(
click on any photo to enlarge) This is the scene I woke up to this morning. I got up and made coffee this morning before the sun came up. Today was our first 20 mile day of the trip. Luckily there wasn't a huge amount of vertical. I enjoyed my coffee and broke camp at a leisurely pace. We still got on trail by 7am. From camp we climbed up Sonora Peak, skirted the summit to the East, and descended in to the canyon that contains the East Fork of the Carson River. Free range cattle are allowed in this area so clean water became the objective of the day.
With the peaks surrounding us lower than the High Sierra, the views were very expansive. The flora and fauna matched the Tahoe area we hike in at home. Lots of skunk cabbage, sage, manzanita, and mountain tulies. We had just one climb to speak of today which was not too difficult but VERY windy at the top.
On the descent we met Dave and Kelly going Southbound. They are two very fit section hikers from SoCal. They had done the desert sections of the PCT earlier in the year. Their daughter works at a pack station out of Virgina Canyon. So they were, with their very cool dog Zack, heading to Yosemite from which we had come. We stopped and talked for a while in the shade. Unfortunately we had mileage to do so we said goodbye and offered licorice treats as a parting gift. Our scheduled stop for the evening was to be Golden Canyon Creek but when we got there at about 5pm there was cow shit everywhere. Evidently the cows like the high altitude backcountry as much as we do. We pushed on and finally found a sight on a little bluff where, most importantly, there was no cow shit. 20 miles was tough but not as bad as we all thought. Thats a good thing as we have another one tomorrow!
(click on any photo to enlarge) This is the scene I woke up to this morning. I got up and made coffee this morning before the sun came up. Today was our first 20 mile day of the trip. Luckily there wasn't a huge amount of vertical. I enjoyed my coffee and broke camp at a leisurely pace. We still got on trail by 7am. From camp we climbed up Sonora Peak, skirted the summit to the East, and descended in to the canyon that contains the East Fork of the Carson River. Free range cattle are allowed in this area so clean water became the objective of the day.
With the peaks surrounding us lower than the High Sierra, the views were very expansive. The flora and fauna matched the Tahoe area we hike in at home. Lots of skunk cabbage, sage, manzanita, and mountain tulies. We had just one climb to speak of today which was not too difficult but VERY windy at the top.
On the descent we met Dave and Kelly going Southbound. They are two very fit section hikers from SoCal. They had done the desert sections of the PCT earlier in the year. Their daughter works at a pack station out of Virgina Canyon. So they were, with their very cool dog Zack, heading to Yosemite from which we had come. We stopped and talked for a while in the shade. Unfortunately we had mileage to do so we said goodbye and offered licorice treats as a parting gift. Our scheduled stop for the evening was to be Golden Canyon Creek but when we got there at about 5pm there was cow shit everywhere. Evidently the cows like the high altitude backcountry as much as we do. We pushed on and finally found a sight on a little bluff where, most importantly, there was no cow shit. 20 miles was tough but not as bad as we all thought. Thats a good thing as we have another one tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment