It's Friday! 9/16/23

 

I thought I knew what I was talking about, but I didn't.  I was sure we were on our way to hike Donner Peak, up in the high country, but we weren't.  By driving up I-80 and exiting at Boreal Ridge Rd, we'd park and hike up to Donner Summit.  Easy-peasy.  Wrong.  When we exited and parked, nothing looked familiar.  I guess I should've looked it up on AllTrails before we left.  Oh well.  We were all ready to go, so off we went, on the PCT, with an unknown destination because we didn't know this trail at all.

Sometimes the destination doesn't matter, as a journey into the Sierra's is always nourishment for the soul.  We were happy to be Out and About on this unknown-to-us, but well-trod trail.

The path itself was kinda sketchy in places, as you see above:  Roots 'n rocks.  Beneath the trees, we appreciated the soft leaf/needle compost underfoot.  We alternated sun with shade, and first we went down-down-down and then up-up-up, and then we repeated the pattern!

Look at this extensive granite "slab" littered with giant boulders!  This was next to the trail, not part of it.  Our elevation here was roughly 7,000'.

We passed several small ponds with clear, tannic water.  One had a large population of Bullhead Catfish, which isn't necessarily good as they can overpopulate and "stunt in ponds."  These guys were still small, maybe three-four inches long, but we saw lots.

Paralleling I-80, not close but within earshot, it became a background "white noise."  Eventually the trail turned south and the sound disappeared.  We saw a couple of day hikers early on and then we were alone.  When we finally gained the first high spot, we were sorta surprised to see Donner Lake, but then we realized where the trail would take us.  

Ain't nature's designs grand?

Not many wildflowers were blooming this late in the year.  I spotted a few Pink Spirea, including the flower with bee, above.  In semi-sunny areas, Indian Paintbrush and Checker Bloom still flowered, and Aster and Goldenrod color foretold autumn's imminence.

By gollies, here we are!  Three-and-a-half miles in and we're up top, overlooking Hwy 40 (old Lincoln Hwy, way down below) and the snow sheds and the China Wall, places we know from past hikes.  We knew how to get down to Hwy 40, but didn't need to.  Instead, this was our turn-around point.

Yup, we parked the day packs, sat on a boulder in the shade and ate our lunch.  Behind Jimmy is George R. Stewart Peak at 7,389'.  If I looked off to my right, I'd see the snow sheds and China Wall.  As we were leaving, a large group of young adults (kids, really!) bounded up the boulders from Hwy 40, nodded to the two old fogeys, and continued their caper up to Stewart Peak.  Just a lark, right?

The afternoon was perfect, warm with a fresh breeze, maybe 75/ish.  On our return, we were aware that all the downhills we had would now be uphills, and our ol' bodies protested, but no matter.  As we made our way, we marveled at the stamina of the PCT thru-hikers.  This is a really tough trail.  Being younger helps, I'm sure.  Meanwhile, we were treated to views (across I-80) of our big buddy from three years ago -- legendary Castle Peak.  Click on the blue link to read about it.

I'd listened to the weatherman the night before and he said "no thunderstorms for the Sierra tomorrow," and I believed him.  When we saw the gray clouds forming, I wasn't worried.  Nope, no thunder, no rain.

We love hiking up here.

Nice balancing act.

Like the brilliant red Snow Plant in spring,

these rosy Pine Drops always catch my attention.

Finally, we came back to the granite slab.  Hi Jimmy!  One nice thing about an out-and-back trail is you see stuff on the return that you missed on the way out.  We were so finished with the switchbacks and uphill/downhill, elevation gain/loss, and we were both tired.  We rated this ourselves as "moderately challenging."  Seven miles and our dogs were barking!  We didn't make it to Donner Summit (oops!), so we'll save that for another time, now that we KNOW how to get there!

I don't know if this map is of any use to you guys, but here 'tis anyway.  The Prius was parked where the blank spot is from everybody's finger pointing to it, and we followed the PCT (red line) down to about Lake Angela.  Our only time to hike exclusively on the PCT.  This entire map area is a great locale to get in some aerobic exercise!  Awful pretty, too.

To: Summit Lake, Fri 10/2/20

2020:  The year that'll go down in history (as far as I'm concerned) as a catastrophe ... the entire year, even though we're only on October 2nd!  I quit asking "what next?" a long time ago, because I don't know if the world (or me) could handle much more.  Every morning when I awaken, I hope the air will be clear enough for me to want to go outside, and I'm disappointed most mornings these days.  Heat and smoke, the deadly duo.  Elsewhere, everywhere, with floods and hurricanes and wildfires, a pandemic -- sick and dying -- shuttered buildings, trips scrapped, no entertainment, job losses, this contentious election; well, sadly, you know what I'm talking about.  Not much to look forward to, except 2021, which we hope will be BETTER.

