Today was a short down hill to Middle Fork of the Feather River.   On the way there were some balloons laying on the trail.  I left them for Soho.

Soho caught up with me later with this

Soho is such the boy scout.   Picking up trash and packing out his poo paper.      

The Feather river is a big-un.

Soho and I had lunch on the bridge then napped on and below it to wait out the heat.    Here is the evidence. 

It was a cool spot.   There were huge butterflies floating all over the place doing their thing.   Water was peaceful.   No mosquitoes.    I took off at 1:30 to start the climb.   Soho was 45 minutes behind me. 

Our destination is called Lookout Rock which is next to a spring.    Something doesn’t get the name “Lookout” whatever unless there is a big climb preceding it.   So…

Got passed by some kids from Israel and then….

Until finally 

Made camp up here.   We were getting mobile service so I called Alice and Mom to say hi.    Great spot.   There were folks rolling through most of the day.    Got to met this Czech dude named Bam Bam, he cowboyed on the rock.   

A French gal came by as well and we chatted a bit.   She did the entire high Sierra.   I’m impressed.   The gal is probably 5 foot 3 and 110.   Said she swam across some of the rivers, because they were so deep.   Her trail name?   Deathwish.    Heh. 

 

 

 

I packed in my tent this morning then jumped out, wadded up my tent and started walking.   The bugs wanted breakfast more than I did.

This one was fairly uneventful.    Mostly green tunnel stuff.    

  

 

We put up camp at Fowler lake trail THis was 19 miles for the day. 

 

Didn’t sleep well last night.   It was a good spot.   Exposed, but no wind.   The rain fly was not on but it was a good temperature.   So what’s was wrong?

Well, the skeeters were thick around the tent.   A couple of them made it inside before I zipped up before bed, so they were buzzing me all night long.   My headlamp was out, so I’d wake up and flail around then try to go back to sleep.   The damn moon was full so that was like a 20 watt bulb in my face.   Constant buzzing outside my tent plus my tormentor inside.   Sucked.

In the morning, I found the remaining live mosquito all fat from sucking my blood.  

 

I was going to squish her, but then I thought.   Hey, this damn creature spent all night dodging my blows.   She won and I lost.   So I let her go.    She will spawn a race of super-skeeters on the Buttes for next year’s hikers.  Fear her offspring.

Packed up and took a pano of the surroundings.   Really nice spot, aside from the insects.

   

I wasn’t waiting around for Soho, so I took off while he was stretching.     Figured he’d catch me anyway.   

Got into a little snow at first, but it wasn’t bad.    

 

There is a neat car camping area up here.   The trail parallels a dirt road with camp sites on either side.    Apparently someone took some mercy on us, because I ran into this little sign.   

Pointing at this 

Soho arrived shortly after, then Pocahontas and grumpy BF showed up to grab a couple.    They were nice and cold.    Great for breakfast.

Talked to a couple camping here.   They said the lakes are stocked and the fishing is supposed to be good.   Lot of trails to ride mountain bikes on.  

Kept on rolling, lot of lakes around here.

 

 Here comes the pain

This bit was super sketchy.    It was an open ridge line of snow that curved off into who-knows-what.    Could see and didn’t want to.   My poles were racked, so I grabbed two sticks for my self-arresting gear.   I don’t think they sell those at REI.   

After that we got into a tree line with some more of this crap. 

As we went lower it was a mixed bag of nasty and nice. 

 

 We had lunch next to a stream and a bunch of piles of snow.   It was here that, through my own genius, I created a fantastic new trail sensation.    Tang Slushie.    Here is the recipe: 

1.  Clear off the top layer of snow, including all sticks, dirt, footprints, and leaves.
2. Scoop into cooking pot that virgin snow (well as far as you can tell it is).
3. Add a bunch of tang powder
4. Furiously stab at the pile until mixed up and correct consistency
5. Enjoy

Soho agrees, it ranks in the top ten. 

Bunch of hiking down to a stream for our camp site.    There is so much vegetation around here, the vistas are getting harder to find.   Mosquitos seem to like it though.

Camp is at Nelson Creek  swamp.   Our insect friends were feasting today.    Soho was out there with his hat and shirt off getting raped.   He says, “help, I’m being violated”.   I made a fast dinner and zipped up.   Screw these bugs.   19 miles today.   Die Mosquitos, just Die.

  

Man this River Haven house is comfortable.  

