No sleeping in at Pooh Corner! At 5:45, Bill Person turned on the lights and started breakfast, while all the bodies that had been sleeping all over the floor began to revive.  At Pooh Corner, if you want to sleep in, you need to camp in the garage or out on the dock!  Otherwise, you HAVE to get up, like it or not.  The breakfast was totally worth getting up for–a feast of gourmet coffee, eggs with cheese, bacon, etc., piles of pancakes, bowls of fruit salad…wow!

The first shuttle run to the PCT was at 6:30, but after I’d stuffed myself with as much food as I could hold, I sat down in a corner and started the major repair on Bill’s pack. The extension collar is just plain trashed (UV damage) and in effect, I had to make and attach a whole new one, all by hand,  plus there were many other rips & tears to fix.  Bill is rough on his pack!!  The sewing job took me all morning, and eventually I was kicked out of my corner because they needed to vacuum, so I moved out on the deck.  Bill was out kayaking on the lake; other hikers went canoeing (we found out later that they went off to the other side of the lake,  where they could get their “alcohol fix” without breaking the Pooh Corner rules).

Shortly after I went to the deck, there was a medical “crisis”.  Bill Person handled it very well–he’s trained in first aid, since he does search & rescue in the Donner Lake area.  One of the hikers was cleaning his contact lenses, and apparently he didn’t dilute the cleaning solution properly, because when he went to put the lens in his eye, it immediately created a disastrous reaction.  Bill rushed him outside, sat him in a chair, had him lean his head back and literally began pouring water over the affected eye.  He did this for quite some time before finally putting some drops into the eye.  Then he gave the hiker a very fervent, short lecture on, “If your eye starts hurting again, you need to get to a doctor ASAP.”  The hiker responded with “But I don’t have medical insurance.”  Bill Person’s response was very blunt.  “It is better to spend $300 to see a doctor than to spend the rest of your life with one eye blind!!”

It took several hours to finish fixing Bill’s pack.  Then I turned to mending my pants–they needed it!  By the time I was done, I’d used up just about all my thread.  Whenever I could, I tried to snack on high calorie food.  I look like I’m anorexic.  It is scary.  The other thing that worried me a little was that every time I have to walk DOWN anything (there are a lot of stairs here at Pooh Corner, so lots of opportunities to walk down!), the back of my right hip hurts.  Not sure what it is.  I loaded up our packs with food from our resupply box, plus the hiker box and I even scavenged a few things from the house (items that were about to be tossed).

Bill and I had decided to return to the trail today, and Bill Person has a thing about being READY to roll when he does a run to the trail, so I got our packs all loaded up and set by the garage door.  Then we ate a big lunch.  The next trail run was due for 3:00, so while we waited,  Bill took a nap and I found a cozy sunpatch where I read a book.  Three o’clock came and went, with no sign of Bill Person.  But a bit before 4:00pm, he came back just as some hikers called from the trailhead.  “Trail shuttle leaving NOW!” was the call, and we hopped in the car along with the Aussie, Mr. Mountain Goat, who was in such a hurry that he didn’t even have time to tie his shoes.

It felt so good to be back on the trail!  The PCT in Southern CA was tough, the Sierras were pretty brutal, but now we feel like we’re free to just “sail”!  It is a good feeling!  The trail tread after Hwy. 40 goes winding and twisting among rocks and pondlets and wildflowers, till it reaches the tunnel under Hwy 80 and begins a nice easy climb through the forest up to Castle Pass.  At the top, we were faced with a typical dilemma…trails going in every direction and no clear indication which one was the PCT.  A compass and the map soon settled that question!   

 As we headed down the pass, I started thinking, “Maybe we could stay at the Peter Grubb Hut tonight”.  By 7:00 we weren’t far away from it, and just a bit farther took us to the Hut side trail.  It is an awesome place with comfortable sleeping loft  upstairs (Mattresses!  Hooks to hang your food bags!  Fun photos of folks staying there when the snow is so deep you can just step out the upstairs window!) and a rustic kitchen downstairs, complete with pots ‘n pans, firewood, and even spices & seasonings. 