So, this morning it was with mega delight that I watched a big flock of silky-looking Cedar Waxwings gather on our Pacific Dogwood trees to gorge on the bright red berries (which they swallow whole).  I've never seen them here before.  I call the waxwings "bandits" because of their black eye mask.  They're fast, don't light long on any branch, and can make a tree shake!  They pop those berries down their gullets like they're candy.  A right cheery distraction just outside our dining room window.

Our Nevada City AQI was in the unhealthful range again.  I don't remember what it was, just that it was bad.  Walking and hiking help keep Jimmy and me sorta sane as the world unravels around us.  I checked to see what the AQ was in Truckee and it was much better, so (with a bit of a late start), we packed granola bars, waters and took off for higher elevations.

Summit Lake reflections

BTW, Summit Lake was not our original destination, just altitude with clear air.  We almost hiked to Summit Lake the end of August, except we turned left to Castle Peak rather than right to the lake.  This time, we parked at the Johnson Canyon trailhead to reach the lake from the opposite direction.  In other words, many of the trails up here intersect.  This hike would be all new to us.  As usual, by not paying attention, we put in a couple extra miles -- much of it in the blazing sun -- but that part of the hike was pretty, too, and hey! we survived!  We ended up doing seven miles on a loop trail, with lots of elevation gain/loss, like 1200', and peaked out at 7400+ ft.

That's part of our trail on yonder mountain; we'd already crossed over the canyon and were headed for the lake.  Does the mountaintop look hazy, the sky kind of grayish?  Yes, the smoke filtered in, but we couldn't smell it and the air "seemed" okay.  Photos looking toward the south had gray sky.  Those aimed northward showed blue sky.  It almost seemed like I-80 was a dividing line. 

Our route took us on and off this fire road, which wasn't too bad, but a winding single track is really much nicer.  Trees provided a place for us to rest and drink and hide from the sun.  I believe Truckee topped out in the high 80's today and, of course, there we were, hiking in it!  One of these days .... 

We were within earshot of the freeway for much of the distance, but (except for one brief section) the noise was muted and unimportant white noise, like the whirring of a fan.  In some places, the sound disappeared.  Ideally, we prefer to follow paths that only echo birdsong or the sighing wind.

Autumn is in the air and the colors were changing.  In another week, those Aspens near Jimmy will be completely yellow, though you can already see some gold mixed with the green.  The ferns were a smattering of yellow, brown and green, but brown was winning.  It's very dry up here.  The high country didn't get its usual number of summer (monsoon) thunderstorms this year, and our trail was so dusty that our noses recoiled and we sneezed and blew, sneezed and blew.  Every footfall exploded into a mini-dust-bomb.  Trailside, low-growing Mahala Mat's evergreen leaves were thick with dust.

These intersecting trails are tops with mountain bikers.  How they navigate the narrow trails w/o killing themselves is a mystery to me, but that's okay.  We encountered a couple of groups, and each was polite and friendly.  But, boy howdy, could they kick up the dust?  Whoooooee!

As we wrapped around the mountain, sometimes we were lucky and a nice breeze would hit us full in the face.  That was a bit o' heaven!  When we neared the dried-up Woolly mules ears (above), the wind would stir up a cracklin' and rattlin' of the leaves, perfect for a Halloween night!  

The last bit to reach the lake was a tiresome uphill slog on the fire road.  We wondered if we'd ever see the durned thing!  Finally, at picturesque Summit Lake, bordered by dark pines and firs, we sat down.  No, I didn't take off my shoes 'n sox to soak my feet -- I didn't want to sink my toes in black sludge to get to the water -- yuck!  We were content to sit for a few.  Mountain Chickadees flitted about, collecting seeds from cones.

A lone female Common Merganser swam across the lake.

Serenity.

The only flower in evidence this time of year was Rubber Rabbitbrush.  With the afternoon waning, we turned around at 2:30 and began our descent on the steep fire road, cutting off a a mile or two.  We won't do this again -- too steep and not much fun.  But it got us to the car around 4:00pm.  And overall, we enjoyed being Out and About in the high country.

The aspens here are mostly still green, but it won't be long ....

