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