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Day 76: Mile 876.0 - 883.6

Yesterday (I'm writing this on Day 77, the day after) started off a good day. I left from VVR relatively early--had intended to close my tab at 7am when the Store opened, but the line was long (the line was also the breakfast line) so ended up closing around 8am instead. And I had intended to catch the shuttle (VVR runs a shuttle between the resort and the various trailheads) but the shuttle was already full by the time I checked. So instead I walked to the trailhead and was actually glad I did: the line streaming into the overcast of yesterday's rains, with the foreground lake disappearing up a gorge into the background mountains, it was quite a sight! And when I got to the Bear Ridge Trailhead, lo and behold there were three hikers there from VVR about to set out. So I got there about the same time as the shuttle (just with about 1-hour and 2.8-miles less energy). And the hike up Bear Ridge went well: some steep parts, but many smooth portions, and I made very good time (for ...
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Day 112: Mile 1692.0 - 1714.6

You know, I may actually be starting to see why people like these woods. Today we woke to an actual yellow sun and a sky a bit hazy, but intimating blue. It was a cooler morning (and in general, I fear it'll be cold here in Oregon, which I don't handle cold well). The yellow held up until maybe midday, when it went back to orange and the sky, well, became confused. I couldn't tell if it was hazy cloud or hazy smoke up there--there were even suggestions of puffy cumulus higher above? I checked the weather report--we're close enough to town to get occasional signal--and it predicted a mixture of smoke and thunderstorm. So that wasn't helpful. Regardless, by the end of the day the sky was overcast with, well, something, and the wind had picked up. We'll see if it rains tonight. I hope not: our campsite is perched up on the decaying remains of a truck trail, and right now only about 3/4 of my tent is on level ground, the remaining 1/4 is dipping down off a slope, al...
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Day 88: Mile 1009.9 - 1016.9

If you felt wistful leaving the granite peaks and conifer forests and hidden meadows of the Sierras, well, this morning proved that non-Sierra places have something to show as well. We woke early and headed out early because we wanted to catch the 10:30am shuttle from Sonora Pass to Kennedy Meadows North and it was a 7-mile hike to the Pass. But as we continued along the Land of Barren Slopes, the views started opening up. And far below, I could see where the gray stone and gravel of the mountain ended and the green began coming in, first around little lakes, then following the outlets of those lakes down the mountains, into the green below. (There was some question as to why the trail opted to stay up here, around the barren mountain peaks, rather than going down there where there was water and cover and other good things, but that's neither here nor there.) And, in contrast to the Sierras, you could see so much farther: you could start to feel the shape of the land. It reminded m...
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