Memories from July 7

Today started with some bumming around town. I got a large breakfast at the café then loitered with the rest of the freshly washed hikertrash on the front stops of the general store (pictured below) until it opened and I could resupply. Clif Bars were $2 so I bought a jar of Nutella and a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread figuring that each Nutella covered piece of the loaf would be kind of like a bar. In fact they were better and the loaf alog with most of the Nutella was gone by the end of the day.

Unfortunately the wifi was really spotty so I couldn’t investigate the disappearance of my credit card. With no cell service either, I hiked out just as the French and German contingents of the local hiker population gathered around the TV in the café to watch their countries’ teams compete in the semifinals of the Eurocup. With about a half dozen hikers representing each side, I figured it would be a great watch party.

On the bright side, I got a hitch out of town.

However, there was a long, rocky uphill out of Sierra City. Loose, large rocks. Rocks that rock underfoot, slide like mud when you push, and dig in to your shoes when you plant a foot. It’s my least favorite terrain.

On the bright side, the view was sweeping.

After the climb, I passed the then off to the Sierra Buttes and started a long walk just below a ridge. The views were open over a twisting valley with multiple lakes… and a sign about the availability of that all important resource – cellphone coverage. I have the cheapest plan in America and get what I pay for which is to say that I had roaming without data. It was like being teased. I walked the 100 yards slowly watching the bars on my phone’s screen, hoping the roaming symbol would disapear. No luck.

The mound in the background is the Sierra Buttes fire lookout. This really doesn’t do it justice.

A sample of the view.

I camped with Scrapbook, Short Shorts, and Little Red Riding Hood after being overtaken by Scrapbook at the boundary of Plumas National Forest. where I had been studying a trail map on a sign I remembered from six years ago and trying to decide if I wanted to camp at the same lake as last time where I was woken up by gunshots in the middle of the night.

Memories from July 6

Sierra City is just over 40 miles after highway 40. I’ve been wanting to bag a 40 mile day and so decided to go for it. Here’s the waypoint view from my app filtered to show highway 40 and Sierra City 42.07mi north. Start time is 5:39am.

One rule I have for this hike is that I always have to have time for pictures. There wasn’t so much that was eye-catching which made the distance challenge a nice distraction.

I’d made it a little over 25 miles by lunch at around 12:30 pm which stretched until 2pm since it was my first rest break. There was a lot of jogging on downhills to bring up my average speed and my legs froze up over lunch which made the post-lunch miles particularly slow. Fortunately, at that point it was mostly downhill.

I camped here last time I passed this way.

The first time I’ve ever seen a rock climbing fisherman.

And here we are. Unfortunately, it was just after 6pm and the General Store in town was closing soon so I didn’t have time to find a hitch. The walk to town probably puts me over 43 miles for the day.

The General Store sells the largest single-patty burgers I’ve ever seen. The call it the Gut Buster. I had half and then shared the rest with some hikers who had gotten in after closing. After ordering I had a sudden bout of light headedness like an extreme version of when you stand up too quickly. It was accompanied by a little nausea and I had to go outside and sit down to get it to pass. Apparently it’s not completely unheard of for this to happen to a well fed and watered hiker after a hard day.

There’s a small church in Sierra City and they let hikers camp in their yard for free. This is doubly nice because there are public restrooms next door. The guy cleaning the restrooms told me there was no laundromat in town but that I could use his washer and dryer. I even got a shower out if it. Here he is. Bill, the trail angel who didn’t know what a trail angel was.

Memories from July 5

After yesterday’s long meander though copious quantities of generally uninteresting trees, I suspected that the trail was going to take a boring turn. Then I walked though the Granite Chief Wilderness. The trail there is largely a long traverse just under a ridge long which works its way between a number of high points. The views are very open and he hillsides covered with flowers.

There were some humorous points.

Passing a ski resort. I’ll stay on the nice easy PCT. Apparently the side trail is difficult.

Another ski resort mocks me with a faster way down.

I’d been hiking on and off with Timo who has pain in his right leg, especially on downhills. His mother, a doctor, had told him to take five days of rest. He replied that he’d take a hiker rest if only 20 miles per day. We were past that and he was looking for the first campsite with water when… Trail Magic at highway 40! So after dinner with other hikertrash around a live-in van, we camped in the parking lot. Super classy.

Dear Mr. Sully – I don’t know if you’re reading this but as the friend who was most involved in my acquaintance with alcohol, here’s to you.

