L2H Day 2 – 10/4/16
16 miles (23.5 total)

What an ass kicker! Having camped at only 103′ elevation, we had over 10,000′ of gain to do today. I’m pretty sure that’s the most I’ve ever done in a day.

It started out gentle enough following a 4WD road up Hanuapah canyon. We filled up at the seasonal creek, which was flowing quite nicely and then headed up some steep cross country. There were some bits of use or animal trails, but it was still steep and slow going. And of course it was hot, but not hot enough that I should be complaining. We are really lucking out on weather so far. 

I’m really enjoying Snorkel’s and Naomi’s company. Since we haven’t hiked together much before, we don’t know all each other’s stories and still have much to talk about! Unfortunately, they also learned that I fart a lot on trail.

The final bit before hitting the ridge to Telescope Peak was very steep and over loose scree. When we finally hit real trail on the ridge line it was pretty late and none of us had the motivation to go off route to tag Telescope Peak (I’ve been there twice before anyway).  Up top it was quite cold and windy, but we were happy to have real trail for 2 miles anyway before dropping down the other side of the ridge. 

We found a flat enough spot to camp at the top of Tuber Canyon, just as darkness set in. We are hoping to make it to Panamint Springs Resort before they close tomorrow so we can pick up our resupply and eat dinner in the restaurant, but have been warned that Tuber Canyon is slow going. So, we’ll see what happens!