Chapter Twenty-Five: Red's Meadow
*This is a photo companion to my book, Crunch: A Million Snowy Steps Along the Pacific Crest Trail, available on Amazon here.
June 4, 2017
Crowley Lake BLM Campground
Steve and I setting out in the early morning into the closed Mammoth Lakes Basin, hoping to find hard snow up to Mammoth Pass.
Plows doing their damnedest to open up Mammoth Lakes Basin weeks after the usual opening.
Sunrise headed out into the backcountry from Horseshoe Lake.
Crater Creek, near where we'd left the PCT several days before in a storm.
Snow was melting fast! Although signs without the trail aren't quite as useful...
Steve trying to figure out his snow gear in ankle-nightmare territory.
Heading down into that snowless valley... that's a good thing, right?
Steve, stretching his legs on dry trail heading into Red's Meadow.
Crossing the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River.
No amount of swearing can describe the pain in the ass treefalls around Devil's Postpile... but we tried.
Ahh dry trail.... can we get back on snow yet?
Steve coming up the nightmarish path we chose to get back up to the trail.
Camp for the night. For the record, solar panels work better in the sun...