Memories from July 4

Last night Butterfly, Turbo, and I had set our eyes on doing 25 to 27 miles today. They wanted to get a early start so I told them that I’d get up whenever I heard them getting up. They didn’t get up that early. To help the process I made hot oatmeal (for me) since my stove sounds like an engine.

Some views on the way up to Dick’s pass.

And the first look over the other side.

The trail after the pass wound down some snow covered switchbacks. I had a successful boot ski down a long steep patch which I’m particularly proud of. After passing a few small lakes, it passed through woods for most of the day largely without notable view. At least it was obvious which way to go.

You’ve seen woods before but just in case…

Every once in a while there was a particularly lush meadow.

I ended the day with Timo and Pebble overlooking Lake Tahoe from a distance near Barker Pass. We were able to see fireworks from across the lake and the the sky would light up when a big one went off at Tahoe City or South Lake Tahoe. Timo had packed out cans of Coke to share over fireworks.

Memories from July 3

I’d intended to go to church today since it was the first Sunday I’ve been in civilization and been aware of the day of the week. Instead, I got up and wrote blog posts to get caught up then went to Lake of the Sky outfitters to use their computer to arrange resupply packages. I’d intended to use Sonora Pass Resupply since the owner gave me a water bottle after I lost mine on a glissade coming down from Sonora Pass. I found the website frustrating (ex: it unexpectedly dumped my cart) and so sent a bunch of feedback (gotta keep my software engineering skills fresh somehow, though I didn’t provide great repro steps since I was on a shared computer and didn’t have time to narrow them down) and used Zero Day resupply instead. I’ll revisit Sonora Pass Resupply the next time I’ll send resupply boxes which will probably be Ashland. I bought earphones which I’ve been lacking for a while and set up a bunch of music to download on Spotify. At this point it was lunch time. On my way out, I ran Butterfly who was arranging a ride out to Echo Summit and got me a seat. Just before the ride, I weighed my backpack in a fruit scale in Raley’s with four days of food, a little more than a liter of water, and two trekking poles, and a hip belt I’ve detached but couldn’t ship out, it was about 24.5 lbs. My lack of caring has paid off. Then the ride showed up and a man who paints murals for a living gave me and Timo a ride to Echo Summit while his wife drove Turbo and Butterfly.

With music for the first time ever on the trail I took off at a pretty good clip. I think music is a hiking drug. Then I discovered that Spotify had only downloaded 10ish songs. Also, I’d forgotten that Kindle audiobooks have to be downloaded separately from the text. Oh well. By three miles in, I’d put my new headphones away.

Red and blue flowers with white deadwood. Even nature is prepping for Independence Day.

Looking down Echo Lake from the water taxi launch. I took the high road on this time.

If only every lake were so close to its signpost.

I’d bought a camp stove at Lake of the Sky Outfitters yesterday and since I wasn’t quite sure where everyone wanted to camp for the night, I decided to try it out by making my first warm dinner of the trail. After almost 1100 miles, some experimentation is warranted. I was pretty ambivalent about warm vs cold ramen. The instant rice packer I made was certainly had a wider set of flavors than most of what I’ve been eating and I don’t know cold water will rehydrate it properly. On the whole the experience was mildly positive since I had water and a bandana on hand for cleaning and there wasn’t much mess.

Aloha Lake

Heather Lake. We camped shortly after this but not in view.

Memories from June 2

I spent the morning running errands. I resupplies at Raley’s. Made some calls. Picked up a surprise from a friend at  Lake of the Sky Outfitters and picked up a new pack. My old one was too large given my current setup and I wanted to try something smaller but with softer shoulder straps and where I could take the hip belt off.

After the outfitters, I joined Timo at the campsite he’d rented nearby. I had intended to ship by old pack out but instead hung out at Pope Beach with a friend who is working at a camp. It was the first time today that I felt like I’d been able to slow down and enjoy South Lake Tahoe. While we were sitting in the beach a purple, inflatable ball started drifting off into the lake and I tried to swim after it. Hiking seems to have completely ended my ability to swim more than a few dozen yards so a kayaker got the ball instead. I’d intended to see a movie tonight since I think the cinema is to defining experience of being in civilization as opposed to out hiking but was too tired after dinner.

Ryan – This one is for you. Much appreciated.

Memories from July 1

The morning opened with six miles to Carson Pass where there was a visitor’s center with fruit, brownies, cheesecake, and soda. The walk in climbed up over a ridge. Here’s a view on the way up looking south.