We’d just finished laying out our sleeping bags and hanging our packs, when along came Mr. Mountain Goat.  He headed for the kitchen and began cooking up something that smelled incredibly good.  Along came grandma-age Myra, also, and so there were 4 of us to spend the night, very comfortably.  I had to laugh at the outhouse–it has two levels, one at the ground level (which we used) and the other at secondstory level (for when it’s deep winter snow).  What a fun place!  That makes TWO nights in a hut for us–Muir Hut and Peter Grubb Hut.  I definitely like huts!  

Walk to Rauros: In the Downs and Hills of the Wold

Up, up we went this morning, up to the backside of Tinker’s Knob, and fabulous views. We stopped for breakfast with another fabulous view, and the three Israeli hikers came by. “Are you going to Pooh Corner?” they asked. “Yes!” So we hatched a plan of all going together, since one of them had a cell phone and could call Bill & Molly Person.  We all hiked along quickly, running on “town moto”, but I knew that up ahead when the trail headed down to Highway 40, it would be slow going for me, with a very rocky tread.

I remembered how frustrated I got in 2005, doing my best to hurry down to the highway, but having to go slowly because of all the rocks.  So when we got to the rocky downhill, I told Bill and the Israelis, “Don’t wait for me.  I’ll catch up with you eventually.”  They took off, zipping right down the rocks, and I figured that while they were waiting around for a ride to Pooh Corner, I’d make it down OK.  And I did, but getting down to Hwy 40 involved climbing around a huge icy snowfield in addition to negotiating the very rocky trail.  I met lots of dayhikers and their dogs heading up the trail and enjoying the awesome views and flowers. Even though I was picking my way down, I loved hearing train whistles below as the engines chugged over Donner Pass.

Down at the trailhead, the rest of the gang were waiting for Molly Person from Pooh Corner to  come to get us, and checking out a cache that consisted of a cooler with a couple of bottles of wine!  There was a note inside that said Pooh Corner does not allow any alcohol, but if you call this OTHER trail angel who lives on the other side of Donner Lake, you can stay at her place and have wine and beer if you want.  We didn’t care–we heard the food at Pooh is awesome (and indeed it was!)  When Molly arrived, she only had room to take 4 of us, and Evan (the guy Israeli) gallantly volunteered to wait at the trail so that Bill and I and the two girls could go first.

So pretty soon we were at the famous Pooh Corner by Donner Lake.   I walked in and just loved it. The house is right by the lake, and is multilevel, with a rockclimbing wall and fun circular stairs.  But I was totally exhausted, and when I took a shower I had a good look at myself and was horrified.  I was literally down to skin and bones, to the point where I was scared.  I resolved to eat and eat as much as I could, and that was no problem!   There was food everywhere!

  So I started our laundry and  collapsed in a cozy corner under the stairs.  I wasn’t the only one–every couch had a sleeping thruhiker on it, and more were out by the dock.  Once I lay down I realized how completely tired out I was, and when Bill Person returned home and started recruiting volunteers to help make dinner, I didn’t move.  (For me, that was totally weird–my family says I need a T-shirt that says, “Stop me before I volunteer again”!)  Dinner turned out to be over-the-top-awesome!  Some of the hikers began to grump to each other about the  “no alcohol” rule and that Bill Person was too bossy and loud.  I was too tired to care. Bill and I discussed whether we dare take a zero tomorrow or should we keep hiking?  I know that we need to stay at least till I can repair Bill’s pack.  It is a mess.  I went up to the garage to the hiker boxes and found some silnylonish fabric I could use.

Our daughter and son-in-law who live in Reno came over for a visit this evening, and the four of us went and sat out on the dock to enjoy the sunset and the lovely view of the lake.  The Person’s nephew, who is the official “Brownie Master” (he keeps fresh hot brownies coming all day long) was swimming with one of the hikers–splash, splash, yell, yell!  Bill was disappointed because he’d hoped to go sailing, but the Pooh Corner sailboat centerboard is having issues, so the boat is not available.  Oh well…there were plenty of other watercraft available. 

