It was pretty dark in the forest in a creek canyon at 5:15 this morning– no problem– we were headed for breakfast in Sierra City! Oh yes! We passed Mr. Mountain Goat (just getting up) and reached the shortcut turnoff for town. My only disappointment as we headed briskly along on such a beautiful morning was that the back of my right hip is still really hurting anytime I have to walk downhill.  I finally “solved” it temporarily by walking as if  I were balancing something on my head.  I sure wish I knew what the problem is.  But the thought of “Hot breakfast!  Sierra City!” was enough to erase most any concern!

The walk into town is fun–through the campground (where a few people were just beginning to emerge sleepily from their tents) and then the interesting houses (some are log cabins), each with snowmobiles parked outside and covered with tarps for the summer.  Once at the highway, we headed for the Red Moose. Hmm– in the front window was a big “Sorry, we’re CLOSED” sign– but stuck on the window just above it was a little note that said “PCT People– knock or holler– we’re open for YOU!” And when we stuck our heads in the door, the place was full of hikers eating breakfast!

There was a menu, but most hikers were just saying, “give me one of everything!” We ate and ate and enjoyed talking to everybody.  The Red Moose’s new owners are awesome!  They let hikers camp in the backyard, take showers, do laundry, use their cell phone, and sort resupply boxes, all for free.  Wow!  More and more hikers kept arriving from the trail, and as each came in the door, all the rest of us would cheer and welcome them.  It was totally fun!  Eventually I went and got our  PO box, did a shopping run to the store and finally we headed out, walking the shoulder of Highway 49, back to the trail.

First thing, of course, is the big climb (4.5 hours) up and around the Sierra Buttes, on a hot day.  The first few miles are nice shady switchbacks, but eventually, the trail is out in the sun and it’s pretty rocky.  A trail crew was out doing some badly needed brushing work, and we thanked them heartily!  There was a moment of excitement as two jets flew by BELOW us, twisting and weaving their way along the canyon at treetop level. 

Finally we reached the top of the climb, and began meeting dayhikers, who were headed to and from Sierra Buttes.  Obviously they didn’t come in the way we did!  They park their cars at various other nearby access trailheads.  The north side of the Buttes still has snow on it, and there was snow by the trail, but none ON the trail (good!).  Once you are at the top, the route spends awhile as a “crest walk” looking down on all the lakes shimmering blue down below. At one point, we reached a trailhead parking area and it wasn’t clear where to go next.  We were standing around studying our maps, when some guys came along and set us straight–“Just follow the road to the Packer Lake turnoff.” 

So we did, and enjoyed the beautiful views as we walked along.  The mosquitoes were pretty bad,though.  As long as we keep moving we’re fine, but the minute we stop, we get swarmed.  The trail went up and down, and at every “up”, I was scanning the horizon for a sight of Mt. Lassen–no luck on that yet!  The wildflowers along the trail were very nice, but not as numerous as before.  This is rugged, rocky country, crisscrossed by many dirt roads, with dramatic volcanic rock formations along the crest of the ridges.  We’re back to having to be careful about water–the trail stays up high above the many lakes; creeks and springs on the trail are few.  So though we are no longer having to carry heavy bear cans, ice axes, crampons, etc., we do have to carry a pretty heavy water load.

We found what we thought would be a really nice campsite, flat and breezy on top of a ridge.  The sunset was beautiful–all red and gold.  Bill and I were doing our share of oohing and aahing as we watched it, and we weren’t the only ones–a car came by on a dirt road we didn’t even know was there, and a bunch of people got out to watch the sunset, too. 

But after the sun went down, the breeze stopped and the mosquitoes were back.  Bummer.  We are cowboy camped, and the thought of leaving our sleeping bags to put up the net tent (probably getting well chewed up in the process) was just too much.  So we just squiggled down into our bags and draped headnets over us.  I spent some time asking God for wisdom about how to fix my hip pain problem.  Every time I’ve asked before, He always has answered, and I am trusting that will be the case this time, too.   

Walk to Rauros: In ruins of weathered stone near the Emyn Muil

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

Well, I guess you could say today was “snow day”–lots and lots of it, including plenty of  traverses across STEEP snow on mountainsides!  But yahoo!   We made it up and over Sonora Pass, our last big pass.