Susan’s rear deck is next to a stream and looks over the North Yuba River.    I can get used to this.   I bought Susan some muffins to butter her up for our next request, which is to stay until the afternoon.   She is all good with it, I think it is Soho’s charm that wins the day.

 

We set off at 4:30 and got a hitch to the trail head.   The gal driving was funny.   She got on the subject of water conservation and said “Jerry Brown says not to flush my toilet so I flush it twice instead”.   Love it.

On the trail at 5 and climbed up and up.

Got to a ridge line with some camping and met a North bound couple.   Pocahontas and her grumpy tatooed boyfriend.   Forgot his name.   I think she’ll forget it too someday soon.

Stepped on 1200 this evening. 

We kept hiking into the twilight. 

We setup under the moonlight near Sierra Buttes Jeep road at 1203.   Met a couple of guys there making dinner.   Morning Joe and Strider.   They did most of the high Sierra’s, but skipped the section north of Yosemite.   These guys look like they can do the miles, probably won’t be seeing them much.  

Soho and I setup just our bug liners on our tents.   The mosquitoes are hungry up here.    I was getting bit every few minutes unpacking and cooking.   Hate those things.

 

 

Today’s goal is Sierra City.   According to Soho, there is a gut-buster waiting for us there (1lb Cheeseburger).   He seems inspired. 

The morning started with a nice lake view. 

And some clear trail.  

Down and over a creek. 

 

 

Little mostly easy walking for a change.   The Altitude slow drops from 7k to around 4.7k at Haypress Creek.

This was cool.   That spill way was raging. 

We ran into a about 15 local retired women doing a day hike.   Apparently they get together every Wednesday to do a 10 to 15 miler together.    A few of their husbands get volunteered to do transportation duty.   I asked why they guys didn’t join.   Apparently they are golfing.   Heh.   

Soho and I lunched on this peak.  

My girlfriends showed up to take a little break as well.   We chatted for a while then they left…..a set of trekking poles.   I loaded them on my pack and we set off after them.  

Now where have those ladies gotten off to? 

And here they are having lunch. 

Soho and I hung out here for a bit filling water.   The grateful ladies started offering us food.   Oranges, grapes, cherries.   Yum.   Some other gals offered up cookies, m&m’s, etc which we were most definitely not interested in.   Those gals were so disappointed.   It was like attentive Mom’s getting turned down for bad cooking.     They didn’t get the hiker cravings…..last thing I need is more candy.

I was hoping to yogi a ride from them at the exit point for Sierra City, but found out they were taking a different route.   Since we cleaned them out of anything edible, it was time to leave.

Hit the Haypress Creek bridge and lounged around here for a while to wait out a little of the heat and eat some more.   I feel asleep.  Soho fidgeted.   I’m an teaching him the ways of laziness.  

We had another 4 miles to town, so we hit it again around 2.   All downhill, but damn hot.   

Highlight of the day was hitting the North Yuba River.   This thing is raging. 

While we were standing there taking it all in, a couple of guys with kayaks show up.   They are wearing armor, helmets, and look ready for business.   I just stared at them….no way those guys are going to do this.   They sort of shrugged and walked past us and put in just below the bridge.   I got a video of them going over.    It was impressive.  

Kayaking Studs

After our emasculation, we sauntered off to the highway.   Tried for 10 minutes to get a ride and was just starting to walk when a guy pulls up in an Audi.   We rode into town in style.    On they way we passed some poor assed hiker walking up the hill from town.   Found out later his name was Canada Joe.   We will meet him again.

Two gals ended up getting the last room in the lodge we wanted to stay in, so on a whim we checked out this odd place called River Haven.   What a great choice.   It is a house owned by a gal named Susan who rents 2 rooms + some outdoor tent/bunks.    Note on the door said come in an make yourself at home.   We did…for 4 hours until she showed up.   Caveman and Hot Lips are staying here with us.    

Caveman has a load of stories.  He has hiked to Everest base camp and had a good one about the flight from Napal.   I guess the landing spot was socked in, so the airplane flew to a couple alternates, couldn’t land, then a hole opened up, he turns around and lands, in an empty dirt strip.   He tells everyone on the plane that they may have to sit there for…..get this….a couple of days.   One of the guides with Caveman says that he can get a helicopter for $200 per person if they want out.   A few hours later this nice Bell chopper lands and takes them to their destination.  

This is why I love the under developed world 🙂 

We did 16 today.   Our mileage sucks a bit, but at least we are getting through this snow.   Tomorrow is a nasty climb out of town.