Days 86
Start: Donner Pass
Finish: Mule Ear Creek
Daily Mileage: 25.4
PCT Mile: 1180.4
I changed direction in my tent 3 times last night and I always felt head down. Didn’t get a good night of sleep, but it happens.
There was jumbled terrain through Donner Pass with big boulders and walls that the trail endlessly wound around, but the hum of the highway grew ever greater as we approached. I-80 runs through Donner Pass. To me, this is a huge indicator of northward progress since it runs just south of Detroit where I grew up. We are definitely in Northern California!
The trail went under I-80 in a pair of tunnels, and then it was back into the hills.
Then began the ups and downs. The PCT likes to do long climbs or descents, and stay flat when it can. Now it was going up and down for the rest of the day, almost like the Appalachian Trail. None of the climbs were huge, but the constant shifting is not normal for this trail.
Up and over Castle Pass and then transit around Basin Peak. We are getting lower elevation, but the snow is still sticking around plenty on the north faces, and there was a good amount of snow travel today.
There was mainly forest on the trail today. It was odd though since the trees were big and most had bright green moss on them. It almost looked like I could be in Washington, which I was not expecting. We did however pass through our first bit of logged trail. There was a good bit of selective logging today, which is at least a little better than clear cutting.
There were usually views at the top of the climbs, but the mountains are looking more like green hills with a few exceptions. More muted and gentle than further south. However, there was lava rock scattered here and there which broke things up a bit.
Towards the end of the day, the trail did a couple ridges in series. It hasn’t done much on ridges since the Sierra, and water has been so plentiful with snowmelt that I haven’t really thought about it much lately. However, I found myself with less water than I would have liked. I wasn’t in danger and I knew I could get to the next water source, but it reminded me that traveling north now I will have to pay closer attention to my water like in the desert. Everything will be drying up.
We camped near a stream for an easy water replenishment. We will be heading to town tomorrow for a resupply and aren’t sure what our next stop is yet. We will have to figure it out on the fly tomorrow when we see what this resupply is like.
