The end of the Western States Trail

June 19th

I got up the next morning and to the sound of trucks and helicopters. There was a lot of construction going on and it was good motivation to get going and get off the mountain. 

The trail was semi-nice but there's a lot of chairlifts /roads.  There were a bunch of wild flowers which made up for all the other stuff.

I got down to the village and was among all the weekend warriors. Many nicely dressed people who made me feel a little out of place. I got some food and then my mom eventually came and picked me up and we drove back down the mountain into the heat. Once I got back I was pretty beat so I did a lot resting and a little bit of work. I also got my maps for the CDT. So I was more aware of all the planning and preparation that is involved with thru-hiking.

Going up to Squaw Valley

June 18th, 2015

Got up the next morning and started hiking up back towards the trail.  I was finally getting closer to squaw Valley which meant that it was finally cooling off a little bit.  After a couple miles of hiking I got to series of logging roads again. I looked at my map and started going in the direction that the trail was suppose to be but it turned out not to be the trail. Because of the poor quality of the maps that I got off the Western States Trail website I decided to trust my instincts and make sure I was going in a direction that makes sense. This meathead seemed to work the best for this trail and I eventually got back to a path that was fairly well traveled (and by well traveled I just followed the bear and mountain lion prints).

By evening I got to Granite Chief wilderness which was one of the nicest areas yet. Shortly after this I made it to the top of the trail near Squaw Valley. Coming over the mountain and into the ski resort the temperature droped all of a sudden. It got really windy after this I was feeling a little bit sick. I got down to a stream filled my water and then set up camp for the night. 

Lights in the sky

June 17th, 2015

I woke up in the morning and my sleeping pad was leaking air. So during the night I had to get up and blow it up a couple times to keep off the cold ground.  There was also a swarm of mosquitoes outside my Bevi sack which I wasn't looking forward to facing. I had to get going so I climbed out of my sleeping bag and put my head net on an lathered my skin with deet (mosquito replant). 

I eventually got back on the trail and was surprised about how many more mosquitoes are in this area. I was hiking in a place called Mosquito Ridge and I growing up around this area and I never really connected Mosquito Ridge with lot of mosquitoes but we normally just drove through this area.

 After I got going on the trail I made it to Duncan Peak and then Robinson's flats where they have a nice water pump where you can get some fresh spring water. I took a break there and ate some food and then continued up the trail. The trail was nice in some ways because there were lots of wildflowers but in other ways it was not so nice. One of the reasons is because there were lots of fires up here so this trail was very exposed and very hot. The Western states trail at one point turned into sort of a motorcycle trail. This was pretty difficult to walk on because there are a lot of rocks that were between golf ball size and soft ball size. It was very easy to slip and made it very difficult to hike at a good pace. As I hiked I looked at the maps my map and the trail just followed a ridgeline which seem pretty dry.  As it got later I started worrying about water and by about 8 o'clock there was no water in sight.

I got off the trail and followed a dirt road hoping to find some water.  I hiked about 2 miles before I got to a place where a stream was supposed to be. When I looked at the stream it was very dry and I was devastated  but then I waited and listened and I heard a trickle. There was a spring that was coming up out of the ground and going into a culvert pipe. I started walking up the road and found a decent place to camp.  I hung my food and I was about to go to sleep when I looked up in the sky. I saw something that look like a satellite and then there was a flash of light. After that it disappeared. It is strange what you see sometimes in the night sky. I ended up going to sleep and having a good night after that except when I had to get up to blow up my sleeping pad yet again. 

The ghosts of gold miners

June 16, 2015

The next morning I woke up and it was surprisingly hot. I started hiking up a very steep Canyon Trail with lots of poison oak. I was sweating a lot and was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I was still happy to be out exploring a new trail. I got up to the top of this hill and went to a place Deadwood Cemetery and Devils Thumb.

There wasn't any marked graves but there was a marble stone with about 15 names on it. This part of the Western States Trails  was used by goldminers in the 1890s about and there were tons historic areas where you could imagine where gold miners would come hoping to strike it rich.

I kept on hiking up the trail and saw a lot of old mining equipment. This was interesting but the maps that I printed out were not completely accurate and it took me a while to figure out where the trail was. By this point the trail turned into a labyrinth of logging roads. The trail would disappear  and then reappear so it wasn't the most straightforward thing. Also there weren't really any marked water sources so I had to kind of guess were water might be.  After a long day I found a little pond off a logging road to camp next to. I threw down my sleeping bag got my bug netting out for my sack and then to go to sleep.

The Western States Trail

June 12th-15th, 2015

While I was at my moms house at the freedom of having Internet and I ordered some maps to start planning and I also ordered some gear to replace some stuff that was starting to fall apart. I figured that I would have some time before my maps came to my moms house so I decided to do another hike that I've always wanted to check out called the Western states trail. This really isn't a backpacking trail but more of an endurance trail for runners and horseback riders. Every summer they have 100 mile race that goes from Squaw Valley in Tahoe California to Auburn California.

I've hiked a good portion of the trail from Foresthill to Auburn but I've never hiked much from Forestill to Tahoe. My plan was to start hiking from Foresthill go up to Tahoe from there. After I got all my maps ordered and everything for the Western states trail and then started planning.  In the meantime I did a couple things around my moms house try to help out with the yard. By the time the day was over and I was getting ready for some new sights.
After a couple of days I was almost ready to start my hike on the Western States Trail. I still had to do more research. My theory was that the Western States trail would be a good training session for the Continental Divide Trail because a lot of trail wasn't well marked it would be harder to navigate than the PCT.  Also I was going to be climbing from 3000 feet to 8000 feet.