Last night the mossies stayed up all night, humming around our net tent.  When I had to get up and go to “the bathroom” at 4:45 am,  they swarmed me and I got lots of bites.  Grrrr!  When it was time to pack up this morning, we had to wear full raingear plus headnets to protect ourselves from the mossie squadrons.   Well, we did expect this, having heard from other thruhiker journals that this is typical Sierras-in-July.

The hiking today began with a nice walk through the forest, then the climbing began.  The higher we went, the more the terrain opened up, and the views were increasingly gorgeous.  Not only that, but once we were up above timberline and out in the breeze–no more mosquitoes!  We began to meet other hikers, and began another day of leapfrogging with Barak and Uri, two guys from Israel. It took a bit of hunting for trail in the snow going up, but there were no steep traverses.  Everything on this side of Sonora Pass is very rounded and sort of mellow.  We took the “shortcut trail” , though, which goes straight up, and OK, that was steep, and I had the ice axe out again.  As usual, Bill just headed right up, and I was slow.  But wow, the views from the top were stupendous! Sierra peaks, all snowy, dominated the horizon to the south, and the dramatic volcanics of the Sonora Pass area were everywhere else.  Many hikers say (and I am inclined to agree) that Sonora Pass is the “best” of all the High Sierra passes.

But large snowfields were everywhere (in fact, we walked by the place where we camped in 2005, and it was covered with snow).  All the trail signs were buried.  As we started down the far side of the pass, we caught up with Uri and Barak, who were worried and frustrated.  They desperately wanted to take pictures of the spectacular scenery, but weren’t sure if their camera was working.  It seems that on the last big creek crossing (where even Bill had trouble with the current),  Uri was knocked down by the river and though he managed to swim ashore, his camera got soaked.  Mostly he and Barak were worried about the camera memory card, because it had ALL their pics starting all the way back in Campo!  So we did a test.  They took the memory card out of Uri’s camera and we put it in ours and checked to see if it was working.  Hallelujah!   It worked! Uri and Barak practically did a victory dance right there on the trail.  They were able to take pics of Sonora Pass, and everything was OK. 

Leaving a very happy Israeli duo, Bill and I headed on into the snow.  We immediately saw that  the PCT is routed (of course) to go on the shadiest, snowiest slopes. So much of today was snow traversing on (thank God!) nice snow, perfect for walking.  We met lots of people–a bunch of SOBO’s, who had skipped up to Ashland and headed south from there, to give the Sierras more time to melt.  It was fun to see them all, and an amazing sight to see so many hikers, after days of being “just us.”  Since I am slow on snow, a number of other hikers finally caught up with us–Dude & Trouble, and Granite & Terrapin.

We ate lunch hunkered down behind some stunted trees, and  that was our last meal of the day, because we both agreed that we did not want to stop and camp till we were “below snow and above mosquitoes”, as Bill put it.  By 3:15pm, we reached the road at Sonora Pass, and there was Thomas, a trail angel with carrots, water, snacks, offer of a ride to town, AND a big black plastic garbage bag. “Give me your garbage!” he said, and we were very glad to hand it over!

Many hikers go off the trail here and into town, but we pushed on, headed up our last climb of the day.  The snow was not bad, since it was on the south side of the mountain, and the views were great!  So were the wildflowers–blooming in every crack and cranny.  The rocks are no longer “granitic” but “volcanic”, so we knew we were making progress north!  We climbed past the dramatic “Pinnacles”, then a little while later and we were at the top, cheering because it was our last time at 10,000 feet!   While we were standing around taking pictures and cheering, some other hikers came along and asked why we were celebrating so much.  We explained that this was the last time the PCT goes up to 10,000 feet.  “Oh!” they said, and out came the camera phone.  “Tell us about it–we’ll film you!”  So we did a rerun of cheering and celebrating–“Last time at 10,000! (wave all 10 fingers)  Last time at 10,000!”