At 9 pm, the rule at Pooh Corner is “lights out!” unless you go down to the dock or up to the garage.  Bill and I claimed a spot of rug and crashed.  The house was full of hikers, and the Persons are very strict not just about no alcohol, but also no noise or lights after 9 pm.  Again, there was quiet grumping about this, but Bill and I were glad!  It meant we could sleep in peace, and boy, did we need that sleep!  We both feel profoundly tired.

Walk to Rauros:  Downs on both sides of the river

I LOVE our net tent!  Crowds of mossies were hovering over us all night long.  Yesterday Bill was talking to the Israelis, and they were joking about, “I wonder if the mosquitoes do shift work??!!”  It is wonderful to have a little tent that’s lightweight, quick and easy to set up, that ensures a good night’s sleep without being eaten alive!

But we had to plan carefully getting underway this morning, since hordes of mosquitoes were waiting for us outside the net tent! We stowed our sleeping bags and gear, put on “full mosquito garb” (headnets and raingear), and then opened the tent door and ventured out into the humming hordes.  A couple of minutes walk took us to Richardson Lake, where we met one of the Israeli girls.  She said “I hear the mosquitoes are not so bad after Barker Pass.”  We all fervently hope so!  It’s a long climb up to the pass, on a muddy trail that goes through very damp forest.

 But there were compensations– intensely green new bracken fronds, wildflowers, and a sighting of a tiny little furry baby creature trying to run across the trail.  It had started to cross just as we arrived, but the minute it spotted us, it began to cry the most piteous tiny cries, and ran frantically around, obviously in total terror.  I got out my camera to try for a picture, and the poor little guy squeezed under a lupine plant by the trail, then literally lay there shivering and shaking.  I didn’t want to scare it too much, so I just pushed a couple of leaves back and took a pic of its back.  Poor little baby!  I’m not too hopeful for it surviving, though, if that’s how it behaves when it’s scared.

On the way up to Barker Pass, there is a road crossing, and when we reached it we encountered a whole contingent of PCT thruhikers, including the Israelis, who’d passed us awhile back, and a whole bunch more, including some Aussies.  Everyone looked tired and trailworn.  What amazed me was that for the whole rest of the day, none of them ever caught up with us, even though they are young and fast, and the trail was often rough, rocky, snowy & steep, which means I am slow.  I guess they really were tired!!

By10 am we reached Barker Pass.  Several cars were parked at the trailhead, and another arrived as we passed through.  We began to meet CLEAN, chipper backpackers!  One very enthusiastic chap told us “There’s a fab view of Tahoe right up ahead!”  No kidding!  The PCT after Barker Pass is one of my absolute favorite parts of the whole trail.  I call it  the “Tahoe Crest Walk.” How can I even begin to describe this fabulous section of the trail? The views are stunning–360 degrees for miles in every direction. You can see the boats on Tahoe, there are fields of wildflowers, huge dramatic rock formations and the wind blowing nice and cool. And it’s fun to look down on all the different ski resorts as you pass by.  The only bummer is that the trail is often rocky and rough, so I had to spend a lot of time looking at the trail so as not to stumble, and had less time to look at the awesome views.

We stopped for lunch in a grove of trees, out of the wind, and just as we finished eating, along came a really nice couple out for a walk with their big dog.  (I thought about asking if the dog would like to lick our cooking pot clean, because he eagerly scarfed up two noodles that fell on the trail!)

Eventually we went down many switchbacks to 5 Lakes Creek (Wow!  You could see the trout there!) The PCT promptly began a killer climb back up again, during which it twice crosses the Tevis Trail.  I have a friend who participates in a horse trail race on Tevis, but we didn’t see any horses on it today.  At the top of the climb was the Squaw Valley ski area, with lifts and trails and buildings.  The gondola was still running–we could see it just across from us while we ate supper.  Then we continued following the PCT as it wound its way through huge boulders, with more snow-on-trail, till we were down to Squaw Creek.  We camped near there in 2005, but this time, there was a large group of backpackers setting up camp already. 

