We passed 1,100 miles today! But wow, it was a tough 24 miles! It felt more like 34 miles! For many miles this morning, the PCT was unbelievably rocky and rough.

We had a good night’s sleep in our net tent with the mossies whining around outside, wishing they could get at us!  Once we got underway, it was a lovely morning.   Echo Lake was very peaceful– no motorboats this early, and the water was all silvery in the early morning light.   We passed the “water taxi” sign on a tree, and I will say this–if you ever think your life is boring and you want a thrill, well come to Echo Lake and ride the water taxi!  We saw it in action yesterday, and whoever it is that “drives” the taxi, well,  he drives like Jehu!  Wild! 

Picking our way along the very rocky trail, we finally reached  Lake Aloha with its many islands, in its very High Sierra-looking setting of snowy granite peaks.  There was enough snow by the lake that we lost the PCT for a few minutes.  The day was rapidly becoming very warm, and some folks were already swimming!  They must be tough–that water was snowmelt!  I wondered how bad the snow was going to be up on Dick’s Pass.

Then we made “the big right turn”, where for awhile we headed down to other lakes, notably Heather Lake and Susie Lake.  We took a Snickers break at Susie Lake with its rugged backdrop of Jack’s Peak, and Bill decided to go swimming!  So our 15 minutes turned into more like half an hour.  I tried going into the water myself a little bit, but backed off.  Coooooold!  Off we went again, starting the big climb  to Dick’s Pass. I figured, “Well, pretty soon I’ll probably be getting out my ice axe!”

On the way up, we met the two littlest, cutest “trail dogs” I have ever seen!  Their names were Poky and Toby–two tiny Yorkies.  Their proud owners said that the tiny pair of dogs have done lots of miles, and commented, “You don’t need one of those big slobbery dogs to hike with!”   As we climbed higher, the trail got wetter and muddier.  At one point we met a ranger lady digging diligently with her shovel, trying to divert some of the water off the trail tread.  We kept on chugging, admiring the gnarly, twisted trees–sort of giant bonsais–that manage to survive in the severe conditions up here. 

Finally, right about noon, we reached the summit of Dick’s Pass, and what a joke!  As it turned out, the snow on the pass wasn’t bad at all, and all sorts of folks were up there, including a whole troop of Girl Scouts making a snowman and throwing snowballs! The trees on top are so dwarfed that it’s like being in a Christmas tree plantation, so with the snow it was Christmas-y. After a nice break, we headed down the other side, which was totally covered with snow, but so many people had tramped on it that the trail was very easy to follow. Downhill we went, past Dick’s Lake and Middle Velma Lake, then it was back to trail-wandering-through-forest, with lots of mosquitoes.  Actually, the trail wandered so much that at one point, I began to worry whether we were still on the PCT, but a hiker we met confirmed that we were still on course.  Whew! 

The farther we went, the worse the mossies got.  Both Bill and I were hiking in headnets.  Along came a small group of backpackers, looking rather unhappy and swatting at the mosquitoes.  The lead guy stopped right in front of me.  “Hi!” he said.  “I sure could use a headnet like that right now.  I’ll give you a thousand bucks for yours…no, make that TWO thousand.  Seriously!”   I just laughed and said, “No way, Jose!”   There is NO way I would ever consider hiking in these conditions without my headnet!  The trail continued on through viewless forest for much of the afternoon.  Sometimes it was dry forest (nice!) and sometimes it was a swamp (muddy trail, clouds of mosquitoes!)  At one point, we heard a tree come crashing down in the forest off to our left.  We’ve been around falling trees before, and the moment we hear that first crackle of breaking branches, we instantly freeze and get ready to leap out of the way.  This time, hooray, it was a decent distance away from us.

At our afternoon Snickers break, Bill constructed a wooden “prosthetic” for his trek pole, since the tip had broken off. He now has BOTH trek poles operating with “wooden legs”, which we find rather funny. We made camp tonight near a dirt road above Richardson Lake with hordes of mosquitoes. We were very tired, and groaned at the thought of having to rig the tarp-net tent combo.( The net tent was constructed to HANG under the tarp, not stand up by itself.)   But then Bill said, “Wait, I think I can rig just the net tent.”  And he did it!  It’s a simple rig, very nifty, using two crossed trek poles.

While we were doing this, along came the three Israelis, Noga, Shani and Evan, all in headnets and moving fast!  They camped not far from us.   So we crawled into our sleeping bags and crashed, serenaded by the indignant whining of hordes of mossies.   Only 38 more miles and we’ll be at Donner Lake and Pooh Corner!  I was very happy to see we’d made good mileage today, and I am so glad Bill figured out a way to easily rig the net tent!

Walk to Rauros:  Reach the edge of the eastern part of South Undeep

Tags: Dick's Pass, Echo Lake, Lake Aloha, mosquitoes, Richardson Lake, Sierra, Susie Lake