South Lake Tahoe to Belden Town - Miles 1093-1289

So far I (Dingo) think these might have been my favorite 200 miles of the trip (although MudD has enjoyed this section, his favorite has been the Sierra).  Although it has been a little hotter (lower elevation) the weather hasn't been too bad and the terrain has been getting a bit easier.  It's good walking and great scenery.  I have learned that although the views from the tops of mountain above tree line can be jaw dropping and amazing, I really enjoy walking through forests where we can't see much.  Now my opinion is not shared by all... not even by most.  Many other hikers we have talked to have not liked this section at all.  They miss the hugeness of the Sierra.  And I do too... I guess I just don't miss it as much as others.  I think Northern California is pretty cool so far.

7/5 - Day 70 - 17 miles - 1093-1110

We had spent two days with my mom in South Lake Tahoe and Carson City and although it was nice to see her and eat everything we wanted to, we were anxious to get back on the trail.  My mom dropped us off and we set off.  We had left some things with my mom, including our bear vaults which we were no longer required to carry so our packs were lighter than they had been in a while.  Ironically this first day without our bear vaults we saw a bear within the first 15 minutes of our hike.  It was just a little guy/gal but it was not afraid of us at all.  It just sat on a log and watched us walk past.  We ran into a bunch of other hikers at Echo Lake, only a mile and a half into our hike that day. Chatting and catching up with these hikers really distracted us and we ended up accidentally spending an hour and a half there.  It seems as though whenever we take off our packs and sit down time just flies and before we know it it is time to get moving again when all I want to do it relax just a little bit longer.  So off we went, up and over Dick's Pass!  My brother had told me to look out for Dick's Pass because there was a nice lake to camp by right around it.  Now I don't remember which lake he said it was but it could have been a number of lakes.  It seemed like all day we were hiking by lake after lake and we finally chose a nice little lake (with only a few mosquitoes) and had a great night cooking food and reading our books.  We really surprised ourselves this day... even though we were kind of lazy all day and stopped early, we were still able to do 17.  Pretty cool.

7/6 - Day 71 - 19 miles - mile 1110 to 1129

Well our laziness from the day before continued into this day.  We slept in!  A lot.  Now I love sleeping and I am not a morning person at all but even I can't sleep too long in that tent once the sun rises enough.  It's just too bright out.  But even I couldn't believe that we slept all the way until 7 in the morning.  That is the latest start we've had the whole trip!  I loved it.  Honestly we don't really remember too much about this day other than we took our time.  We stopped at 4 pm at the last water source for another 9 miles and although it was early and we had only done 19 miles that day we didn't feel like dry camping that night so we decided we would just set up our stuff and have another great night.  Although we had the place to ourselves when we first showed up, right around 7 pm a whole bunch of other people walked up into the campground so we had several neighbors that night.  Most of them I don't remember too well as I haven't seen them much since but two guys, Veggie and Track Meat, we would spend a lot of time in the next couple of days.

7/7 - Day 72 - 30 miles - 1129 to 1159

What we didn't realize the night before when we stopped so early was that it would set us up to have to do a 30 this day due to lack of water.  We knew about the first 9 miles from our campsite without water and we were prepared for it.  But when we looked at the maps to see when the next water source was, we realized that we had plenty of water for the next couple of miles but then we had a long 16 mile waterless stretch.  Really the only thing that made sense was to do 30.  So we set off and  started moving... fast.  For some reason I felt amazing this day.  We had a pretty steep 3.5 mile climb up to that last water source for 16 miles and I was flying.  MudD even said he was struggling to keep up with me up that hill and that has never happened before.  We stopped at the top of the hill at the water which happened to be right under a ski lift and had lunch with Track Meat!  After we had finished lunch we took off to finish the last 16 miles of the day and I was disappointed to realize that my energy boost from the morning was over and I was back to moving at my normal speed again... which was unfortunate because we had another steep uphill to deal with.  But we made it just fine to the first highway crossing (only 3.5 miles from our destination) where some nice trail angel had left a cooler of beer!  After we finished our beers we headed off for highway 80 where there was a rest stop with water and bathrooms.  We were flying towards that!  A real bathroom!  I couldn't believe it.  We made it to the trail junction and knew the rest stop was only another half of a mile up the trail but somehow took a wrong turn and got really lost.  We walked for 40 minutes uphill thinking maybe the rest stop was just around the next bend when finally we wised up and realized, hey we have been walking for 40 minutes when it was supposed to take five minutes to get there.  We turned around and finally made it back to the rest stop at 10 pm.  We cooked right out front of the rest stop and got some pretty weird looks but we did not care at all.  We ended up setting our tent up in the backyard of the rest stop.  It was 11 pm before we even ended up getting into the tent and then we were so razzled from the day that we probably didn't end up falling asleep until after midnight.  Our feet were sore, we were frustrated, but at least we were in our tent.  We ended up doing maybe 34 miles that day but only 30 on trail.

