I woke up feeling bad and decided to hike out to Florence Lake and head back to civilization. Only 4 hiking days to Mammoth but I didn’t feel I could make it. I crossed the steel bridge out of Kings Canyon National Park and headed down 2 more miles of the PCT where it then started heading up again but I headed down toward Florence Lake. I was very wobbly and weak. I hiked carefully as I passed the John Muir Trail Cabin and then Muir Trail Ranch where I heard humans and machines preparing the dude ranch for the summer. After about 6 miles I reached an overlook to Florence Lake where I sign said the water taxi was not running. That was a bummer as it meant I had to hike about 7 more miles around the lake with little shade.
I hiked down to where the San Joaquin River entered Florence Lake. The river was raging. I hiked about a 1/2 mile more and then I saw below the trail a bunch of people camped with several boats. I walked down and asked if I could get a ride across the lake and they were happy to lend me a hand. These dudes had an incredible camp site with every amenity and they said they were catching trout with ease. The ride across the lake was the most beautiful boat ride I had ever been on.
Not my picture, a view of Florence Lake latter in the summer.
They dropped me off at the end of the lake where one can drive to and I soon found a ride to Fresno from a nice young IT professional. I stayed in Fresno that night and took a bus back to San Jose for some rest. Considering the lack of people around; the boat ride across the lake and the car ride to Fresno were quite miraculous.
I left the PCT at mile 858. I hiked 9 miles today. I have hiked 63 miles total.