After the Carson Pass visitor’s center there was an easy up-and-over to get to the Echo Summit trailhead. The top of the rise was an open meadow with soft waving grass which looked a little like a coat of fur.

I found Rip Snorter, Jeff, and John at the top on their cell phones using a shred of service to try to find accommodations in South Lake Tahoe with their group. I’d hiked with them and that group some in the Sierra before Muir Trail Ranch and was interested on my info they had since everyone expects South Lake Tahoe to fill up for the July Fourth weekend.

First view of Lake Tahoe.

I got down to the Echo Summit trailhead, after having mistaken the Adventure Mountain parking lot for it. A retired missionary named Coppertone was sharing God’s love with hikers by making them rootbeer floats. Since the trail doesn’t actually go through the Echo Summit parking lot, but brushes by it, he’d advertised his presence my taping an ice cream container to a root beer bottle with, “Coppertone is here” scrawled on them. I guess he’s pretty well know because he’ll provide trail magic for a week and then move to a new location attempting to get there when the same group if hikers Pass through.

From Echo Summit I got a hitch into South Lake Tahoe from two day hikers who are section hiking the Tahoe Rim trail. They’d left their keys in the car which they’d driven around to the Carson Pass trailhead but as I was going out to find another hitch, reiterated their offer to give me a ride. Since I’d thought I’d left my SPOT at the Carson Pass visitor’s center, and they were going there before South Lake Tahoe, I accepted and we waited until their daughter showed up with a key to get underway. They also gave me a beer which makes for three instances of trail magic today. Crazy.

They gave me a ride all the way to the Mellow Mountain Hostel on the far side of town where I had a reservation. After checking in, I went on a rampage of shower, laundry, and internet usage. I was up till 11pm uploading blog posts because I don’t trust the WordPress app to preserve the order in which I press upload so I had wait for each to finish before uploading the next. I also got around to moving my gym subscription to my new credit card since their calls accounted for the majority of voicemail on my phone.

Memories from June 30

The morning started uneventfully. The most interesting thing was this hilltop which looks like it has a monster climbing over it.

And then, I was ambushed by trail magic at Ebbet’s Pass. I hadn’t been watching the waypoints and was surprised to find a road here, much less a complete breakfast with chili over eggs, fruit, break and jam, and two helpings of cereal. The trail angel putting this on, Chipmunk, hiked the PCT in Oregon and has been doing this one week a year for the last six years. It was interesting hearing his stories from the same point on the trail sampled over time.

Moving slowly due to a full belly, I proceeded out of the woods across grassy and shrubby slopes crowned with rough brown rock.

Things got drier as the day wore on. I was passed by a though hiker with the smallest backpack I’m ever seen.

During an early dinner which I was sharing with a 75 year old section hiker named Tim, Butterfly, Turbo, MP3, and Ladybug happened by and I joined them for a traverse that evening over the Blue Lakes. The guy with the red pack is Ladybug. Guess why.

Upper and Lower Blue Lake.

This is from where we camped. My pack has gotten small since leaving my Sierra gear.

Ladybug had a ton on energy and instigated a swim in the nearby Lost Lakes. I only have the clothes on my back so I wore my rain gear after getting out.

Memories from June 29

I started today from just inside the Carson-Iceberg wilderness. He trail starts with a climb up and over what would be a small pass if there were mountains on either side. Here’s the view from a viewpoint looking back roughly in the direction if Sonora Pass.

I ran into Timo, a German fellow I’d met a few days ago, and we joined a group with Miles and Bacon for the snowy trip down the other side to the valley.

There’s an enjoyable irony in that the day after I send home my ice axe and microspikes is the day I do the most glissading and boot skiing. It was tons of fun despite being broken up by bushes and rocks every few tens of feet.

The group had been hiking with a lot of energy but stopped for a snack break. I continued since I’d had a bar while walking to keep my energy up. The valley was an easy walk in the woods until it decided to climb the valley wall. There was a point where I could have succumbed to the steep grade and slowed down but I was on a roll and with a lot of pretending that I was various super heroes and mythical figures, I rage hiked my way to the top, stopping only to dunk my head under this small waterfall.

At the top of the ridge was a funny pile of dark colored rocks, different from the surrounding granite.

I lunched in the shade near this tree. Apparently the woodland creatures get their Bonsai on from time to time.

At the Paradise Valley trail junction there was a memorial to faithful hiking stick. The inscription reads, “1034 miles. Was good stick.” Given that I’ve had to replace my trekking poles and that both of their tips have broken in the last 300 miles, 1034 miles is pretty good for piece of wood that someone probably found by the side of the trail.