7/8 - Day 73 - 22 miles - 1159 to 1181

Because of our huge day the day before we took it easy today.  We breaked a lot and really enjoyed the day.  We were walking over rolling hills, nothing too steep, nothing too hard on our knees.  Just easy walking.  This was our favorite day of the trail so far.  We found a great camping spot near a stream and had amazing stars that night.

7/9 - Day 74 - 16 miles - 1181 to 1197

This day flew by because we booked it as fast as we could to Sierra City.  We had heard really good things about this town and we wanted to know why.  Everything we had heard about Sierra City was true.  It is our favorite town of the whole trip so far.  Why?  Because it's tiny.  Everything is right there!  The trail angel, the deli, the postoffice, and the bar were all less than a 3 minute walk from each other!  It was so easy!  And everyone was so nice!  We ended up at the bar that night, hanging out with the guy who had made us burgers earlier that day, playing great songs on the jukebox and playing pool.

7/10 - Day 75 - 0

We had so much fun in Sierra City the day before that we decided to zero there and hang out a bit.  Great decision.  Everything about that little town was amazing.  That night we even got to attend a cello concert put on by a fellow hiker.  This guy is a really great cellist and has been mailing his cello from town to town and playing concerts along the trail.  We had missed all his concerts up to that point and this one was a very special one because his wife (who plays the violin) would be joining him!  It was the final straw - we had to stay.  So we did and had an amazing time!

7/11 - Day 76 - 14 miles - mile 1197 to 1211

It was pretty darn hard to pull ourselves away from Sierra City but finally at 1 in the afternoon we finally got our stuff together and headed off in the heat of the day for a large ascent.  It actually wasn't too bad and those first 8 miles of uphill was over before we knew it.  We had great views, it was a great trail, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool.  That night we camped at a little pond with sort of sketchy water but it was wet.  MudD fell right asleep as soon as we were done with dinner and I wasn't too far behind. 

7/12 - Day 77 - 26 miles - mile 1211 to 1237

What a great day.  There was nothing too spectacular about this day but we loved it.  We were just in the zone and moving.  We had to eat dinner a little early by the last water source we were going past for the night and then hike on and dry camp for the night.  We both carried three liters of water to our campsite and we had way more than enough water not only for that night but also for the next day.  We didn't have to stop for water until noon the day after that.  All day long we walked through beautiful forests with huge trees, some of them with really green moss growing all over them.  There was nothing really special about the day to talk about but it was really fun.  

7/13 - Day 78 - 24 miles - mile 1237 to 1261

Again, this was a great day of walking through forest after forest over mountains and hills and on top of ridges.  The best part of the day was our break at noon.  We had walked about 14 miles already by our lunch break and took a break by this beautiful river.  It was a gorgeous break and we spent over 2 hours there when normally we try to keep our lunch breaks to an hour.  It was just too beautiful to pack up!  After lunch we had a large climb ahead of us that went by a lot faster than I was expecting it to.  Again we had to eat our dinner early at the last water source of the day and moved on to dry camp.  We found a great spot right across from a place called "Lookout Rock" (appropriate name) and had amazing views of not only the sunset but also the sunrise the next morning.  Neither of us slept too well though because all night there was some animal visitor making noises around our tent.  It was probably just a deer but I was convinced there was a bear stalking us.

