Section 10 --Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass
June 20
14 miles. I'm back on the trail after 3 relaxing days
off. It took a while but I managed to hitch a ride from
a rock climber into Lee Vining where I spent the first
day eating and watching TV waiting for Cynthia to arrive.
Lee Vining--population 300--sits at the edge of beautiful
and austere Mono Lake. It services both the summer Yosemite
tourist crowd and the all-year Highway 395 traffic. Needless
to say, the motel rates go up in the summer and there
aren't any discounts for PCT hikers. Nevertheless, it's
a delightful little town--with good food--that manages
to retain its charm despite the tourist pressure. Mono
Lake is slowly rising again after the cessation of decades
of Los Angeles water diversions and there's a fabulous
new visitors center to educate the public. All-in-all,
a nice place to spend a few days.
Cynthia arrived the following evening and our friends,
Judy and Jack, also drove up for the weekend. The next
day we all drove out to Bodie(8,500 feet), a ghost town
high in the desert hills between Bridgeport and Lee Vining.
During the late 1800's, Bodie's gold and silver mines
supported 10,000 people. Now the town is a state park--
preserved in an "arrested state of decay." Most
of the buildings burned in a series of fires but there
are enough left to give a good feel of what the town must
have been like. The general store, church, schoolhouse,
post office, hotel, boarding houses, and the mine are
all intact--complete with furnishings and dry goods. It's
a fascinating window to the past and it was a nice way
to spend an afternoon.
Cynthia drove me back to Tuolumne Meadows late this morning.
We had a picnic lunch by a lake just below Tioga Pass
and watched the gulls floating on small icebergs. It was,
as always, hard to say good-bye. She's meeting me again
in a couple of weeks but a part of me went with her when
she drove away.
I saw Shirt and Packrat again at the Tuolumne Meadows
store for the first time since Tehachapi. We got a little
bit caught up and then I headed out, hoping to make some
afternoon miles. I soon caught up to Jarrod, another PCTer
who I've seen on and off for the last month. We hiked
together the rest of the afternoon and are now camped
in Virginia Canyon at the edge of Return Creek. Like all
the other "creeks" this time of year, this one
is running high--too high to cross tonight. We'll try
again in the morning.
June 21
18 miles. It was a very tough day with lots of snow and
stream fords. We hiked for 12 hours and walked through
at least 10 miles of snow.
We are now three: Jarrod, Sven, and me. Sven came down
the hill last night, his flickering light and voice announcing
his arrival. He and Jarrod have hiked together since the
Southern Sierra but Jarrod got tired of waiting around
in Tuolumne Meadows and left without him. In any event,
we will now all hike together for the next few days and
I'm glad. The trail has taken a sharp westerly turn and
we crossed 4 distinct north-south ridges today as well
as the river drainages between them. The last crossing--at
Piute Creek just above Benson Lake--was the toughest and
we were all wet and cold when we got though the last of
the 4 tributaries. Northern Yosemite is unfamiliar territory
to me and, if today's river crossing is any indication,
there are hazards here better attempted by a group. We
also lost the trail for much of the afternoon and it was
good to have 3 sets of eyes and brains working on navigation.
We're camped tonight on a granite shelf, with a spectacular
view, a couple of miles below Seavey Pass. Frank and Nathan
were here when we arrived at 8:30 p.m. and we'll all head
for the pass in the morning.
June 22
20 Miles. It was another petal-to-the-metal hiking day.
We hiked from 7:10 a.m.-8:30 p.m., crossing through 4
more ridges and rivers and about 13 miles of snow. We're
now camped about 5 miles below Dorothy Lake Pass on the
Northern Yosemite border.
Late this afternoon we had a frightening ford of Falls
Creek. It was, by far, the worst ford of the trip. All
of us were knocked 50 yards downstream by the force of
the chest-deep water and both Sven and I had to swim the
last 10 yards after we were knocked off our feet. For
a moment I thought I was in serious trouble but my feet
hit bottom again and I was able to scramble to shore.
