Days 85
Start: Five Lakes Creek
Finish: Donner Pass
Daily Mileage: 18
PCT Mile: 1155
It got chilly last night, near freezing probably. That was confirmed when I left camp and had the crunch of ice just outside of camp.
With the chill, it was an easy pull up the first climb, over to Squaw Valley Ski Resort. The trail went up the back side, but then flipped over to the resort side to traverse. It was the experts only black diamond area, and the snow hadn’t melted, so there was a lot of steep snow. Another area that I should have had my ice axe, but made due by going slowly and diligently.
The trail eventually mellowed as it worked its way down, and worked its way over to the west side of the mountain. It was soon time for the second climb though, up to another ridge. The climb was on the nearly snow free west side and started out gentle but ended up one of those good get-up-quick grades I like. It ended up near Tinker Knob which is one of many volcanic peaks in the area.
Around the northwest side of Anderson Peak was a big, steep snowfield. It was too steep to head straight across as the trail did, so I headed down to a point I could safely traverse. It was quite steep, so I had to take my time. At one point I slipped and slid down a snow bank a few feet. When I stopped and got up, the end of one of my poles was at a 90 degree angle. Not quite right. Oh well, it happens, though this is the first pole I’ve ever snapped in 10,000 miles of hiking.
I got out of the snow and continued down the nice ridge. More great scenery until it started climbing another ski hill. Then it was back into the snow. The snow wasn’t horrible until there was a side, steep band that the trail went straight under. I didn’t want to go straight across it because the descent looked perilous. Instead I climbed up until I could traverse over to a spot that was not quite as steep, but still pretty dangerous. I slowly worked my way down and off the slope.
After 3 bad traverses, there can’t be much more, right? The snow turned to patches and started to diminish as I flipped over to the west side of the mountain and continued to descend. Then the dayhikers picked up. A sure sign that I was nearing a trailhead. An elderly couple was near a patch of snow across the trail that I flew over. Way easier than the rest of the stuff that I had been traversing. A family that had turned around upon seeing the snow commented that I made that look easy. Well they should have seen some of the other things I had to go through on this trail.
Then it was just an easy couple miles down to the road over Donner Pass, yes, that Donner Pass. There was a ski resort with a restaurant nearby on highway 40 that offers PCT hikers a free 40 oz beer. Since it was only a quarter mile off trail, it was an easy winner and I claimed my 8.1% malt liquor and had a couple meals to boot for a quite reasonable price.
Cookie Monster and I hung out in the restaurant for a couple hours before we stumbled a half mile on to a campsite.
I had some frustrations and challenges today, but overcame all and it ended up being a good and scenic day.
