PCT Day 61 & 62 – Zero Day in Bishop to PCT mile 791.1 via Kearsarge Pass

June 4&5, 2026

Total PCT miles: 1.5

Non PCT miles: 7.6

Total: 9.1 miles / 14.6 km

Total elevation gain: 3167 ft

Total elevation loss: 1401 ft

Steps: 21763

Zero Day In Bishop.

I shared a room at the Motel 6 with 3 other hikers. 4 thruhikers gear exploded all over the place… Let me tell you that room definitely had quite the pungent odor. The last time I had slept in a real bed, had a real shower or done laundry in a machine where it actually came out cleaner was May 20th in Ridgecrest. Finally having all three was incredible.

I think this is the busiest zero day I have had. I started with breakfast at 0900 and didn’t finish chores until 2300 when I finally was done updating this blog. There was almost no rest time and I walked more than 18000 steps throughout the day. But it was productive.

The most important item on the list was getting my back pack repaired. The left hip belt is literally holding on by a few stitches. Yesterday I had taken a chance and went to The Rubber Room which is a shoe repair shop that specializes in repairing climbing shoes. The guy there told me he could fix it but to bring it back in today with a piece of webbing that I ended up getting from Eastside Sports for free. Thank goodness because ever other avenue I attempted was unsuccessful. They did a great job with the repair and I’m confident it will hold. Durston reached out today to let me know they will be replacing the pack because it’s a manufacturing defect! I’m out on the trial now so Mel is stuck handling this for me.

I finally caved and bought a pair of camp sandles. After my experience at Tyndall Creek having something I can wear around camp that’s dry is important. I also got my trekking pole tips replaced again – this trail is sure hard of trekking poles. This time they are name brand replacements unlike what I was able to get in Agua Dulce so hopefully they last longer.

Then came the dreaded resupply. It’s another 7 day food carry from Bishop to Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) where we will pick up two days of food to make it the rest of the way to Mammoth Lakes. I find resupplying overwhelming, especially in large grocery stores. I did manage to get all my snacks at the Dollar General but I probably spent almost two hours in the Vons grocery store overthinking what I was doing. Later came the Tetris to cram it all into My bear canister. It almost all fit but I had to sacrifice the Swedish Fish unfortunately.

The rest of the day was phone calls back home, eating as much town food as possible and updating my blog. Sadly I never made it into the pool at our hotel and thankfully we all just did our Landry together so I didn’t have to wait around for that or I would have never been able to finish. Fortunately I now have town clothes or I would have had to walk around all day in 35 degree temps in my rain gear!

June 5 – Kearsarge Pass to the PCT

This section of the Sierra is best travelled one mountain pass per day and that is exactly what our plan is. Thankfully this means the first few days are a bit lower in mileage because my backpack weighs entirely too much. I’m already thinking of all the things I can send home after this part is done. Today’s plan is to get over Kearsarge Pass and in position to go over Glen Pass tomorrow morning.

We were picked up at 0900 at our hotel by Chops’s dad who drove all the way from Oregon to visit. It’s about an hour from Bishop back to the trail along a very beautiful drive. On the way up the Temperature dropped from the 35 degrees it was calling for in the valley to somewhere in the low 20s.

We started on trail around 1030 and it was slow going as we made the 2600 ft climb up to the pass. Everything was very familiar as we had come down this way only 2 days ago but it was remarkable how much it seemed the snow had melted in that time.

We reached Kearsarge Pass and stopped for lunch. I’ve packed out a delicious deli sandwich for lunch and dinner. I’ve been meaning to pack out town food for the first day when back on trail but I think this is the first time I’ve done it. From here we continued to the PCT. The route we took was slightly different than the route I took out and provided higher views of the lakes below. Before we got too far we were stopped by a Forest Ranger who “checked our permits”. Basically she just asked what the last name was on them as she did not want to make us dig them out of our packs.

Our campsite tonight has no water nearby so I filled up and carried 4 liters of water from the last stream. Thankfully it was only 2 miles from here because between the extra weight and the elevation going to just over 11000 ft I was near my physical breaking point. We set up camp early and played cards.



From here we only have about 1000 ft over the next mile or so to go over glen pass. The temperature will not drop below freezing tonight so I’m expecting a wet slushy day on the backside of the pass. It’s warm enough that I just saw a Mosquito…