So we kept going (it was too early to stop, anyway) and  began the big climb up to Tinker’s Knob. We made it to about a mile from the top and got a nice campsite on a little bench tucked into the mountainside, in a grove of trees. There was a  little creek nearby, so Bill took a bath, and I slooshed off as best I could.  The mosquitoes were not bad at all, hooray!  And then when I saw we’d done almost 26 miles, I was pleased and amazed. With all the rough trail, long uphills, and yes, still snow traverses, we did not think we’d done so well.

What a great place to camp!  It’s so pretty here, the birds are singing sleepily, and the sunset is a gorgeous orange-gold.  I would recommend this section of the PCT to anybody and everybody!  It is so beautiful!

Walk to Rauros:  Nearing the South Downs, Gollum continues to follow

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

The birds started singing really early this morning–it was nice to hear them!  The PCT in the Sierras is up so high most of the time that there really aren’t many birds.  It was great to hear that early morning “choir sing”.  Unfortunately, last night, all night, we were subjected to the “other” choir–mosquito whines.  There were plenty of them, and we’d been too tired to set up the net tent, so I got pretty well chewed up, and didn’t get much sleep.  Oh well–“On to Carson Pass!” we said as we hit the trail this morning, thinking it would be an easy cruise to breakfast at the visitor center.

Nope! The trail had other ideas. It had a lot of uphill (puff! pant!) and a number of icy snowfields to cross. Bill chopped steps for me with the ice axe.  I’d been thinking about getting shed of the ice axe at Echo Lake, but seeing so much snow, I started to be concerned about Dick’s Pass up above Tahoe.  “I think I’ll keep the ice axe awhile longer,”  I decided.  Some of the snowfields we encountered this morning were small enough that we could go around them, slipping and sliding on steep scree.  I’d rather slip ‘n slide on scree than on hard, icy snow!  But there was compensation–wildflowers of every color, glowing in the early morning light.  Beautiful!  I tried to take photos of them, but no camera can do justice to such amazing light.

The closer you get to Carson Pass, the better the trail, and the views are wonderful. When we reached the visitor center it was 7:30  am, but the volunteers were already there.  Last time we arrived here, the volunteers practically fell over themselves offering us fresh fruit, etc.  This pair, an older husband & wife, told us that yes, they did have fruit, etc., but we would have to wait till they finished setting up everything at the center.  No problem–we settled down at the picnic table to eat our usual breakfast of granola & freezedried fruit.

Then another set of volunteers arrived.  They took one look at us and said, “PCT thruhikers!!  Howsit going?  Want some fruit?” and before we knew it, the picnic table was laden with peaches, bananas, cherries and sodas.  Yum, yum!  And just then, a bunch of other thruhikers popped out of the woods, so we were all sitting there feasting, and VERY grateful to the Carson Pass volunteers!  Everybody was on a tear to get to Echo Lake.  Trouble & Dude are determined to make it by 2 pm, and all the rest of us are saying, “Oh, whatever!  All we care is that we’ll get there sometime today.”

One of the volunteers had mentioned that “When you get to the top of the climb out of here, you’ll get your  first view of Lake Tahoe”.  And yes indeed, there it was–blue, blue Tahoe!  Beautiful! Wildflowers were everywhere, and lots of dayhikers with their very happy dogs.  The trail took us down into what I call “Ponderosa Meadows”, complete with rustic ranch buildings and lots of creek crossings.  One of them was the Truckee River, but I’m not sure which one–there were so many!  There was still snow on all the mountains around us, and when the trail climbed back up again, sure enough, we were dealing with snow once more–nothing very bad, but it did slow me down.  It was a very warm day, and I was glad whenever we got to some shade.  There were big piled-up thunderclouds to the east, and after awhile, we began to hear the sound of thunder, but didn’t see any lightning. 

