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. 

We slept on the second floor of the Hut last night.   A hiker named Paul was with us, then later 4 other hikers showed up and chatted late into the night.    Didn’t matter, slept like a baby. 

I forgot to get a pic of the hut, but there are plenty online.    It is was a good stay.   

Well, today’s activities involved walking on snow, getting lost, falling on snow, getting lost some more, stepping in mud, etc.    Just about the entire day was spent on the stuff.     Here is a sampler: 

This part a nice change.   Instead of just snow or wet trail, we get lots of snow to get lost in, then get dropped off in a marsh of mud to wonder around in. 

Despite how miserable this might look, it was an interesting change on the hike.    If you look at my trace through this section, you’ll notice we are far off the trail in some cases.   That is because all the snow change the navigation.   Focus is in picking a landmark and avoiding the hazards rather than following the trail.   We just tried to intersect the trail occasionally to stay on course.    Bonus was that we got to cut a bunch of switch backs which helped make up for the slow progress. 

I’m glad I wore boots in this stuff.   Despite what the ultra-light mafia says, boot are better in my opinion.   I can kick better steps, they hold their edge on hills, and I can heel plunge on the down hills.   On that last technique, I think it is killing my knees.    I’m locking my knee on those plunges to make sure I break through to a good step.   By the end of the day I can barely bend them.   Have to change techniques tomorrow.

We ran into a dude named Sling Blade south bounding.   He said we had a couple more days of snow before it cleared up.    Yay.  

Shortly after crossing a big creek, we ascended again into 100% snow.   Soho found a dirt road that mostly paralleled the PCT for a few miles.    Or we could climb up and down a ridge in even greater misery.   Here was our choice: 

Had some lunch at a small dry spot.   Shortly after, we found this: 

I guess the body was carried off by the wolves. 

 

We eventually rejoined the trail, well, we were 5 feet above the trail since it was still covered.   The trail dried out on some exposed Western and Southern spots, with a few snowy sections in the covered Northern slopes.  

 

Soho wanted his miles, so we pushed on to Mules Ears Creek.   He went ahead as I started slowing down.   When I got there around 7 PM, we found a couple (Caveman and Hot Lips) and two other gals sitting on the good spots next to a fire…all comfy.     We got to scour the nearby hillside for a semi-level spot.   Here’s the super lux spot we found. 

Didn’t bother chatting with the other hikers after setting up.    Made some food and crashed.  18 miles today.      

 

 

 

topic, my knees are killing me  are 

 

Who is Peter Grubb, you ask? Well you are just gonna have to read on to find out.

After getting dropped by our Uber, we picked up the trail behind the rest stop and started hiking.   We are continuing from 1157, so I’ve skipped 457 miles of High Sierra.   That will be on my long-term list to hike in future years.    Given my proximity to this section, it will be easy to schedule and fun to do.  

I’m in my Asolo boots, which already feel like lead weights. It is just shocking how wet and green it is up here, compared to KM at 700. There are streams flowing everywhere.

 

Soho and I were chatting about the water report (pctwater.com). During our runs in the desert, we were obsessing over it. Now it just says “good flow” at every point.   With all the snow melt, it is “good flow” running down the trail and into my boots.    Some gal named Optimistic Turtle keeps sending in updates on water, creek crossings, snow, etc. She seems a little neurotic. Her obsession is my gain. Good Flow, Optimistic Turtle, Good Flow.

A mile in and we start hitting snow. At first it looks a little something like this.

Then a bunch of snow/stream combos like this

Water Everywhere

A little dry trail

Then a little snow

We are mostly in shaded South and Western facing slopes so the walking is not too bad at this phase. There are some nice views from the first peak we crossed.

On the North side, it was a different story. By now we are up to 8k and man there is a ton of snow. This stuff is all consolidated and easy to walk on, but omg it is still 10 ft deep in many areas.

Right after this sign, the trail entire mountain was snow covered. Soho started off while I was digging out my spikes. Fortunately first a dog then some dude from the Sierra club showed up. His name was Richard and was day hiking out to the Peter Grubb hut to check out damages and mark some fire wood to cut up for next year. He offered to guide us in, so I put away the chains and we followed him slip-sliding down th slope to the hut.

Richard is some kind of researcher at Stanford (radio astronomy, I think). Didn’t talk much. We made it to the hut and he showed us around. It has a solar panel and batteries, interior lighting, stove, wood storage, and an upstairs for sleeping. Wish I’d taken some pics of the place. Normally this is used as ski hut for the Winter season. You snow shoe or cross country ski there, hang out, then ski/shoe back.

Now, why is it called Peter Grubb? Well, Peter Grubb is some rich kid from San Francisco, who apparently spent some time in the back country, went to Europe, then managed to die from heat stroke in ’37 on a bicycle. He was 18.  Well grandpa dropped some coin to build the hut in his memory. If he had drank a couple more liters of water, we might not have the hut….so thanks Peter.

In the hut there is also a guitar and a big bong made out of a smart water bottle. That is a powerful combination. The creative output from these stoners was “The Peter Grubb Song”.

“He built his own skis”
“He lived his life free”
“Peter Grubb…<tap>….<tap>…<tap>…<tap>….Yeah!”

I should have photo’d the song with the chords. Can’t find it online. If you know the Peter Grubb song, send it to me !

“YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH !!”

Before I got off the trail, I had planned to bounce up to Mammoth and do some skiing while the Sierra melted. I had shared my number with several groups of hikers offering to put them up between June 15 and July 1.  I received 5 or 6 calls/texts from these groups…..they are all bouncing North and skipping the High Sierras for now. Only guy I know of who made it most of the way through is Bam Bam.

My cousin JD (aka Soho) is back in LA after recouping from his ankle problems. He will be joining me for a while.

Looking over the snow coverage maps, it seems that a good entry point would be Sierra City, but the place is remote and clearly hard to get to. Instead we are heading to Truckee and starting North from the 80. 25 miles of snow, but then it should be clear sailing for a while.

I loaded up my Asolo boots together with my trail runners for this one. Micro spikes and 8 days of food. Pack weighs in at 43 with water.

JD booked Amtrak to the trail.  The train was scheduled to leave at 9pm, so Alice dropped us at the station around 8:30.   We then  find out the train is an hour late.  Get to Santa Barbara at 11,  loaded on a bus, and drive all night to Emeryville arriving at 6am.   That was a miserable ride….there are no comfortable seats in the AmTrak bus.  Waited around Emeryville for around 3 hours, then board an East bound train to Truckee.  Dropped there at 2 PM, call Uber, get dumped off at the trail head around 3.

What a harsh trip.