For most hikers, myself included, this section is the big attraction to the PCT. I approached it with excitement, eager to get out of the desert and ready to put my new trail legs to the test.

This would be my first time spending any significant time at elevation, and I adapted well after just a few days acclimation. The thin air, steep terrain, and sheer beauty slowed my travel, but I would hate to rush through this part. By the time I had made my first stop in Lone Pine, I was wrapped up in the mountain environment. I’d seen some information about huge burnt sections of trail in NorCal, and opted to spend longer in the Sierra, then skip large chunk of NorCal to catch back up.

The PCT crosses Forester Pass in the Sierra, the highest point on trail at 13200 ft, 4025 m. Most hikers also elect to summit Mt Whitney as a side-quest here, climbing to 14505 ft, 4421 m, the highest point in the contiguous US. As well as these features, I used my extra time to take nearly every side trail out of the Sierra, and I’m so glad I did. I saw Cottonwood Pass, Kearsarge Pass, Bishop Pass and Duck Pass, all of which are off the PCT to resupply towns. As well as taking these passes, I was able to explore a piece of the Sierra High Route from Devil’s Postpile, around the Minarets and behind Thousand Island Lake on the way into Yosemite.

This section is where I started to find myself in a new group again. Repeat trips to the town of Bishop meant that I was seeing people from all up and down the trail. Bishop became my favourite town on trail as it is so easily accessed from every pass out, and has the best resupply and accommodation options in the Sierra. In Bishop I met a larger group of people who happened to show up time and again at the Hostel California. I loved hanging out with these people, and we even went on a camping sidetrip to Mariposa Grove in Yosemite with a rented car. The time I spent in Bishop with this crew was so magnetic that I actually found it a powerful vortex. The people I met there were experts at having a good time, on and off the trail, so we ran with the name Vortexperts for the group.

Between each town stop, I would spend a week on trail, and I came to realise that each one of these weeks was a tramping trip in its own right with its own people, environment, and lesson to learn. There was a distinct beginning, middle, and end to each one. In addition to this, I was with a different group of people each time I went out. I summited Mt Whitney with Rox, a hiker known for collecting and carrying rocks along the trail. I walked from Kearsarge Pass to Bishop Pass with Rabbit and GOH, two hikers from Pennsylvania with hearts of gold. I encountered almost the entire John Muir Trail’s SOBO bubble as they all headed southwards from Yosemite, and I bashed through the bush off trail with Holiday from Louisiana, one of the most adventurous spirits I met on the entire trip.

My time in the Sierra came to an end when I headed up to Trail Days on the border of Oregon and Washington. I had spent even longer than anticipated in the Sierra, so after the festival, I headed back to NorCal, just after the point I had planned to skip to. As much as I would love to spend months and months in the Sierra, I had the rest of the trail ahead of me, and a limited time frame to fit it into.