The PCT Volume 19: Starting Strange and Ending Fun

[Brad Young]

Tricia and I spent another four days on the trail (as always, with Vicki's help). The trip was strange to start with - we returned after just two weeks away and it felt weird without Katie. But we quickly got into the groove of the trip and Tricia and I (and our dog Charlotte) had a very good hike.

Vermillion Valley Resort on Lake Thomas Edison is a fun place to stay and they have good food. Two trails reach the resort from the PCT, one is further south and one is further north. We'd exited last time at the southern-most trail (Bear Ridge Trail) and needed to go back there to resume our journey. But this is a long, hot uphill and we decided to do it without packs as a day hike, work up the PCT from there to the northern-most exit and then go back to VVR for the night.

Yeah, a 12.4 mile hike to get 4.2 miles of "our" trail done might seem excessive, but doing this part as a "day hike" made sure that we had walked every step of this part of the PCT and that we got to spend another night with Vicki (and with good food). It was worth it.

Here we are back at the PCT:




The actual PCT part of this first day's hike was flat at first and then went down a very serious set of switchbacks to Mono Creek:







Soon we reached Mono Creek and turned back toward Lake Thomas Edison, VVR, and it's boat ferry:







We enjoyed our evening at VVR with Vicki. We also enjoyed breakfast there the next morning. Afterward we took the ferry back across the lake:




From the ferry landing we moved back to the PCT:




We then had our work cut out for us. The hike to Silver Pass included 3,700 feet of elevation gain. One half mile long section of trail included 800 feet of uphill/switchbacks!




All the climbing was worth it however, the Silver Pass area is unusually pretty:










And - bonus - at Silver Pass we got a first, distant view of Mount Ritter and Banner Peak (man these are close to home!):







The rest of our 13.2 mile day led to Fish Creek and a nice camp near a meadow called (why not?) Tully Hole:







We spent a quiet night there (just the three of us), and looked forward to an easier, and again "viewful" day tomorrow.

[squiddo]

wow sooooo pretty Brad. Great time out. PS Tricia does not look happy in the last pict. Sore dawgs!

[Brad Young]

wow sooooo pretty Brad. Great time out. PS Tricia does not look happy in the last pict. Sore dawgs!

No sore feet - it's the icewater! Too cold for comfort during an already cool evening.

[squiddo]

nice- refreshing. Me, I swim in it. The more ice the better!

[F4?]

you gotta give squiddo credit he does bath.

Maybe too much?

[Brad Young]

nice- refreshing. Me, I swim in it. The more ice the better!

Yeah, no thanks. I seem to get less tolerant of icewater as I get older. But knees down, trail dust kinda stuff, that's what we were doing.

[F4?]

Btw Brad, is that a new pack?

[Brad Young]

Btw Brad, is that a new pack?

That is a joke question isn't it? (Surely you jest - don't call me Shirley).

No, that's my almost 31 year-old Lowe Trek II, still serving loyally and well.

[mungeclimber]

We did the Bear Ridge hike north to south, but with full packs. Oddly those switch backs on the north end were some of the best ones I had been on in the Sierra for that kind of altitude gain.



so bummed about my trip's objective being cancelled, that backpacking doesn't sound fun right now.

[JC w KC redux]

Looks like more great hiking and making memories.

[Brad Young]

Our next morning was crisp and cold - I came back to the tent to see a practical, experienced, young outdoors-woman with two hats on to stay warmer:




We then moved up to Tully Hole and did another 800 feet of uphill/switchbacks (but that was most of the uphill for the day):







Easy hiking ensued, past Lake Virginia (huge and very pretty), and then to and past Purple Lake (it was blue):










We got more views of Banner and Ritter - these aren't as big as the Palisades and other parts of the Sierra to the south, but they stand out more from the surrounding areas, and are, in my opinion, more impressive:




Dark clouds built up as were were passing the ten-miles-for-the-day mark. Then we got sprinkles (but not enough to do any more than dampen the trail). Then it started to rain lightly. So we put on rain shells and pack covers which... made the rain stop within five minutes:







At just under 12 miles we came to Deer Creek and a nice spot to camp. We debated moving on (to be closer to seeing Vicki in the morning, and to getting a hot breakfast), but with the skies still black we decided that 5.9 miles in the morning would be easy and we'd stay here. We set up the tent. Five minutes after we got the rain fly on and the packs inside... it started to rain again. I hope that I am not teaching my daughter that she can control the weather, or that she'll think she can always turn it on and off by her actions  







The rain stopped before bedtime, but a big, big wind came up to replace it. Eventually it died too and we got to sleep. Next up: a cruiser morning to Reds Meadow, seeing Vicki, and getting a hot, delicious breakfast.

[Brad Young]

We did the Bear Ridge hike north to south, but with full packs. Oddly those switch backs on the north end were some of the best ones I had been on in the Sierra for that kind of altitude gain.



so bummed about my trip's objective being cancelled, that backpacking doesn't sound fun right now.