I wasn't ready until about 6:30 PM and then went to Foresthill to start my hike. It was really hot that day and within a couple of hours I made it to a small mining town called Michigan Bluff. From there I kept on hiking and made it to called Eldorado Creek by nightfall. This is a nice area and I didn't know it at first but I did hike here when I was really young and I also was the only one down there. I didn't really expect to see too many people on this trail and was looking forward to some solitude. With thoughts about the CDT and the trail ahead I drifted off to sleep.

Saying Goodbye to the PCT

June 11th, 2015

The next morning my sister and I got up and started packing up. We were very close to Towalame Meadows which was the finish for my sister.  She had a car at Red's Meadows and she was going to get a ride with a friend back there.  I was just finishing reading most of Yogi's guidebook that I took with me about the Continental Divide Trail and was thinking about the possibility of me leaving the PCT to hike the CDT this season.  Since my sister was here and she was driving back up to my moms house it would be a great opportunity to get a ride back to civilization and buy some maps / get ready for a new trail.

I though to myself and since I was in shape, I had all my gear, and I had time why not go to the Rocky Mountains and hike there. The PCT was getting really busy for a long distance trail and I've heard that the CDT was just starting to get popular. The fact was that this would be the best time to hike on CDT because it was still remote and would have very few hikers on it. I also read that there's a lot of different animals on the trail (grizzly bears, elk, buffalo, wolves, moose... ect). After getting close to Yosemite Valley that convinced me it was time to get off the PCT and get on a more challenging trail.

By late morning we got to the Towalame Meadows Post Office where we met my sister's friend Emily. After that we took a short 4 mile hike up to a lake and back. Then we drove back towards Mammoth city to get some food at a Mexican restaurant.
After this we made our way back to the car at Red's Meadows and then we drove all the way back to my mom house.  By the time my sister and I got home it was 11 o'clock.  Then I started buying maps and  plotting to hike on the CDT.

For some more information about the CDT click here. 

A rainy day

June 10th, 2015

When I got up the next morning it was misty and rainy and I didn't want to get out of my shelter. Listening to the droplets hit my tarp I was imagining a dreary and wet day. By the time I got up and got outside I realized it was just a really light rain. The night before I told my sister to go ahead and I would try to catch up to her. I figured that it would allow her to start out early and then she could take her time. Also I ended up carrying her tent since she had a lot heavier gear than me and I had room in my backpack.

I slowly packed up and started going up the trail. As I got closer to a pass I figured I would try to dry out all my stuff and my sisters tent. I got everything that was damp out and put it on trees and rocks hoping to get it dryer. It was really windy and I thought it was a great idea to do it up on the mountain even though the clouds looked very dark. Then an unexpected rain came in and suddenly everything started getting wet again. I had to pack up everything as quick as I could but as I was cursing the weather all my stuff was wetter than before.

From this point I put on my poncho and headed down the trail. The weather was getting worse and I was just hoping my sister didn't have to wait too long for me in the rain because I remember that she didn't bring a rain jacket and it was unusually cold. Luckily I got to some lakes and saw my sister under some trees putting on more layers of clothes. I didn't stop for very long because it is best to keep moving when the weather is bad.

We kept going up the trail and by about six we decided to just find a place to camp. We hiked up to a lake off the main trail and set up there. The good thing is it was early enough to dry out most of our stuff and I had some time to read and relax. 

The first day on the trail with my sister

June 9th, 2015

As I was packing up with my sister I was looking through the food and some other stuff that she brought.  One of the thing that she had was a copy of Yogi's guide to the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). I was very interested in the CDT and wanted to do some research for future hikes. I took the guidebook and ripped out different sections that described the trail, what you needed and how it was different from the PCT and the AT (Appalachian Trail). All I knew about the trail was from talking to other hikers. I remembered asking people who hiked the AT and the PCT if they were considering hiking on the Continental Divide and a lot of them said that the trail seemed to be too difficult. This was intriguing to me so I figured now would be a good time to learn about what made the CDT more of a challenge compared to the PCT. 

A little later after I was packed and ready my sister and I started hiking North on the trail. In the first hour I spotted a bear in a small valley down below. I tried to point it out to my sister but by the time she got there the bear was gone. As we kept on going up the trail I wasn't doing the best job at checking my maps and we got to a point were it seemed like we were going the wrong direction. We checked and we did take a wrong turn and ended up going four miles in the wrong direction. We had no choice but to turn around and go back the way we came. This wasn't a big deal but I did feel a little stupid for not paying closer attention to where I was.  Then farther up the trail I saw two coyotes around a corner.  At first I thought it was a mountain lion and then about 50 feet up from me there was a big rock and two coyotes stood up on top of it and looked at me for about five or six seconds and then they walking off. Shortly after this we found a lake with a nice view and set up camp. 

Red's Meadows

June 7 and 8th, 2015

I got up in the morning feeling really really tired. I think that all that walking in the rain took a toll on my body. It took me a little longer than usual to pack up but I eventually got back on the trail groggy and tired.

By the afternoon I was feeling better mainly because the weather was getting better. The sun was shining bright and it was getting warmer. The rest of the day was uneventful.  I hiked and took some pictures then set up camp for the night.

I woke up the next day with about 15 miles to go before I get  Reds Meadows (a small resort with a store and a restaurant about a mile away from the PCT). Here I was going to meet my sister and hike with her for a bit. I packed up and got going. I made good time and I was at Red's Meadows by the afternoon. I called my sister and she was still at my mom's house which was about six hours away so I got a ride down to Mammoth City to go supermarket and get some food. I got some food and did my best to replenish much needed calories. By about 930pm my sister made it to Mammoth City and picked me up. After this we went back to Red's Meadows and spent the night there.