The trail was mostly a gradual downhill passing intermittently through grassy open spaces with pleasant scenery.

I was considering trying to make it a 30 mile day when I ran into Grandpa Mac (Matt?) and spent two-ish hours talking, meandering, and eventually supping. He’s 70 and is section hiking. From watching him rock hop, he’s got a few more years of hiking in him even if he’s not putting up big miles any more. It was something of the wonderful old-young interaction. Conversation topics included love, war, religion, and, of course, hiking. This is what I hope to be doing at 70.

After dinner, we parted ways and I hiked out if the Carson-Iceberg wilderness to Noble Lake. I remember this gate from the saddle before the valley in which Noble Lake lies. It’s a little more built up than when I last went through

Looking south from the gate.

The trail disappeared most immediately and based on the footprints, I’m not even close to the only one who just took a straight shot down the valley and coming up from below Noble Lake instead of staying above it and coming down from the east.

Eventually I did find the trail, but I was pretty much already at the lake.

Today was full. I felt like it started with a day at the ski resort, followed by an adrenaline filled raging workout, a good conversation with an old man, and as a final twist, a bushwhack. How do you summarize all that for the title?

Memories from June 28

I was going to say that I started today by getting lost. Technically, I managed to leave Yosemite National Park first.

I got lost between Lake Harriet and Dorothy Lake last time I passed this way. This time, I did the same. Here’s a picture from shortly after Dorothy Pass  (there are real passes like Forester which state you in the face and let you know that you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something when you’re past them and there are fake passes like Island pass which you wouldn’t realize were passes except for that second word when their name is written on a map; Dorothy Pass is in the latter category). It’s very pretty but between the rock which doesn’t show trail and snow which buries trail, I think most people get at least a little lost. What makes this area deceptive is that when the PCT starts to descend near a stream, it usually goes into the valley which that stream follows. Here, the trail starts with one stream but, just when you’ve lost the trail itself and are looking around for landmarks (say, like a stream to follow), it takes a hard right and drops towards Lake Harriet. Why not just look for Lake Harriet? Because, despite its size, it’s not visible from the ground above it until you’re pretty well into its valley and not the one from the first river.

I could have pulled out a GPS but wanted some practice map reading the key area in the decision was probably less than a half square mile so I figured it was a pretty safe playground.

I correctly identified a rise which forced you to pick which valley to follow. While trying to confirm that reading, I looked down from it and couldn’t see a pond I expected to. However, I saw some red marks in the snow which are correlated with tracks (I’ve been told the red tint is an algae but why it seems to usually show in the trenches if old tracks, I have no clue) and if they were tracks, they were where I’d expect them to be if the pond were generally where I expected it to be. On further investigation, I found a cairn (I love cairns) and with it a trail. I was so proud of myself.

From there the trail lead pretty quickly to Lake Harriet.

Crossing Lake Harriet’s outlet stream was reminiscent of yesterday’s obstacle course. It’s a little hard to see here but the water in the foreground is the stream flooding into the trail.

After that though the descent was uneventful as were the next several miles. Other than the 1000mile marker.

Also the terrain changed from a white-grey granite to a red-brown that almost wanted to be purple.

Eventually I reached the switchbacks before Sonora Pass. They were largely still under snow so I took a well trod alternate which I’d remembered seeing on my hike six years ago. At the time there was no snow and I wondered why there were so many alternates which were so well traveled when the official trail was so well kept.

Looking back at the switchbacks.

Unlike other passes where the switchbacks lead directly to the crest of the pass, these lead to a ridgewalk of several miles.

The walk is unique in that you get to spend so much time at the elevation of the pass, though Sonora Pass just barely squeaks in above 10,000ft.

Finally, you round a corner and see the pass itself.

It’s completely different from every other pass in color and texture.

At the crest was a heart.

The walk along the backside revealed a very different landscape from what I’ve been traveling through.

Just as I thought I’d seem the last of the big snow crossings… Massive glissade and boot ski.

And so ended the Sonora Pass adventure.

At the trailhead just after the highway, I met the guy who runs Sonora Pass resupply. He gave me a water bottle since I’d lost mine and, despite not having and order previously placed, took my bear can, ice axe, and microspikes for shipping home. My backpack feels much lighter.

Just past the trailhead, in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, I noticed clouds promising rain and so set up my tarp, are dinner and caught up on blog posts.

Around 7pm the sun came out and chased off the worst of the clouds.

Great, wonderful, amazing day.