We woke up at the city park and headed into "down town" for something to eat; however, it is Saturday As a small town nothing opened until 8 o’clock. When the local bakery opened we were first in a line that went out the door. We had a danish and breakfast sandwich, and it was absolutely fantastic, now I know why the line behind us was so long.
We walked down to highway 3 and within about 10 minutes a truck pulled over and offered us a ride. Kevin hiked the trail in 1984. He is a local gold miner who likes to give rides when he sees hikers. He drove us to the trail head, and then picked up about 10 hikers who are waiting to get into town. We had no idea he was going out of his way to take us, he is truly a Trail angel! We offered gas money and he declined. We were on the trail at Hiking by 930.
Beautiful views of two peaks on the other side of the valley
Another Grove of the moss covered trees that I like
One word, just one word, wow!
We passed this well flowing but easily crossed stream coming down the mountain side, followed by another small meadow covered in the previously mentioned California carnivorous pitcher plant.
The trail brought us to this larger flow stream/river from the Mosquito Lake outlet. The crossing at the Trail is covered in water. We looked upstream and a little bit down. I found some rocks but decided not to cross on them. I went up steam a little bit more to a log, which provided a good dry crossing.
Stopped for lunch and water fill up with a beautiful view
We soon came to a vista overlooking the valley which is somewhat flooded from the snow melt, with the mountain covered peaks in the background, stunningly beautiful
We reached the first meaningful snow of the day that is not patchy. The slope is not very bad. We put on traction anyway just learning from our previous overconfidence.
Beautiful views, that I almost missed, because I was so concentrated on where I was stepping in the snow. That’s one of the big negatives I have found is that so much attention is required to where you step that you miss things that are right in front you.
A couple of days ago Take Charge slipped on a traverse and was rattled pretty good. Today she choose to not continue forward over the next traverses we had come to. I do not blame her, a slip and slide can rattle you pretty good. TC and Jelly decided to turn back and return to the trail head to bypass this section. I continued on by myself; hopefully, I’ll find some other group to link up with, and meet back up with them in a few days in Seiad Valley.
The views continue to be amazing as I go over passes and peaks. Soon I came to this unnamed lake that has some of the loudest frogs I have ever heard.
I come up over another pass, which is one of the paths that the McKinley Fire took a few years ago. We are walking through its burn scar.
Another beautiful view down into a valley Meadows with surrounding mountains and Hillside
I head down past another meadow below the trail. And the trail itself is a narrow strip along this rocky mountain side. Shortly I noticed this second view of the meadow with the contrasting mountain in the background
I arrive to my campsite at the south fork of the Scott river. We got a late start and I pushed hard today to get some miles in after Jelly and TC turned back.
My tent sits fairly close to the river, and it has a large rock cliff face as a backdrop.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 18.8
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 1036.2
PCT mile marker 1580.1
(Flipped over 542.8 miles)
