PCT Day 11 – Tahoe

F Flowers along early trail

Last night I heard music. Later I could hear people talking. It’s the weekend. There may be a public campground nearby. Or I need to double up on my meds.

The plan for the day is to complete another 18 miles of hiking to put me in reach of Sierra City tomorrow. I have barely enough food. On the the bright side, I believe that I have passed through the all of the recently burned areas near here. A lot of hikers skip this area. I found it to be beautiful, but challenging. For seasoned nobos coming from the border, this area would be a breeze.

Diversions

Since I didn’t camp by water last night, my first task is to hike to the next water source. I had originally planned to stop at Whiskey Creek, 0.3 miles from camp. But I believe I have enough water to go 5 miles to Beartrap Creek. At 6:25 I get out of camp.

Then a mile out of camp, the worst thing happens: I get 5G cell service. I freeze in my tracks. I check email. I check for blog comments. I upload maps. I call Patti. I call my kids. I even call my brother. It is insane. When it is over I have blown about an hour. Yes I enjoyed it immensely, but I also know that later in the day I am going to castigate myself mercilessly for this delay.

At 7000 feet the trail is clear and I can see all the surrounding mountains. Notice the thin brown hazy just above the horizon. That is smoke. Which fire is it coming from?

As I descend, I go back into forest. Wildflowers are so thick along the trail, they look like frost.

The trail emerges into a mountain road. These intersections are tricky. With so many diverging paths, it is sometimes had to see the trail marker.

Look closely near the base of two small trees in the center. There is a painted metal sign that reads PCT.

A word or two about flowers

I have been putting off showing any Indian Paintbrush because they were just too anemic. But today at altitude, they really start to pop. Paintbrushes may be found in so many colors. These are the orange red variety.

I really like this natural arrangement

But the most surprising flower of the day goes to this grungy little white flower. I don’t mean to be disparaging. It is a white puffy flower that quickly loses its petals and becomes a brown pock-marked seed ball. But the aroma of the little flower is intense. It has elements of cedar, lemon and lavender. It could be a designer fragrance. Never have I smelled something so intoxicatingly complex.

Back to reality

And then from no where I feel a sharp stab in my shin. I am walking through an overgrown part of the trail. My leg brushes against a weed and comes out like this.

It feels like a bee sting. I scrape it for a stinger but nothing is there. It smarts for about 20 minutes. I have no idea what it was.

As I head up the biggest climb of the day, the rocks beside the trail take on the Sierra Nevada ruggedness. Vertical angular rocks thrust up here and there. Soon it will be the dominant feature everywhere as I go farther south.

There is a peculiar kind of hiker out here. You don’t see them all that often among thru-hikers because we are so focused. The kind of hiker I am talking about is the peak bagger. These folk cannot stop themselves from going to the top of every peak they pass. Here you can see a thin trail that leads to the top of a peak that the PCT passes below. If I were 20 years younger, I might consider such an activity. But not now. No way. Never.

It’s fun to try to guess where the trail is leading. My phone works like a compass. I know my location on the map. And topographical maps give me clues about elevation. I believe that the trail is going down into the canyon below the hill on the left and then going up to that saddle I am pointing to.

Messages

Groups that hike together have odd dynamics. They are sort of together but not really. I emerge onto a road near a spring and find these three people lying in the shade. Their stuff is spread out everywhere. They point me to the spring. When I return we talk. I am hot and sick of hiking so I want to know all about them.

The guy on the left is from Switzerland. Europeans are everywhere on the trail this year because last year travel was shut down due COVID. He is not with the other two and he moves on. The other two are Early Burger and Extra. These two are part of a group of six hikers that got split up in Sierra City. Four stayed behind in an illegal campsite while these two went on ahead.

Early Burger is from New Zealand. When I mention how popular their prime minister is in America, EB says that her popularity is waning in New Zealand. “Since her COVID success, she has been doing an average job.” And then EB says something that no American would say: “Or maybe we are just spoiled.” Yeah, EB, maybe we are.

EB’s kiwi accent has me confused. She pronounces the words beer and bear the same way. When she says bear, I hear beer. “They have a real beer problem in South Lake Tahoe.” “They lined up a bunch of beer cans at night and by morning, beers had knocked them all over the place.” She would be fun to drink with.

Extra is not crazy about his trail name but he is very curious about tech writing (my former profession). It’s like a secret profession that he never realized existed. But it seems obvious now. Everything has instructions, right? Extra is from Vancouver, BC. He may be changing careers when he gets back.

Over the next few hours I meet 5 of their group on the trail. One of them, a British gal has a message for those behind her, so I pass it along when they appear.

This carefree guy is part of the group too. His method of hydrating while hiking is fascinating in the same way that speed eating is fascinating. He drinks 4 to 5 liters of water at a time so he only has to carry a single liter of water all day! Outrageous? Absolutely! His trail name? Wait for it….

Snags

As I am getting ready to go to bed I take a photo of my cozy campsite and make a horrible observation. There is a giant dead tree looming over it. I am quite fearful of getting crushed by one of these during my sleep.

So I break the whole thing down and move it to a new spot. Hundreds of people have camped peacefully under this tree. But not me. I would lay there in bed waiting for the telltale crack of doom.

• August 7
• Starting marker: 1231.2
• Ending marker: 1214.8
• Miles hiked today: 17
• Total PCT miles hiked: 139
• Most water drunk at a stop: 1 liter