Day 5- Woods Creek to South Fork Kings River

Distance: 12.5 mi
Elevation Gain: 3,511 ft
Starting Elevation: 7,200 ft
Ending Elevation: 8,600 ft

We heard somewhere along the the way that Pinchot Pass (Elev: 12,130') would be easy.  The term "easy" on the JMT, seemed to have a fluid and unsatisfying definition. Our morning began around 5:30 when we exited our tent to a full moon illuminating the campground. We packed our things, ate some more oatmeal (at this point one of us was ready to be done with oatmeal forever) and crossed the sketchy suspension bridge spanning Woods Creek. Pat captured a video of the awkward passing. 

Again we ascended out of a canyon and our four mile path up to Pinchot Pass predominantly followed the roaring Woods Creek. We weaved around small tributaries climbing  parallel to a growing waterfall. With the sun just starting to rise over the peaks around us, our phone cameras could not do the roaring Woods Creek justice.

Following along Woods Creek looking back on our first hours of climbing. 

Elizabeth Wenk tells us we ascended through manzanita covered slopes, and passed by foxtail and Jeffrey pines and lodgepole and whitebark forest. We climbed out of the alpine basin up to Pinchot Pass, navigating steep switchbacks  until we reached the top.

We intended this day to be our shortest yet, with the goal to just make it to the South Fork Kings River Junction, the lowest point before our next morning's ascent up Mather Pass. We descended from Pinchot passing small creeks, meadows,  Lake Marjorie and the Bench Lake Junction. Our last few miles of hiking for the day, we descended through a dense forest down steep switchbacks. When we finally hit the Kings River, our knees and feet were aching, even on a relatively short day. We set up our tent on an existing site right next to the river and rested for a few hours in the chilly breeze. Passersby, one by one, fell into the Kings River as they tried to use the stones to hop across it. Searching up and down river for a fallen tree, set of stones, or patches of vegetation in an attempt to cross the water without taking off boots or getting them soaked is common to all hikers after the time consuming process of putting on sandals and fording the river seems like too much of a burden. We made a mental note that in the morning we would be wading across in our sandals and not risk falling in with our hiking boots on. Later that evening as we were getting ready for bed, a group of southbound JMT hikers stopped at the river for dinner. They were on their last leg of the trail but told us of the delightful hot showers, burgers and milkshakes at Vermilion Valley Ranch and Reds Meadow, and the feast we would have from left behind snacks at Muir Trail Ranch. Earlier that day we realized that we had not packed nearly enough snacks for our first nine days, and at this point we had four days to go until our first resupply. The hikers told us they had the same problem on their last leg, after discarding food at Muir Trail Ranch only to discover their appetites kicking in on their final stretch. They ran into a group of hikers exiting the trail who shared food with them. We were hopeful we could find someone along our hike willing to do the same. We went to bed that evening, listening to a "Myths and Legends" podcast, nervous about our challenging day ahead, and dreaming about milkshakes.  

At Pinchot Pass. "Easy" is not the word we would have chosen.