My sore right ankle was feeling much better, which was very encouraging!.  Eventually we began “the big downhill” to Echo Sno-Park. I remembered this from 2005 as horribly rough and rocky– and it still is. For me, that means very slow going. Sigh. But we made it, and did enjoy the views of Lake Tahoe on the way down. Even though the trail is very rocky, it  is very pretty and green.  Finally we were back “on the flat”, walking along near the snow park, and I was just commenting to Bill, “Well, we’re almost to Highway 50, but it’s still a ways to Echo Lake,” when oh no!  I twisted my sore ankle AGAIN on a little rock in the otherwise smooth trail.  It really hurt!  From that point on, I was limping badly and yelping  when the ankle bent even a little bit.  I was really bummed about it.  At the parking lot near the highway, we saw Granite and Terrapin trying to “yogi” a ride from dayhikers.  We told them it was often easier to get a ride down to South Lake Tahoe from Echo Lake Resort, and they said  they might do that if they had no luck at the snow park.  On we went, me limping badly, as the PCT spent quite some time parallelling Highway 50.  Once we’d crossed the highway, it was another 1.5 miles to Echo Lake, and it was obvious that Bill was itching to get there.  So I told him, “Go for it–I’ll get there when I can,” and he soon disappeared into the woods. 

By now it was a very hot afternoon, and I was sweaty, hurting and pretty miserable.  What if the ankle turned out to be serious enough to force me to stop hiking?  Since I was all by myself, I did sniffle a bit and did ask God to please help me be brave and please help the ankle to recover.  By the time I got to Echo Lake, I was more or less a wreck.  I saw Bill–he’d picked up our resupply box–but all I could think was “Cold drinks!”  I mumbled something at Bill about “See you in a minute” and headed straight into the store to buy a pink grapefruit juice and an orange juice.  Then I sort of staggered back outside and collapsed on the picnic bench where a number of hikers were gathered.  I did nothing for awhile but steadily sip the cold juice.  Oh man, did it taste good!!

Finally I felt recovered enough to chat with the other hikers.  Most of them were busy “spiffing” to make themselves presentable enough to hitch rides into town.  All the other hikers are much younger than we are–they were full of vim and vigor, and talking excitedly about the buffets and casinos of South Lake Tahoe.  Bill and I went down there in 2005, and though it was nice to rest in a motel and eat at the buffets, we had agreed it wasn’t worth the bother of getting there and back.  The two Israeli girls, Noga and Shani, hung around for a long time, talking to people.  When they decided to get an ice cream shake, they had a hard time deciding what flavor to choose out of the HUGE menu of possibilities.  They finally went for fresh raspberry, and said it was really good! 

Bill and I got two huge, fantastic sandwiches, and went to sit and eat in the shade at the side of the store.  Leaning on the wall, we ate and discussed what to do next.  The post office was closed, and would not reopen till 11 am tomorrow. We had bear cans to mail home, but Bill did not want to wait around that long. With my very sore ankle, I DID want to wait.  In the end, though, I told Bill I’d talk to the store people and see if there was a way to mail the bear cans today.  It took some doing, but finally I was able to talk to the store manager, who also runs the post office, and she agreed to take the bear cans!  So we loaded the cans with our Microspikes and Yak Trax, and waved them GOODBYE!  Two old ladies were sitting and eating ice cream by the post office window, and I had to explain to them why we were so happy to get rid of those strange black cans!

I made one last try at persuading Bill to camp at Echo Lake (I was thinking about how nice it would be to just camp now and get a good rest before starting early in the morning, but he was very determined to hike on.  So I sat in the shade (it was still hot) sorting food into the food bags.  Then I got one more cold juice drink before we hit the trail again at 6 pm.  I was worried about where on earth we could camp.  There are cabins all along the lake for quite a distance.  But when we started hiking, I was very pleased to discover that my sore ankle felt MUCH better.  I guess the 3+ hours of rest had really helped!  

The walk around Echo Lake is so pretty, and it was especially beautiful in the evening light.  We made it almost all the way past the lake before the sun went down, and at that point, we snuck off the trail into a flat place surrounded by bushes, to set up a stealth camp.  We could hear the boats on the lake and the dogs in the cabins barking, but nobody knew where we were, except the mosquitoes!   We set up the net tent so we could sleep in peace.  I was desperately tired, and the thought of another night with mosquitoes chewing on me was just too much.  Hooray for the net tent!  And there was a beautiful sunset.  I lay in my sleeping bag and listened to the voices of evening hikers going by on the trail, and thought about how great it was that tomorrow, I’ll be able to carry a much lighter pack. 

Walk to Rauros:  High wolds of the Brown Lands, Gollum grows more daring