I know I know, missing lots of updates since my last post - I have some drafts hidden but need to clean them up and fill in missing details before publishing them. My intent is to post this today ( a brief rainy day) and save the otehr unfinished business for a some longer rainy spell.
Meanwhile...
Last Friday I completed a nice three-day loop between Donner Pass and Alpine Meadows (Five-lakes trailhead.) As usual, I'm consuming a disproportional amt of gas investigating and then setting myself up for this: Started on Wednesday about mid-morning (taking a bit too long to pack my pack...)
a night Wednesday first stash my backpasck at the Five Lakes trailhead, then park my car at Donner Pass (where the trail crosses hwy 40.) Then a nice bicycle ride down past Donner Lake and down hwy 89 (I guess it's south but a bit more up than down, nothing significant) to the Alpine Meadows Road intersection, where I took about an hour break at the Crest Cafe (had an ice tea and two water refills) before the final two mile uphill to the Five Lakes trailhead, where I swapped my bike for my backpack. Hiked up - stopping at two of the five lakes, and on a few more miles til dark, camping relatively low-down before the gradual climb up to Granite chief. e
Next day (Thursday) I took the short detour up Granite Chief, and continued through to the shoulder right next to Tinker's Knob. The wind from the upcoming cold front was just beginning to pick up, and I was camped in a small grove of trees at the ridgeline, so it was a bit of a windy night, but it was the perfect spot to catch the last rays of sunset on the ridge, and the first rays of sunrise to wake and warm me up the next morning. Did the early climb up Tinker's Knob (a vertigo-inducing rugged volcanic plug) with very blusterry winds adding to the excitement. Fought the wind all that day hiking along the crest of a long volcanic ridge, underscoring why all the plants at ridgetop were all tightly hugging the ashey gravel or snuggly huddled within protected nooks of the basalt outcropps alternating with cobbly conglomerate.) I also took the Mt Judah loop detour, and climbed Donner Peak, with it's photogenic cedars against blocky granite (with rock-climbing bolts littering the top.) Made it back to Hwy 40 by 6pm, stopped at the McD's at the hwy 89/80 interchange to check the weatehr and promptly drove south to fetch my bike, before returning to overnight at the north side of the Boreal Ski Area interchange off of hwy 80, checking out my tent that I had newly retrieved from storage lsst time I was in Santa Rosa.
Spent some time back at the McD's this morning, (with heavey rain outside, maybe snow above 7000ft) then headed south to Tahoe City, stopping at the Visitor Center, where I learned the details of the road closures to be expected for the Ironman Race tomorrow. I'll be able to bicycle on the road but not the bike trail along the section of hwy 89 north of Tahoe City, which is part of the races bike-loop, then part of the run.
I'm planning to stash my backpack tonight at Alpine Meadows (securely wrapped in garbage bags from the rain expected to end by midnight. I'll park my car at Barker Pass, then hopefully very early in the morning, bicycle to Tahoe city, then decide whether it's still early enough to catch the tail end of the swim portion of the race at the east side of Tahoe City, before continuing on to Alpine Meadows. I'll probably have enough time to make it up to the Five Lakes where I'll probably camp nearby, maybe exploring the other three lakes the next morning before continuing south on the PCT back to my car, probably two days hence, the last day of which may also is forecast to be rainy/snowy.
In my plans beyond this loop, I'm still holding out hope to somehow resume my "main hike" from Tuolumne Meadows. to take advantage of YARTS, I will need to do this before the end of this month, since YARTS stops running at the end of the month. But there also may be an outside chance I may be able to "leverage" "a friend's" possible camping trip to the Mono Lake/Eastern Sierra in early October if that friend plans to return via hwy 120. In that case I may even be able to first hike from Sonora Pass to Carson Pass or Echo Summit, camping in the Eastern Sierra a few days before getting dropped off at Tuolumne Meadows. Of course I'll be trying to divine the long-term weather and/or be prepared for rain/snow/wind during a 7 day hike Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass, possibly preceeded by a four or so day Sonora to Carson or Echo Pass hike with a few days camping somewhere in in Eastern Sierra inbetween. so, a two week weatehr-prediction challenge. And, though I've been able to leave my bear canister behind for the last few weeks hiking north of Sonora Pass, I'll need to pack the canister for the Tuolumne/Sonora section. Should be fun putting together all the logistics...
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