7/14 - Day 78 - 28 miles - mile 1261 to 1289

When we woke up this morning we had no intention of walking the 28 miles into Belden Town.  We told ourselves that we would just go with the flow and keep walking until we wanted to stop.  It just so happened that we wanted to stop at the restaurant in Belden Town.  The 28 miles this day was an easy 28 miles.  We had a couple of climbs and then it was downhill all day.  But again, the uphills were well graded and gradual and the forests are just very fun to walk through and so the miles fly by.  Even though it is getting hotter outside (by the day it feels like) it feels really good to sweat and we just have to make sure we are drinking enough water.  After we finished dinner in Belden, my mom called saying that she was going to visit us one last time before she flies back home!  So now we are in Quincy on yet another zero day hanging out with my mom at this awesome motel.  We saw an okay movie but we are excited to hit the trail again tomorrow!  Our next stop is Burney Falls State Park which is over halfway done with the trail!  WOOOOOOO.  I can't believe we are so close to being halfway done.  After this the next big milestone is getting out of California at mile 1698 but we shouldn't count our miles before they are walked.

Picture Post

We only have 30 minutes on this library computer which is not nearly enough time to write a summary of our last week and a half so we are just going to post some pictures now and we'll try to write a summary tonight once we find a hotel!  We are in Belden Town which is at mile 1289... only 43 miles from halfway!

Hiking towards Sonora Pass.  BEAUTIFUL scenery!  And better yet it was a nice break from the mosquitos

MudD walking up on a ridge

All our new friends hanging out at a bar in Sierra City.  Mile 1197.  From left to right: Slack, Veggie, Tortuga, Hummingbird, Ole, MudD, Bartender Bob, and Uncle Famous.  Track Meat is in there too behind MudD but he is hard to see.

Scenery

I hate mosquitos!  This bug net saved my sanity and my face.

 

 Storm rolling in over us as we go over a pass.  Kind of sketchy.  Made it to an overhang just as it started to rain on us.

Lake Tahoe from the west side!

 Northern California

aafad

 We keep walking through these cool forests covered in moss

 Sign in Sierra City letting us know how far we have gone and how far we need to go still.

 View from the top

Top of a mountain looking over at the ridge we are going to walk

 MudD excited we only have 14.3 miles till town!

The Last Week

Finally leaving Yosemite

So we finally got out of there!  We slept in again but then hit the trail!  What we did not realize was that we were walking into the worst mosquito experience we may ever have in our lifetimes.

6/26 - miles 942 - 962- 20 miles - day 62

We headed out on the trail this day after not doing any PCT miles for 3 days.  There were a lot of dayhikers out on the trail but they disappeared once we got about 6 miles from the trailhead.  We were back on the PCT and cruising!  had a couple of tough climbs and but we had a lot of fun.  At one point we came to a fork in the road and we had to choose between two different paths.  After consulting the maps we chose the one on the left.  After a couple of minutes of downhill walking I got a terrible feeling that we had chosen wrong.  I looked at the maps again and just did not know where we were so I dropped my pack and sprinted down the hill after MudD to tell him that I wasn't so sure we had chosen right.  I thought MudD would just be around the corner but he is a lot faster than even I knew.  I got nearly all the way down to the bottom of the hill when I stopped him, showed him the maps, and he said, "Fran, we're right here... see?  We chose the right way."  So I then started the long walk back up the hill to get my pack only to come back down.  It really wasn't that bad.  And that's really the only exciting thing that happened during they day so hey, it wasn't too bad.  That night when we got into camp the mosquitos were pretty bad.  We set up the tent and started a fire.  We spent that night with Goodall, The Blur, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and Keno- not knowing we would spend every night this week with most of these people.

6/27 - miles 962 - 983 - 21 miles - Day 63

We woke up to a mosquito free day... but it wouldn't stay that way too long.  By the time we got to the top of our first pass at 9 am, the mosquitos were terrible.  We had our bug nets on, pants, rain jackets, and bug spray.  I don't think we were getting bit by the mosquitos but we were still pacing back and forth trying to get away from those bugs.  Luckily MudD found a bug net at some point during this day.  That night, the mosquitos were even worse than they were the night before.  We decided that night we had to wake up early the next morning, before the mosquitos were up so we could pack up in peace.

