Day 23. Pete’s THE Man and IT’S DONE. July 13, 2016.

6am to 11:30. Horse Creek Pass to Twin Lakes. 5.9 miles.

Another gorgeous morning greeted us as we arose for the last time on the Sierra High Route.

We were pretty giddy about wrapping this up but also well aware that there were plenty of dangers on the downhill way to the end. Our microspikes helped us once again. They were on and off more times this morning than any other day.

Heading down over more rocks

This snow has not seen the sun today

Once we were finally off the snow and talus we were skipping down the trail and all of a sudden there was my good friend Pete coming the other way with a big grin on his face. He had left his home in Folsom at 4 am, drove 3.5 hours and hiked uphill a couple miles. In his pack he had beers on ice and everything needed to make what he called grilled cheese sandwiches. These were deluxe grilled cheese with avocado, tomato, and fried egg. We sat down on some granite slabs and had a feast. THANK YOU, PETE.

We then walked the final miles to find Love Note and Lady Juniper (friends of Wired and Rockin from the PCT and CDT) by the creek. Rockin jumped in first, then me. Wired even got wet.

Love Note drove us back to Lone Pine where we have showers and beds!

The end at Twin Lakes

So, the SHR is done. It was a much shorter adventure than most of my hikes. But I was more physically challenged on this than any other. It would have been so much harder and so much less fun if I didn’t have Rockin and Wired to share it with.  I owe them many thanks for all the times they waited for me to carefully pick my way thru the talus and tiptoe across the snow.  Off trail hiking is where it is at. I think I might be ruined as far as trail hiking goes. There is so much more where trails don’t go. Your head has to be engaged at all times. You have to stay focused. The payoff is huge. You have your surroundings to yourself. On the SHR we only saw a handful of people when we weren’t on a trail. And then it was usually very close to a trail. We had the best campsites of my life. The weather was almost perfect… just a few hours of rain. Who could ask for anything more?