Yes, the trail tread on those 60 switchbacks is very nice; there are just sooo many of them...

And about your cancelled trip: the smoke at home right now is as thick as Central Valley fog in the winter - truly hideous. I don't think you'd want to be out in this crap.

[Brad Young]

And John, here's a photo we took for you. We thought you'd find the sharp border between types of rocks geologically interesting:

[squiddo]

And John, here's a photo we took for you. We thought you'd find the sharp border between types of rocks geologically interesting:

Love this shot.....makes me happy

[mynameismud]

cool shot

[JC w KC redux]

And John, here's a photo we took for you. We thought you'd find the sharp border between types of rocks geologically interesting:

Nice! Looks like a volcanic/plutonic contact - thanks for thinking of me - and those are some great shots too - so clear and colorful - esp the tye dye with shades of Tony the Tiger hat

[Brad Young]

Nice! Looks like a volcanic/plutonic contact - thanks for thinking of me - and those are some great shots too - so clear and colorful - esp the tye dye with shades of Tony the Tiger hat

Well, I think I know what that means. Would you care to put it in words that a sixth grader (a very bright one) would understand? I think she'd enjoy any explantation you could provide.

[F4?]

Gold?

[Brad Young]

We started early on our last day, on the trail by 7:30 under scattered clouds. The walk to Reds Meadow was very easy, slight uphill to slight downhill on a very nice tread. As we got closer to Mammoth we started seeing some of its unique terrain, like the only-several-hundred-year-old Red Cones:




And what a treat to see the actual ski resort from behind - man we've made progress to the north!




Two Teats and San Joaquin Mountain were easily visible - these are above the "high" trail, which will be the next part of the PCT that we hike:




And of course Banner and Ritter were even closer (it seemed almost like one could reach out and touch them):




Two years ago a very bad wind storm hit northern California, causing tree blow-downs all over the Sierra Nevada. The blow-downs were particularly bad around Mammoth, and we'd been told then that parts of trails were totally impassible until the downed trees were sawed away. We could see why as we passed through these areas:







By 10:00 we were at Reds Meadow. As we approached the store, a group of JMT hikers passed a message to us from Vicki to the effect that she had made it in past Minaret Summit by 7:00 and was waiting for us at the store. They laughed and we laughed, since we could see Vicki in the distance already when they passed on the message.

We dropped our packs and had our first hot meal in three days at the restaurant there.

After breakfast with Vic we packed a fanny pack so we could continue another eight miles to Agnew Meadow, which makes a great place to stop and then start another trip. This was easy, mostly level hiking through Devil's Postpile and along the San Joaquin River.










Near the end of this hike our views of the ski resort were from the north:




We reached Agnew Meadow in no time, walked the extra feet up the high trail (to ensure overlap with our next hike) and jumped in the car to head home:







This ended our first PCT adventure without Katie. I for one missed her a lot, but I also had an absolute ball with just "T Girl." Tricia is one powerful hiker, and I'm very proud of her knowledge and ability while backpacking (way beyond what one would expect from an 11 year old).

We're already planning a two-day, 28 mile leg to Tuolumne Meadows for mid September (which will wrap up our PCT shenanigans for the season).

[JC w KC redux]

Well, I think I know what that means. Would you care to put it in words that a sixth grader (a very bright one) would understand? I think she'd enjoy any explantation you could provide.

I'll take a stab at it.

The granitic mountains we see as the Sierra today are actually the roots of a subduction zone that existed all along the west coast until the San Andreas fault jumped onshore and shut that activity down - along most of CA (we still have subduction in northern CA). The rocks that cool miles underground(e.g. granite) are what geologists call plutonic (after the Greek God of the underworld Pluto). An arc of volcanoes used to sit where the Sierra are now. Those volcanoes wore away and earthquakes lifted up their "roots" to become the Sierra. In some spot the volcanic rocks were harder than other surrounding rocks and they survived the "wearing away" process. Remnants can be seen in many places around the Sierra. These remnants are called roof pendants and are literally islands of leftover "country rock"(any pre-existing rock). In many cases the roof pendant rocks are either partially or wholly transformed into metamorphic rocks from the heat and pressure associated with the intrusion of the plutonic rocks. Plutonics are also called intrusive rocks since they come from magma that intrudes the surrounding country rock (this is where Kathy would be snoring loudly). The Minarets are a nice example of a metavolcanic roof pendant. Metavolcanics - volcanic rocks that were only partially metamorphosed so they show both their original characteristics and some transformed/metamorphosed/recrystallized characteristics. I suspect the contact in your picture is the margin of one of these roof pendants. The top portion of Mt Morrison is also one of these pendants. Amazing stuff when you think about it!





more roof pendants





Here is the ancient subduction zone in map view and in cross section - before the uplift of the Sierra.

map view





cross section