East of Lake Isabella, the Pacific Crest Trail crosses Hwy 178 at Walker Pass, named for the famous explorer and mountain man Joseph Walker who led a party eastward through this pass in 1834. Friends of ours had recommended this trail, and we pondered our various options for a 10+-mile hike. About 5 miles north from the pass is a plaque honoring Jim Jenkins, a young Forest Service ranger who was tragically killed in 1979, the memorial resting on the southeast slope of the mountain that now bears his name. (Incidentally, Jenkins’ book, Self-Propelled in the Southern Sierra, which was later updated and republished in two volumes by his mother, Ruby, as Exploring the Southern Sierra: East and West Side, is one of the best guidebooks for the region – we have done several of the trips described in them.) About a mile short of the plaque lies Morris Peak, elev. 7,215′, reachable by a use trail from the PCT, and beyond the plaque is a use trail up the east side of Mt. Jenkins, elev. 7,921′, itself. We thought we’d see how we felt when we reached the turnoff for Morris Peak and perhaps climb it, then continue north to the plaque – if we felt sufficiently strong at that point, we could extend the hike further along to the Mt. Jenkins use trail and maybe climb that peak as well (this last option would make the round-trip something over 13 miles). We arrived at the trailhead a few minutes after 9:00am but did not hit the trail until about 9:30 after filling our hydration packs and getting organized. Jane had some problems immediately with seams in her socks creating hot spots on her toes – although we took a couple of breaks so she could remove her boots and make adjustments, this would plague her throughout the day. The PCT climbs north and east away from the pass around the southern end of a grassy ridge, eventually reaching a series of switchbacks near the head of the canyon east of the ridge. At the top of the switchbacks and a little less than two miles from the trailhead, we reached the crest of the Sierras and were treated to views both east and west. Having completed the bulk of our elevation gain at this point, we proceeded quickly north and east as the trail meanders along the crest, weaving between various highpoints and gradually climbing higher. Some four miles in, we arrived at the saddle west of Morris Peak – next to a campsite, we discovered the use trail without any difficulty and began heading up. In contrast to the engineered and well-graded PCT, this trail quickly steepened along the sandy south slope of Morris Peak – it was much like climbing a half-mile-long 800′ sand dune, where every foot of ascent meant a six-inch descent backward as we went up. It was hard work, but we followed the route easily enough and eventually emerged in the rocks at the summit. The views were outstanding, as we could see for 20-30 miles in every direction – the city of Ridgecrest was visible to the east, the mountain plateau across Walker Pass was to the south, the Domelands on the Kern Plateau we could see to the west, and only the impressive mass of Mt. Jenkins blocked our view to the north. We spent about 40 minutes on the summit, not only resting and eating our lunch but texting photos to our kids since we had excellent cell reception – Jane even updated her Facebook page. We could see the PCT below us to the north and tried to visualize our cross-country route to join it. Once we left the summit rocks, we encountered multiple tracks down the steep slope where many others had clearly gone before us. While we thought the south slope of Morris Peak was difficult, this north side would have been much tougher to ascend – not so much sand as fine granite gravel, we half stepped/slid down the mountainside through this loose soil, dodging boulders and trees as we went. We reached the PCT in about 15 minutes, whereas the ascent had taken three times that. After dumping sand from our boots, we took off north again, reaching the targeted Jenkins plaque in just a few minutes – we were surprised to find it located so far south from the actual route to the summit (where a second, identical plaque is emplaced), so we continued north. After another half-mile or so, we rounded the southeast ridge of Mt. Jenkins to an open view of the mountain’s jagged east face – we could also see the PCT ascending west and then back northeast across the east ridge, perhaps another half-mile away. We had traveled 5.66 miles to this point, so we figured we should call it a day and return to the trailhead. Aside from encountering another hiker as we passed the plaque (the only other person we’d seen on the trail all day), the return trip was uneventful, although Jane’s toes began to really bother her with about three miles to go. We stopped at one point so she could put Band-Aids on, but they served in the end to only increase pressure on her toes. Still, we managed to make good time back to the trailhead, reaching the van by about 3:45pm. After snapping a picture of the historical monument across the road, we headed for home, choosing to go the desert route south through Mojave instead of via the Kern River Canyon by which we had driven up. It was a great day – beautiful weather, the high desert environment with no poison oak to worry about, and a challenging but fulfilling 11.2-mile hike.