What we had remembered as a gentle descent into the valley was actually a very long, very continual climb that took us an hour and a half. By the time we reached the truck it was about 13 miles for the day and we were demolished after the climb.
That said, the weekend was amazing, and was an amazing test of equipment, endurance, determination and stamina. We would absolutely do it again… though probably not in exactly the same way.
