Owens Crossing

Completed the Owens Crossing from “Hot Springs Trail Guidebook” in sections. The Owens Crossing is a 62 mile stretch of the much bigger Hot Springs Trail. It connects the “High Sierra Hot Springs Trail” to the “Nevada Trail”.

The first section I did was climbing up the Montgomery Peak ridge in Summer 2020 with Ari. This is a long all-day hike, with over 9k vert of climbing to get to the summit from Benton. Views are beautiful, and the timing works out so that you are in the hot valley at the beginning and end of the day. As with all other off trail hiking I have done in the Whites, we did not see a single person. To honor Aria Zoner’s “Whole Foods Hiker” philosophy, we celebrated with a tub of lentils on the summit.

The rest of the hike (from Benton to Mammoth), I did in two sections. One big day with Matt, where we crossed the beautiful Glass Mountains, and ended at Wild Willie’s Hot Springs. I fell in the Owens River a mile before this, which cut our hike a bit short. I finished up the rest of this route well doing my Mammoth to Bishop hike.