6/28 - miles 983-1,007 - 24 miles - Day 64

Our plan to wake up early to skip the mosquitos and pack up in peace failed because the mosquitos were already out at 5 in the morning.  And they were biting like crazy and they did not stop the entire day.  It was my least favorite day on the trail so far.  It was terrible!  Everything we walked through was wet.  My feet were soaked, not from river crossings but from just walking down the trail which itself became a river at times.  Easily the worst it got was when we were passing by this one lake.  I had reapplied bug spray a million times it seemed that day and still they were biting me.  At this lake though, I could feel them flying and hitting my calves by the hundreds.  MudD got his wiffle ball bat out and started swinging it around in the air and he said he could hear them hitting the bat, one after the other.  We literally could not stop walking this day.  They were bad enough when we were moving, I didn't want to know what they would be like when we stopped.  But I started stumbling and nearly fell a couple times and even though I didn't want to stop, MudD insisted that we take a break, drink some water, and have a little snack.  That break helped a lot and gave me the energy to get to the top of the pass we were climbing where we finally left Yosemite National Park!  Finally!  We had been blaming all our mosquito problems on Yosemite and maybe it was all in our heads but I swear the mosquitos let up just a bit as soon as we passed over the Yosemite National Park line.  We passed that line at mile 998 and only had two to go until we made it to mile 1,000... which we completely missed.  We passed by the rocks that were marking the huge milestone so that was pretty anti-climatic.  That afternoon we experienced our first afternoon storm scare.  These clouds looked nasty!  But it was hot out so I was hoping it would actually rain.  The clouds went right by us, never actually going over us and we would not know it then but this would happen to us several more times that week.  That night we had a nice campfire with Hummingbird, Dinnertime, Keno, and our new friend, Caveman.  Besides Caveman, we had camped with these guys every night that week so far... and not because we had planned it that way, just because we all happen to have the same plan every morning when we woke up.  

6/29 - miles  1007 - 1029 - 22 miles - day 65

Today was our best day of the week.  The mosquitos were non-existent, the scenery was beautiful, and we had some unexpected trail magic!  We spent the morning climbing up to a ridge that we then followed for a couple miles.  It was just gorgeous and we thought we must be going to slow because we kept on stopping to take pictures.  Then when we finally came down from the ridge, some trail angels were at a parking lot where the trail crossed a highway at Sonora Pass.  They made us hotdogs for lunch (including a side of cheesy potato).  I had at least 4 cans of soda and I'm pretty sure MudD did the same.  I was so full but we still wanted to go another 11 miles before the day was over.  So reluctantly we put our packs back on (though we had to loosen the waist bands a bit) and headed off.  It was actually a lovely afternoon.  The climb out of Sonora Pass wasn't even that bad.  We made it to camp, ate again though we were still full from the trail angel lunch.  We thought maybe the rest of our group wasn't going to make it but just as we were about to get into the tent for the night, our friends showed up!  Keno started a fire that night and we stayed up late all telling stories and chatting it up.  Finally around 9 pm (very late for us) we headed off to bed to get ready for the next day.

6/30 - miles 1,029 - 1,055 - 26 miles - day 66

This day was pretty rough.  We knew we wanted to get far this day and so we took off like a shot.  We made it 13.5 miles by lunchtime and sat down to take a break where we both realized we had headaches.  It was really hot out this day and I felt like I could not drink enough water.  On we went, up and over a couple hills.  The hills didn't look too hard or long on our elevation charts but man these things kicked our butts!  We sat back down after crossing a highway with a little less than 6 miles to go until we would stop for the day.  We got out a couple snacks and were hanging out for a bit when Dinnertime showed up and suddenly shouted, "trail magic!" and went off running up the hill. MudD and I followed quickly and we discovered a cooler full of gatorade, soda, beer, chips, and apples!  It was delicious!  And very uplifting after such a hard afternoon.  We immediately grabbed some apples... which immediately made MudD feel terrible!  Maybe it's because we hadn't eaten fruit in so long?  I don't know what happened but MudD ended up throwing up the apple... and I mean just the apple.  I took a look at the throw up when it was all said and done and none of the snacks he ate right before the apple were included in the puke.  So that was weird.  But afterwards he felt great and we kept moving!  And it was a beautiful last couple of miles.  We ended up camping in a beautiful canyon (with all of our friends) and the mosquitos were barely biting.  Great night.  I had a bit of a headache though still so I went to lay down in the tent - thats when the zipper on our tent officially broke.  Oops.  That night we had to sleep with the tent open and in the morning our tent was full of huge insects.

