Castle/Basin

Six of us in the 8 o'clock group headed for the challenging hike up two peaks.  The weather was perfect and didn't blow us to bits on either peak or on the ridge trail between them.  We ate lunch on Castle Peak, enjoying the view, especially where we had been on the Warren Lake Trail two weeks before.  While we were hiking the ridge trail, we noticed the thunderheads that appeared to be in the Mt. Tallac area and a  plume of smoke that looked like a Lassen eruption.  The smoke plume headed high, catching the lighter sunlight before it blew east in the wind.  Guess it was the fire up near Quincy.

It was fun to see the wildflowers reproducing in that harsh environment.  Depending on the amount of shelter, we saw, bladderwort milkvetch, various paintbrushes, pennyroyal, mule's ears, a phoecia, sulfur flower and other buckwheats, and others.  Later, we headed down through the lush meadows (but still not as lush as two years ago - next year we will have to take this hike no later than mid-July).  The flowers included those tiny-flowered orchid stalks - don't know which one)...monkey flowers, corn lilies and the flowers that we had seen above.  Also we saw larkspur, lupines, asters. and various yellow flowers - senecio?

It was a long, beautiful hike - we enjoyed it immensely - 10-11 miles long, 2500 foot elevation gain.  Great views...ran into a few other hikers - including two thru-hikers on the PCT towards the end.  As we approached the cars a large bicycle group was headed out for a full moon ride. 

Although we haven't heard from the other group, word got to us while resting on on the top of Basin.  Apparently a certain hiker's husband's rescue group almost ran them down on the way to an emergency.  They had to jump for cover in the brush. 





Next week, the  8 AM group plans to hike the PCT trail south to Benson Hut (12 miles RT).  We might also explore the peak behind it.