I hit the trail early around 6 today hoping to make up the 4 miles before Soho took off in the morning. He usually leaves by 7:30. Didn’t make it.    That then triggered a bunch of frustrating Satellite messaging on my InReach.

Didn’t have his direct address, so he was texting his sister and I was texting my wife. My wife was talking his sister. Two hikers communicating through two non-hikers. What a mess. I suggested one mile marker to meet at, then Soho suggested a different one.  Alice kept asking if I was OK.   It never really reached a conclusion, I just stopped responding. He would be at one of them.

I needed to reset. This circus was my fault, but all this tracking and coordination was feeling like I was back at work. I sat down and had a looooonnnngggg breakfast. Then got back on the trail with some good music.

The trail continued to be rough going. The topography of this area is a set of high, densely packed granite peaks with narrow river valleys between them. The trail basically takes a direct route over both. Descend straight down over rugged granite and washed out trail, a mile of flat, ford some big creek, then climb over another 1 or 1.5k peak and repeat. Easy to lose the trail and easier to lose footing. I was getting worried I’d twist an ankle here.

Late morning I ran into several groups of relatively clean, pudgy folks hiking with day packs. Wasn’t sure how they could get back here, since this area is 40+ miles from the nearest road. Finally I stopped one guy and got the scoop. They are on a 12-day southbound “expedition” and are being trailed by 12 mules and 4 mounted handlers. The same 70 miles we are doing northbound.

Shortly after here comes the supply train. It was huge. Horse with rider, a bunch of mules, another horse, more mules. Seemed to go on forever. After they passed I was covered in a thin layer of dust. But that was not the highlight. No, the best part was all the horse crap and wrecked trail they left in their wake.

It is hard to describe the copious amount of horse shit on the trail. There will piles every 20 or 30 feet FOR MILES. I think because these mules are all closely spaced, they tend to take sub-optimal steps on an already bad trail. It makes the loose stuff looser and on the granite steps they dislodge or loosen all the rocks. Ugh.

They should make a rule that anyone hiking with mules should walk BEHIND the herd.

Steep climbs and deep valleys. There is a lot of rugged beauty out here. This is serious high-sierra back country. Rugged trail, no bridges. I can see why the creek fords are so dangerous in this area during the snow melt. There is wreckage in every valley this year from the floods. This is the area where Tree got swept away and died at PCT mile 980 in Rancheria Creek.   I’d heard from others who came through in July all sorts of harrowing stories. Fortunately these crossings are merely an inconvenience.

 

 

Late afternoon the terrain mellowed out to a long, gradual climb up to Dorothy Pass. I figured I could dial up the speed here. Unfortunately it was miles of marsh. The trail was dry for a bit, then descended into muck. A lot of hopping around in wet spongy ground trying to find alternate paths. My progress was slow. Then there were the mosquitos waiting to pounce at every pause. By 7:30, I reached Dorothy lake (mile 996). Pretty lake. I made some dinner there before the light failed, then went on a headlamp over the pass. Finally reunited with Soho around 9:30. He was at mile 999.

The day ended well. I did 24 miles finally erasing my mileage deficit.