More Snow

We woke up this morning to a brisk temperature of 24 degrees at 0615. This did not motivate us to move out of our cozy sleeping bags, so we stayed in a for a while. When we finally were about ready to go, we met Bill from REI and Don. They camped near us but we were already zipped up for the night when they showed up. They are just hiking this section to Sierra City. After chatting for a bit, we hit the trail at about 0900. The first 1.5 miles were pretty decent with a wet but visible trail.

Pit Stop on the Snow

Then it was back to walking on snow banks for the next mile and a half. Navigating point to point and having to watch your footing just plain saps your energy. Being in less than a week does not help either. About 4 miles from camp, we stopped for lunch at a spot that offered us beautiful views. We eventually got out of the snow again and increased our pace to Lacey Creek where we filled up on water. We were serenaded with a free Bullfrog Chorus while we filtered water and had a snack. Surprisingly, we were mosquito free here. After our respite, we had a tough uphill stretch to negotiate. the south facing slope was snow free but when we hit the high point of 8190 feet and turned onto the north side, we once again were on snow. There was a small flat ridge area that was snow free at the point and we debated on camping there for the night. We took our packs off to look around but the mosquito’s and other bugs were pretty ferocious here. In addition, every red ant on the mountain seemed to be gathering here for some kind of ant festival. We decided to start down the snowy slope. It was tricky and steep in spots and our cautious steps made for slow going. We got down to a point on the trail where we had planned to camp and it was covered in snow and wet snow melt areas. We hiked on another half mile and found a flat spot near two open areas with a breeze that kept most of the flying hoards at bay. Camp for the night. We set up the tent knowing the bugs would just get worse later on and then went out on the open ridge to cook and eat.

Biscuits and Gravy Dinner

Tonight’s feast was Mountain House dehydrated Biscuits and Gravy. We boiled our water, added it to the pouch and waited for them to become a tasty trail meal. They were pretty good. With a nice warm meal in us, we retreated to our tent which was quickly becoming surrounded by all sorts of evil flying bugs. The stats for today were 8.35 snowy miles and we hiked at 2.1 MPH. The high point for the day was 8190 feet and we are now camped at 7745 feet. Tomorrow is the first day of summer.