May 16 on the Pacific Crest Trail 35 years ago

Camp in Monache Meadows by the Kern River. Scott Steiner on the left, in a wool sweater - common backpacking clothing in 1982, before fleece. My tent and gear on the right.

On this day thirty-five years ago I was starting my traverse of the High Sierra on the Pacific Crest Trail. The day before I’d left Kennedy Meadows with three weeks supplies, making for a very heavy pack, especially as I was carrying snowshoes, crampons and ice axe for the snow-covered mountains that I knew lay not far ahead. We walked eleven miles in seven hours and that night I noted in my journal ‘really felt it today on my hips and shoulders and this evening my ankles ache’.

Fording the Kern River. That's me in the water and Scott on the far side so I must have given my camera to Dave or Larry to take this picture.

I was hiking with three companions who would be with me until the other side of the snow. After fording the Kern River, which here was wide but little more than knee deep, we camped in Monache Meadows with extensive views all around though not yet of much snow.

The full story of my Pacific Crest Trail walk from Mexico to Canada is told in my book Rattlesnakesand Bald Eagles. 

The photographs are scans from Kodachrome 64 slides taken with a Pentax MX camera and a Pentax 28mm lens.