Ambitious? Friday, 8/24/18

Thank goodness, our days have shifted from hot mid-90's to the mid-80's, a really welcome change.  It made us want to get on our feet and enjoy the splendor of the mountains.  Last week we tried a new trail ... this week I consulted Julie Carville's Tahoe's Spectacular Wildflower Trails to find us a hike we'd never attempted.  I knew we were too late to see great swaths of wildflowers, but the trail itself sounded intriguing.  I just didn't know if we could do it.  Apparently the Mount Judah Loop trail is heavily trafficked, which to me means "if they can do it, we can do it."  What the heck, I said to myself, if it's too much, we can turn around and head back to the car.

Julie Carville begins her trail description by saying, "The Mount Judah Loop follows the Pacific Crest Trail along the ridge of the Sierra with breathtaking views of distant mountain ranges, while below, Donner Lake sparkles in the afternoon sunlight."  That's enough to make roamers like us tie on our shoes!  So, we set out toward Donner Pass Road.  I shot the above picture on my camera ... where the map is rubbed clear is where we began, near the RR track ... at 7,100 ft.  I ignored the Mt Judah summit number.  With plenty of water and enough grub to keep us going, we started climbing.

The beginning wasn't auspicious.  Climbing on a rock field is hazardous, but we eventually climbed out of the rock-strewn switch-backs.  At every turn, we marveled at how much higher we were, seeing landmarks we recognized, other places we'd hiked.  Even though the sky wasn't perfectly clear, hazy from the fires still burning all over the west, the temp was a perfect 72, and we felt energized.

We looked and, by golly, we spied the Rainbow Bridge (at red check mark), glad to see it.  If you enlarge the pic, use your back arrow to return to this post.  In the past six years (since moving to NorCal), we've walked across the bridge several times, plus plied trails near it.

That's Lake Mary behind me, and that's about where we parked the Prius.  Yup, we encountered a number of people on the trail, coming and going, many with dogs, including one border collie with panniers to hold its own food!  The lady with that dog looked like she might be out overnight. (Imagine me wearing jeans!  I've been in shorts FOREVER.  Hooray, I was dressed just right for today.)

Love seeing these Jeffrey Pines growing out of the rocks,

their wind-blown branches pruned by fierce winter winds. 

I'm standing in a field of spent flower blossoms just off the trail.  I know this had to be a magnificent sight in late spring, early summer, but all of July and August have been hot, frying plants and people!  I was going to say brutally hot, but that's probably just me.  Also, one of Sugar Bowl's ski lifts is visible in the distance, barely visible.

Back on the path; up we go.

At this point, the trail loop begins.  Mt Judah to the left, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) straight ahead.  We turned left.  Lake Mary is far below now.  We ate our lunch in the shade of the trees to the right of the trail sign.

We trudged along in a mix of sun and shade, still ascending.

Approaching Donner Peak, we walked out on this promontory, wise to not veer too close to the edge. What a fine viewpoint!  A tip of Lake Mary can be seen way down there.  Jimmy (my mountain man) looks like he belongs here!

Cool-looking stump, like a colossal clothespin!

Ah, Jimmy is pointing to Donner Lake (red check mark), miles away.  In front of him is Donner Peak at 8,019'.  We could've walked to its summit, but didn't want to add any more mileage to our feet than what we signed up for!  (kidding about signing up, figure of speech)  Even in the haze, the surrounding distant mountains were remarkable.

I used my phone's AllTrails app to see if we'd gotten turned around (but, how?), as it seemed like we'd been climbing and should've reached the summit by this time.  Nope, we were on track.  We'd wound around the mountain and were again switch-backing, now on its eastern flank.

OMGosh, the summit is dead ahead on this undulating path.  A strong westerly wind blew across the ridge, so we had to hold onto hats, walking poles, anything that could vanish east into the State of Nevada.  At some points on the ridge I made sure not to be too close to the trail edge, because the wind was that strong, and it was a very, very long way down.

Made it.  Mt Judah summit:  8,243 ft.

Hold onto your hats, mate!

After climbing for two-and-a-half miles, gaining almost 1,150' in elevation, we were ready for the down hill.  On a southerly exposure, great piles of lava appeared.

Above is one whale of a lava pyramid.  I can only imagine this area in spring with thousands of bright yellow Woolly Mules Ears in bloom.  At this point we were on the PCT section of Mt Judah loop, and enjoying the descent, much of it gradual, so we could spend more time looking around.  Actually, the whole afternoon was super.  As far as I could tell, we didn't encounter any thru-hikers.

Look at these magnificent Red Fir trees.  We walked through sections of volcanic tuff along here (below).  In the Sierras, we see so much granite, it surprised us to see lava and tuff.  Jimmy is dwarfed by the trees, blends in well, too (above).

I caught my breath with these eye-catching lime-green lichens attached to the Red Firs.  In the sunlight, they appeared almost luminous.  Such color!

You didn't think for one minute that we'd turn around and head for the car, did you?  I didn't think so.  In the above pic, we're down the mountain and Jimmy is approaching the car.  Five miles up/down and over four hours and 1,150' elevation gain.  Sure, we were tired, but a pleased tired, and proud of ourselves that, at our age, we could make this climb.  Did we enjoy it?  You betcha.  I saw very few wildflowers, but that's okay, I didn't expect to see many.  We were happy to be in our "backyard playground," with its unlimited mountain vistas, scenery, and all the hiking you want!