On the descent from Seavey Pass this morning, my pack
sustained a 100-foot fall from a cliff. Fortunately, I
wasn't attached to it. After losing the trail in the snow
and attempting to lower my pack down a series of ledges
I lost control of it and it went off a cliff. I watched
in horror as it tumbled end-over-end down the rocks and
snow, spilled its contents, and then smacked into a tree.
I made my way down the cliff, following the trail of gear,
and found my pack wedged in a branch. I recovered everything
except my two compasses but my pack is ripped in several
places and will need surgery in the near future. Thank
God for duct tape.
Tomorrow we will leave Yosemite and head for Sonora Pass.
June 23
21 Miles. We left Yosemite via Dorothy Pass this morning
and entered the volcanic world of the Northern Sierra.
There's still granite underneath and more poking through
but lava predominates from here to Canada. It feels very
different than the granite world we just left but it has
a haunting beauty all its own.
Snow melts much faster on dark, volcanic rock than it
does on white granite and today's hike was blissfully
snow-free for much of the day. We had a nice traverse--
with views down to Highway 395--before arriving in late
afternoon at the base of the Sonora Pass summit ridge.
We ate dinner and climbed the last 1,500 feet to the ridgeline
at 10,500 feet. The views were breathtaking but the way
north looked impassable. The 8-mile knife ridge to Sonora
Pass was cloaked in snow on the north-facing slopes and
there was little hope of finding a campsite along the
entire traverse. After reading both the guidebook's warning
of dangerous conditions before mid-July and the suggested
alternate route we opted for the latter and dropped off
the ridge. It wasn't an easy decision. We've all tried
to walk the official PCT--though in reality the last 200
miles have been an approximation at best--but today's
alternate route was clearly off the trail. Nevertheless
it was equally long and, more importantly, far safer.
The route dropped north to Leavitt Lake and then out the
valley to Highway 108--the Sonora Pass road.
We're camped tonight by the side of the road, 3 miles
from Sonora Pass. Sven has gone on up the road to meet
a trail angel bringing an early a.m. food drop. Jarrod
and I are camped on a beautiful granite shelf with a spectacular
view and a nearly full moon.
June 24
20 miles. When unexpected acts of kindness happen on the
trail, it's called "trail magic." Today's trail
magic came from Sven's trail angels, Lisa and Jeff. When
Jarrod and I reached Sonora Pass early this morning Lisa
and Jeff were waiting for us. They put us and Sven in
their truck and drove us 1/2 hour down the road to Kennedy
Meadows where we had a huge eggs and pancakes breakfast.
After breakfast they drove us back up to the pass and
said good-bye. Neither of them even knew Sven, let alone
Jarrod or me, but Lisa participates in the PCT Internet
mailing list and wanted to do something nice for a PCT
hiker.
We hiked over a high pass north of Sonora Pass at 10,500
feet and then descended below 10,000 feet for the last
time. From here north to Canada the trail will remain
below 10,000 feet.
The U.S. Marines Mountain Warfare Training Center is
a few miles down the Sonora Pass Road and we woke up at
3 a.m. in the middle of a war. The Marines had stormed
the ridge about 1/4 mile from camp and were fighting their
way down to the road, machine guns blazing. I saw muzzle
flashes and heard men yelling orders and encouragement.
Soon the platoon reversed course and fought their way
back up the ridge--boulder by boulder, tree by tree--and
with one last burst of gunfire they were gone. Seriously
weird.
We ran into more heavy snow today on the north-facing
slopes and are now camped near Golden Lake on a windy
ridge. A cold front came through today and we decided
to crawl under this group of fallen logs to shelter from
the wind and cold.
We saw tracks today of a very large cat. They were in
parallel with deer tracks and I can't think of what else
it might have been except a mountain lion.
Tomorrow we hike to Ebbets Pass where my hiking companions
will hike on and I'll meet our family friends, Betsy and
Grant Metzger.
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