On October 9-11, 1976 Stan Haye and I took a 33 mile round trip backpack on the Pacific Crest Trail from Horseshoe Meadow to Olancha. Friday night we put my car at Sage Flat below the Olancha Pass Trail. Saturday morning we drove Stan's car to Horseshoe Meadows and hit the trail about 8 a.m.
We topped Mulkey Pass shortly and headed south on the recently constructed Pacific Crest Trail section. We made the short side trip to Dutch Meadow for water. We topped Sharknose Ridge about noon and stopped for lunch.
Next stop was the first corral at Ash Meadow for more water. We topped the crest near the South Fork of Ash Creek for outstanding views of Owens Lake, then dropped down to the stream at Death Canyon - a total of 16 miles for the day. We made camp about 5 p.m. and hit the sack early after supper.
Sunday morning we got up about 8 a.m. and finally hit the trail about 10 a.m. A level stretch brought us to Gomez Meadow where the water was not too great looking but shortly we came to a good flowing stream where we had brunch before starting the steady climb up the slopes of Olancha Peak. About 2 p.m. we hit the high point at 10,600 and stopped for lunch with outstanding views of Mt. Whitney, Mt. Langley and the Kern Plateau area.
About 3 p.m. we hit the trail again and arrived at a corral and campsite just west of Bear Trap Meadows. The water came from a spring below a·meadow. The spring had much decaying vegetation and didn't look too good, but after cleaning it out we got good water. We had a fire after supper and enjoyed the pleasant campsite before hitting the sack about 8 p.m.
We got up Monday about 7:30 and hit the trail about 9:15. In a short distance we passed the Bell Camp trail and soon arrived at the Olancha Pass cutoff from the PCT. We hiked alongside level Summit Meadows and arrived at Olancha Pass about 10:30. We dropped down to the small creek on the east side for an early lunch.
We then headed down the well graded but sandy trail to Sage Flat, arriving about 1 p.m. to my car. We then retrieved Stan's car. Sunday's hike was 9 miles, Monday 8 miles - total 33 miles. A very nice trip with outstanding weather for October.
Horseshoe Meadows to Olancha via Pacific Crest Trail route map 1976
