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| The Sierra Buttes and Deer Lake. |
June 22, Day 29. I made it 49 miles to
ending mile 1255.75. That was about 5 miles up from the Middle Fork
of the Feather River bridge, perched on the side of the hill. Point
0665256 E 4408342 N. Ohh yesterday. It wasn't a bad day. I could
definitely have been better on account of it was raining and it
rained through the night. Otherwise, it was actually a really awesome
day. Lets see. I woke up and go moving at 7:30am, a late start. That
was on account of 1. being up until 1am but 2. there were clouds in
the morning which, I was kind of on a ridge, but the clouds blocked
the sun after it first rose, so it made it seem like it was earlier
than it actually was. A lot of waking up times is based on kind of
how sensitive you are to the light and what it looks like and it was
just not as bright as it should have been because of the clouds.
Still a little windy in the morning. It didn't really warm up, for
most of the day actually it stayed pretty cool. The first oh... 7
until about 1pm, it was more or less sunny, partly cloudy - the sun
coming in and out. The walk along the ridge by the Sierra Buttes,
looking down on Gold Lake and all the other lakes was pretty nice.
Sections of snow in
the trees. I actually didn't see anyone until
later that day. But um, I just kept trucking along. Not a whole lot
to mention or remember. You do forget how much volcanic terrain there
is out there. You think a lot of it is granite, it's just how I kind
of think of the Sierras but ever since Sonora pass, you're in and the
high points are volcanic on top of the granite. So, I mean the Sierra
Buttes themselves are sedimentary it looks like but then you have
these huge mudflows all around it - this kind of tan-grey with these
rounded volcanics inside of it. There was a big kind of peak of that
stuff where you have to climb up along side, then go down the back,
then literally repeat the same thing over again right by the Sierra
county line. But uhh yeah, coming on around 1pm the skies definitely
got grey and clouded and I was kind of zoned out listening to a book
called Snow Crash, which I just finished actually today, which is
really good. And I really just kind of zones out and I had a big
climb up and up and up back to the same place where in 2009, I had
kicked a branch on a downed tree across the trail and it broke the
second time I kicked it easily and my foot went through and literally
impaled my calf on the broken sharp point. So I remember that spot
pretty well. I had to hobble for like half a day. It was not bad
though. Just being zoned out is a nice way to go up a hill. You don't
think about it too much, or you don't try and think about it anyways,
but when you do think about it....as I'm going up hill right now...
you just try and take your mind off of it, because hills suck, a lot.
After the hill you hit this ridge where
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| Into the big trees around the Sierra Buttes. |
it's cold and windy, a few
sprinkles here and there. Below the fire lookout tower, the rain...a
first wave of it started, so I pulled out my rain stuff, which I had
never used before and found out that it aaaa...it'll work, it just
definitely needs some modifications. Whoever designed the dry ducks
poncho was a moron. Like, it needs...its your typical poncho shape,
rectangle front and back and comes down a little bit over the
shoulders, but there is no way to connect the front flap and the back
flap. So, if it's windy at all it just blows around and doesn't do
jack for you. So I'm going to have to rig something, some kind of
ties between the front and back so that it'll stay on you, cover you
even if it's windy. So you know, fiddling with that for 10-15
minutes, I had lunch and basically just kept going down trail. It
didn't really rain. I met a section hiker who was just camped out in
his tent. He gave me an apple, I had him sign my witness log, since
he was the first person I had seen in a good 1.5 days. And then I
kept going and it rained a little bit more (harder) for about 20
minutes and then it stopped actually for the rest of the afternoon
and evening. From that point, it was pretty much all more or less
level and downhill until you get to the real steep part and drop down
into 4 or 6 miles or something into the Middle Fork of the American
River, which would have been awesome and great and easy, which it
was, but...having had rained and then not wind or sunshine, the
overgrown plants in the canyon were sopping wet. So, as I had to go
down the hill, the plants are towering above you and beside you and
over the trail, they completely soaked my shoes and I was bashing
them with my trekking poles but still wet, wet wet... I made it down
to the bridge at about 8:30pm something. I didn't really stop, just
kept going. I wanted to make it as far up the canyon as I could
possible make it before I stopped, so that my climb out tomorrow
would easier. Which all in all the climb itself is really easy, it's
just long. They made it pretty graded. I passed Bear Creek, which I
thought may be a good point to stop, and said "ahh, screw it".
It was barley 9:50pm so I just kept going. At 11pm, I passed a
little, what looks like to be an old overgrown road, but when your on
a canyon wall, one flat spot looks really great compared to a little
flat spot on trail. I could have easily made a 50 yesterday, but I
knew that camping would have been very difficult, so I didn't keep
going. .....phew up that hill finally... I then got all of my stuff
in order - dinner - and the rest of it (for the next day). And just
as I was putting my head down - I didn't set up my tarp because it
hadn't rained since 4 or 5 O'clock or even threatened. You know
partly cloudy, broken up clouds. Just as I put my head down, it
starts sprinkling on me and I knew from then on, it was going to be a
wet night, which it was... Instead of actually setting up my tarp, I
just pulled it out, threw it over me and said screw it and went to
sleep. It worked out fine, you know it just creates condensation on
the inside so you get your sleeping bag wet. It isn't so big a deal
because you can dry it out the next day. So I spent the night kind of
tossing and turning as periodic rain showers dumped over me. The one
last one at 4 in-the-frickin-morning was the worst. It poured real
good, I'm not sure how long, but after that it stopped. I woke up in
the morning and the trees were dripping and it was actually blue
skies above me. I got up fairly early and tried to shake out all my
stuff so I could make it to Belden early enough to hit Belden and
then get the heck out of town and hopefully make it to the Belden
Resort or whatever to get a dinner or something as an extra meal and
maybe hit up their little store. So I'll hit the midpoint in 2 days,
HECK YEAH!
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| Day 27 Panorama - 6 miles from Donner Pass |