7/1 - miles 1,055 to 1,084 - 29 miles - day 67

Now, we did not mean to do 29 miles today.  MudD and I were both so out of it this morning for some reason that we thought we might only make it 20 miles.  It was hot was just a hot hot morning and there were no landmarks so we couldn't tell how far we had gone yet.  Suddenly at 10:40 in the morning we came across Blue Lakes Rd... which was supposed to be 12.5 miles from where we camped the night before.  We were both pretty surprised.  We thought we were going really slow!  But somehow we were moving!  We took an early lunch, had a beautiful uphill climb and then started up a pass just as a huge thunderstorm was rolling in.  We had amazing views from up high... and then just as we got to the top of the pass, the thunder and lightning started and we decided it was a good time to get off of the top of a mountain.  So we ran down and made it to a building with an overhang just as it started sprinkling.  MudD, Keno, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and I all made dinner early and then headed out for three more miles where we heard there was good camping.  We got there and there was terrible camping there so we all kept going.  We all felt great from dinner and though we had had a huge day already, everyone of us felt confident to move on.  That night we camped at Showers Lake, home of the mosquitos.  We were too pooped to even have a fire that night.

7/2 miles 1,084 - 1,094 - 10 miles - day 68

After the hellish week we had with mosquitos we were all very excited to get into town.  It was a quick morning and got a hitch in to South Lake Tahoe pretty quickly.  We chowed down on McDonalds and found a cheap place to stay.  It was the Super 8 and it was actually really cool.  We went out to a casino that night with plans of hitting the all you can eat buffet and then gambling a bit in the Nevada side of town.  But after the all you can eat buffet we were pretty done and just went home, watched some movies, and fell asleep.

So now we are still in South Lake Tahoe.  My mom happened to be coming out to California anyway so she met us here and we have been hanging out with her for a while.  Tomorrow (the 5th) we will be heading out on the trail again for more adventures!

Stuck in Yosemite!

Stuck in Yosemite...

6/21-6/25 - mile 906-942 - 36 miles - day57- 61

This is our story of how we got stuck in Yosemite National Park for 3 days... when we only planned on 1

We left Mammoth on June 21st... the first day of summer!  We got a really slow start though and didn't get back to the trail until around noon.  Our friend, Mermaid had contacted us the day before and told us her family was throwing a dinner party of sorts at Tuolumne Meadows Campground on the 22nd.  Tuolumne Meadows was just 36 miles away from Mammoth which was very possible for us to do in two days but we had to get descent mileage in that first day if we were going to make it.  So we booked it out of Mammoth, running past the Devil's Postpile (pretty cool and famous rock formation) and tried to walk fast enough to get ourselves away from the dayhikers that were flooding the trail.  We made it 16 miles that day despite our late start but we never really got away from the crowds.  Later the next day as we were walking into Tuolumne Meadows the crowds got bigger and bigger the closer we got.  And then we arrived at Tuolumne Meadows and holy cow were there a lot of people at this campground.  There were tons of families with huge tents complete with blow up mattresses to sleep on cooking hot dogs and steaks on their huge portable grills, and everyone drinking sodas or beers out of their coolers.  Now normally crowds of people bother us... it's a weird feeling to be out in nature all alone and then all of a sudden BAM a ton of people are around.  But we knew that somewhere in that maze of campsites all filled with people was a campsite that we were welcome at with homemade food.  We put our blinders on, found the campsite, and had a great night with Mermaid and her family.  There was pasta, chicken, guacamole!, salad, and beverages other than water for us to drink.  It was a really great night.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast with Mermaid's family and then set off for our next adventure: finishing the John Muir Trail.  The Pacific Crest Trail links up with the JMT at mile 766 (I think) and the two trails are the same until Tuolumne Meadows.  The PCT breaks off and continues north whereas the JMT goes down into Yosemite Valley.  We figured we had done nearly all of the JMT and we were so close to finishing it that hey, we might as well go on and just do it.  But we ran into problems at the ranger station.  We found out that we would need a permit to camp overnight on the JMT and although it was only 22 miles to finish (we thought) it was already 10:30 in the morning and I didn't think I would have fun hiking as fast as I could through the last section of the trail and all the while worrying that we wouldn't finish and would have to camp and then get hit with a $5,000 dollar fine.  So MudD went off with our friend, Hummingbird and finish the JMT while I spent the day hanging around Tuolumne Meadows with Mermaid and her family.  MudD said that they had a great hike.  They didn't end up leaving until 11 am but were able to finish the 31 miles that they did by 8 pm that night!  They were even fast enough to climb up Half Dome - a really famous mountain that can be seen from Yosemite Valley.  Normally there are tons of people on the trail... and normally everyone needs a permit to hike it but that day there was a storm rolling in so everyone had gone home, including the park ranger, so MudD and Hummingbird scrambled up to the top and they were the only two at the top!  It was a great hike they said.  But their real problems started after they finished the hike.

