Wow, this was a great trip. Started at Onion Valley on 7/29. Beautiful weather, a little cloudy up on Kearsarge Pass, but perfect weather. Not too hot, but always breezy. I then continued hiking to the base of Glen Pass, stopping at a couple of tarns along the way to rehydrate and rest. The scenery was beautiful----a lot of JMT and PCT hikers along the way. Then made the hard slog up Glen Pass from the south---man, is that pass steep. Rested on top with a PCT hiker, Wyoming. She was very nice, but seemed a little tired. She was overnighting on the top of Glen Pass. I then made the trek down to Rae Lakes and overnighted there.
A bunch of mosquitoes while hiking into Rae Lakes area. They were brutal! But while camped at the actual north-eastern part of Rae, no problems.
There was a lot of moisture overnight---I slept under the stars, and sleeping bag and ground cover were quite wet. Dried them out while cooking a quick breakfast. There were again a number of small outfits near me---mostly PCT and JMT thru-hikers. Someday.......
Got up the next day, 7/30, and made the return hike. I thought Glen Pass was a lot easier from the North, but maybe it was just that I was extra tired the day before, and Glen Pass was easier as my first part of this morning's hike?
Ran into a PCT guy who was hiking out of Charlotte Lake area to get supplies in Independence. It was already early afternoon at this point, and he was trying to hike out, get supplies, and hike back in all in one day. I wonder if he made it. It seemed like an incredible distance to go in one day, but he said they were basically out of food, and he offered to go into town to buy supplies for his small group. They had been eating 7-14 fish a day, but were getting tired of fish! I offered him some granola bars and a dehydrated meal, but he was determined to make it to town.
Stopped at Gilbert and Flower Lakes to overnight. Camped by myself this night, near the feeder stream from Flower Lake to Gilbert Lake. Perfect spot, hearing the stream all night. Again, the mosquitoes returned with a vengeance as the sun was starting to set.
Hiked out on 7/30 back to Onion Valley.
A great trip, very fun. I had actually never done Kearsarge and Glen Pass before---I usually hike in the Western Sierra, so this was a great chance to see some incredible scenery on the Eastern side.
Tommy