But from that point, the PCT route down to the Carson River stayed on the NORTH side of the valley.  The south side was snowfree, but we were back to hunting for trail in the snow (slow and frustrating!) until we finally stopped at about 7:30.  We had succeeded in getting below the snow, and there were only a few mosquitoes.  We were very tired and a bit hungry, since we skipped eating supper in order to reach the “no snow zone”.  It was very cold, so we set up the tarp and enjoyed a beautiful alpenglow sunset view after we were snuggled into our sleeping bags.  All the other hikers have passed us, since I am so slow on snow.  But if we can just get back to “regular trail”, I think we will catch up again!  And I am very grateful that the snow at least was nice to us today–no icy stuff and no postholing!

Walk to Rauros:  North of the Field of Celebrant in the Brown Lands

Today was “big canyon” day, and it was pretty brutal. The trail and the terrain threw everything they had at us and by the end of the day, we were pretty “wore out”! We had to deal with finding trail in the snow, crossing steep snow, long uphills so steep that I could only plod along, trail so rough and rocky that sometimes we had a hard time figuring out which was the trail and which was just rocks, trail that was one long mudhole, trail that was a creek, and increasingly difficult creek crossings. And there were the mosquitoes– clouds of them.

OK, to start, we were up at 5 am, with the idea of “Let’s beat the mossies and try to get big miles!”  But the trail wasted no time in showing who was boss–and it wasn’t us!  Just after we left our campsite, we were into snow that hid the trail and reduced us to wandering around trying to figure out where to go.  When we did locate the right path, that final climb to the top of Benson Pass was so steep that all I could do was plod.  On the other side of the pass, the terrain & trail were so rough and rocky that again, I could not walk fast.  GRRRR!  Frustrating!  

To add to the fun, by our best estimate, besides the repeated multi-thousand foot ascents and descents, at least half the time today the PCT was just one long mudhole that we couldn’t even walk on.  Trying to walk along rough terrain on the EDGE of a trail is tricky!  By noon, we had only done 4.5 miles!  Considering we started at 5:30 am, that’s pretty pathetic! 

But finally we were  down into Kerrick Canyon (it took awhile because of having to climb over snow), and finally we could really HIKE along a nice trail with minimal snow issues.  Kerrick Canyon is a lovely forested valley, and we enjoyed the views as much as the trail.  But finally we came to the ford of Kerrick Creek.   Scaaaary! I had to go behind Bill, holding on to his pack.  It was a much more difficult crossing than Return Creek! 

 Then came another huge, steep climb up (I cheered myself by looking at the lovely wildflowers along the way) and another long downhill to Stubblefield Creek.  Partway down into the canyon, a roaring river basically took over the trail and we stood there wondering how to proceed.  It was not a “normal ford”, but a situation where we were on a steep mountainside and the trail itself had become a roaring cascade.  But we tackled it and got through.  Whew! 

At the canyon bottom, though, we faced our worst ford yet–Stubblefield Creek.  The guidebook described it as “wide and placid”. Wide it was, but not very placid.  It was moving right along and deep (waistdeep on me, as it turned out).  When we were standing on the near bank making plans for where and how to cross, though, it didn’t look TOO bad, so Bill and I crossed side by side, with Bill in the lead.  When we were about 3/4 of the way across, Bill shouted, “I’m losing it, Monty!   Don’t count on me for help!”   Sure enough, the creek was starting to push him backwards.  All I could do was say, “Oh Lord, please help me!” and continue to “move one thing at a time” (trek pole or foot), fighting to stay upright and not be knocked over.  What a relief when we made the other side!  By this time, it was 7 pm, and we were exhausted.  We sort of staggered up from the river, soaking wet, and walked to a nearby lovely grove of trees, saying, “That’s it!  We’ll just camp here!  And wow, what a blessing!  There were lots of nice, dry, flat campsites!                                                

 Too cold, wet and tired to set up the net tent, all we could do was get out of our wet things ASAP  (the mosquitoes were swarming us)  throw on dry sleeping clothes, burrow into our sleeping bags with headnets draped over them, and call it a day!  But hallelujah!   Stubblefield was our last big creek crossing, AND tomorrow, hopefully, we will be OUT of Yosemite with its awful trails.  I am so glad that we did the PCT in 2005, because that’s when I discovered that the minute you leave Yosemite National Park, the trails become very nice.  I am SO looking forward to those trails!

Walk to Rauros:  Bare winter trees on both sides of river