So they finished their hike and before getting the usual celebratory pizza and beer, they immediately started to try to hitchhike back to Tuolumne Meadows.  Now even though the trail that they took was less than 30 miles long, the drive between the two locations takes at least an hour and half.  Also it was getting dark and to be honest, MudD and Hummingbird both look like pretty sketchy guys with their huge beards and their hiker smell.  One guy picked them up but could only take them about 15 miles us the road which is where he dropped them off and again, they waited and tried to get a hitch... which they were not able to.  So they set up camp by the road and waited till the next morning when they were able to hitch BACK to the valley where they caught the only bus going up to Tuolumne Meadows.  If they had been 10 minutes later they would have missed that bus.  So up they came to Tuolumne Meadows on that bus ride and it took them 2 hours to get there.  Meanwhile, I'm back at Tuolumne Meadows where it is raining and cold.  Our friends Hermes and Lotus have just informed that that there is a free place for us to stay in Yosemite Valley and they have a ride down there.   So I try to get a hold of the boys but for some reason, Hummingbird's phone is off.  I was hoping that maybe they hadn't gotten a ride yet... I had been informed that the bus wouldn't come until the afternoon and so I was under the impression that they were still trying to hitchhike up.  Hermes and Lotus had just taken off with their ride when 10 minutes later, MudD and Hummingbird showed up.  They were completely exhausted from hiking 31 miles in 9 hours and then being up all night trying to find a ride back.  They had no desire to hike out that day.  Plus MudD's sleeping bag was wet and since the forecast showed rain for the next two days, we decided the best decision would be to go back to where they had just come from and spend the night in the Valley.

So back to the road we went.  They had hitched for hours and not been able to find a ride but it only took us 20 minutes before a woman picked us up and took us all the way there.  We found our friends and waited to find out where we were staying... and it happened to be with this awesome park ranger.  She was amazing and fantastic.  She had met Hermes before and found his blog and opened her house up to us.  She not only let us shower and do laundry, but she made us an amazing, home-cooked meal with honestly the best chicken I have ever had.  That night we slept great on her comfortable and soft carpet.  That night we had intentions of leaving early the next morning but we were so cozy that we slept in... and then we were made breakfast which was just as good, if not better than the meal we had the night before.  I really don't know how this woman learned to cook this way but holy cow.  The best part were her home-made ginger scones which I then dreamt about every day since.

But all good things must come to an end so we had to leave our park ranger trail angel and head back out into the wild world.  We put our thumbs out and it took us 4 hours to get a ride back to Tuolumne Meadows.  Again, we had every intention of hiking out that day but by the time we got back, it was nearly 5 and we were all pooped from the travels of the day... so we set up camp once again at Tuolumne Meadows and hoped that the day after we would finally be able to escape from the madness.