I took this pic roughly at the halfway descent point, showing Donner Lake and the distant mountains obscured by smoke.  The white ribbon is the freeway, near where our Prius is waiting.  As we progressed down the mountain toward home, the haze grew into an acrid blanket that threatened to engulf us.  At home, we scurried into the house, closing the garage door behind us ASAP.  We have new filters in our home and cars, and the AC keeps us cool and filters out the dirty air.  Jimmy ordered an air purification machine on Sept 12th; maybe it'll arrive before the snow flies.  Our harvest moon looked like a big orange pumpkin.  Maybe it'll rain ....

Over the Summit, Fri, 8/7/20

The 7,000+ ft Donner Summit in the Sierra Nevada Mtns can get 35-40 ft of snow a year and sometimes 40-60 ft. Snow drifts can be dozens of feet high. And then there are avalanches! When the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869, it traversed these mountains. Snow sheds were built to protect the track (people and freight), first of wood (fire hazard), later of concrete. Still later, this track was abandoned; the trains moved along a track further south.  But the sheds remain.  Jimmy and I have walked inside these sheds a couple of times, but not all the way.  We've even brought friends and relatives to see/walk the sheds.  But, curious citizens as we are, Jimmy and I have wondered just how far the snow sheds run, as in how many miles?  Today we'd find out the answer.  Inquiring minds want to know ....

This is close to where we finished up, overlooking beautiful Donner Lake.  You see motor boats zipping through the blue water.  Donner Summit is to your left out of the photo.

But this is where we began, at the western end.  Rather than one very long snow shed, these are broken into sections.  The one above serves as an overpass for a local road.

Graffiti?  Yes, everywhere.  Some artistic, others just a "Kilroy was here" type.  We've decided that ladders must be hidden somewhere so the doodlers don't have to 'em lug up and down the mountain every time.  They paint high.  Two of the tunnels (snow sheds) were wet down the center as above, but the sides were dry, so our feet remained dry.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

If you're willing to do a bit of boulder-hopping, you can explore further.  Behind Jimmy is one of the sheds, but we were looking for a different trail along the willows, which we found and which led only to the next shed.  Oh well.

Free entertainment along the way, too.

Watching rock climbers always makes me catch my breath.

The trail by the willows was ablaze in summer flowers.

You see people atop the cliff next to red x in above photo?  We've stood there ourselves on past hikes looking down at the China Wall where we were standing today (below).  Makes for a nice, fairly lengthy loop hike.  More folks are hiking up the rocks bottom center.  The road is Historic Hwy 40, leading to Rainbow Bridge.

This might be the longest shed:  Tunnel 6, which ran 1,659 ft through the summit ridge at Donner Pass.  Truly, it seems to go on forever!  Jimmy stands at the China Wall base and the tunnel entrance.

Plenty of natural light in this section.  You see what I mean about a ladder?

Out the other side now, and gazing toward from whence we came.  The straight dark line is the long snow shed.

Butterflies (including attractive Lorquin's Admiral) on Western Hemlock.

The sheds were built into the mountainsides where possible.

Some are cathedral-like in their interior "design" and hushed atmosphere.  All are cool/ish.  Today we encountered throngs of visitors at the beginning.  The snow sheds had been advertised in the Sac Bee newspaper as a swell day trip with/for the kids, and, Holy Moly, they came in droves!  This was our first experience with COVID crowds.  Some wore masks (we wore ours when near anyone); many chose not to wear any.  As we suspected, when the tunnels and darkness wore on, folks got tired and bored with it and turned around, so we were left with relative peace and quiet, like above.  I used a flash on this pic.

Aha!  We got to the end.  No more snow shed, just a wall.  This was it.  Roughly two-and-a-half miles of tunnels one way.  That being said, initially many more miles of sheds were built, but all have been dismantled.  We had to go back the same way, which made it a five-miler.  Now we know.

I took a few photos on the way back (yes, we were walking on railroad rocks the entire time, hard on the feet).  This walk in these tunnels was really interesting, not for the graffiti, but for the history.

This entrance was kinda creepy, but the tunnel sides and roof changed as we went along, when the engineers switched to cement slabs instead of native rock.  Good thing the area isn't earthquake-prone.

Aiming for the tunnel entrance at the end of the gravel path.

Layer upon layer of paint.  In some places, we could smell the paint spray, so our masks came in handy!  First time we've ever smelled fresh paint.

The best one, in our opinions.

Here I've stepped out of a tunnel to look around, and I spied the previous tunnel entrance (red x).  Large openings were spaced every now and again in the tunnels (which made me feel better, I can tell you), probably to evacuate people if needed.  So ... that was our day.  Fun for us.  What'll we do next week?