A great nights sleep on a super comfortable mattress. I woke up and got ready for my Trail angel ride from Lynn. Quincy Trail angels are amazing.
We drove past the trail head and went down to Bucks lake about two minutes away for a quick look and then headed back to the Trail and I was walking at 7:55.
The trail has a very open view to the valley below. It’s a little hazy I think just evaporation from last nights rain, but beautiful.
There is a cool granite spine off to the right of the Trail with sharp rugged points
All of these pictures with the lakes and the meadow are taken from the same location on the trail. Absolutely beautiful.
Silver Lake has a really neat island in the middle of the lake. It was seen in the previous pictures. This is from a different location and angle on the trail.
I have been seeing a lot of these white growths on the trees, and at first thought they were fungi, but they are hard and solid. They are called Veiled Ploypores. In fact, it is a fungi mushroom. It is common in fire ravaged areas and areas with bark beetle infestation. It is called veiled because the outside shell actually protects the inner spores. The bark beetle will also bore inside of it where the temperature is warmer.
More incredible, mountaintop views
I wasn’t expecting this stream, it’s not on my map, but it was a nice stop for some water and a snack I was getting thirsty.
I’m hiking down along a creek following a valley, a lot of pretty foliage, flowers, butterflies, yellow faced bumblebees, and crickets are flying around. I tried catching all of it in this video
I have a 7 mile descent at a 13% grade. The Feather river is seen down below; Although, I will be going upstream more than where we see in this picture.
I went by some barren trail areas with some interesting rock formations and then began switch backing down the side.
As I traveled down, the side of the mountain getting closer to the river the views of the surrounding area
were spectacular, And as a bonus, I had cell service and was able to call my two youngest boys and have some good conversation visiting time.
Finally, I reached the bottom there’s a rail line that runs just above the river. I crossed the tracks and headed down the road to the “town” of Belden. It’s really nothing more than an RV park with a restaurant that calls itself a resort.
Of course, anytime there is a restaurant on Trail you have to stop and eat some real food!
I continued on the trail and crossed the feather River on this old auto bridge, and started uphill 1 mile to Indian river. Right at the beginning of the hill is in old Abbey stamp now. This is from the gold rush era, and with pulverize rock in order to try to extract the gold.
I reached Indian river, which will be my campsite for tonight there used to be a bridge, crossing the river, but it was destroyed in a fire. The planks lay across the water and are still usable if you scamper down to them but tonight I set up my tent on the old approach, that is no longer necessary.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 20.1
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 2047.5
PCT mile marker 1289.1
(Returned to complete 542.8 miles flipped over)
Miles left:
Echo - Chester 43.4
Kearsarge - Echo 303.4
Snoqualmie-Terminus 259.5
Total 606.3
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