PCT north

Eight of us set off into the high country on the PCT from Rte. 80.  Our intention was to climb Castle and Basin Peaks but after 2 days of rain, the clouds and wind had not retreated enough to make it happen.  After crossing Castle Meadow, we started up the PCT.  At Castle Pass, the wind was strong enough that we cringed at the thought of high peaks and ridges.  We continued north, fording a stream just past the hut and on past the un-named trail that we usually use coming down from Basin.  Our hope was to go to Paradise Lake.

Note Tammy having to cross stream barefoot

Stopping for lunch at a rock outcropping with a great view, we put on all our garments and hunkered down for lunch.  The clouds were building up so we decided that a better option would be to return.  Anyway, after carefully examining the maps, we saw that the round trip to that lake would have been 17 miles.  Too long.


On the way back we stopped at the Peter Grubb Hut to use the facilities.  We were surprised to find the it was accessible as there had been a sign warning of it's closure for maintenance.  At that point we were starting to meet quite a few thru hikers.  They all talked of two days of rain and holing up in Truckee or elsewhere in Tahoe.  Some German hikers carried fairly small packs: 40 and 50 liters.  We were quite impressed.  Their first pairs of shoes had worn out after 900 miles so they had ditched them and bought new ones in Tahoe.  They weren't even high-topped boots so crossing the high streams would be quite wet.

The clouds cleared up by the time we got back to Castle Pass, so we decided to go over the shoulder of Andesite Mountain on the way back.  We had hiked 10 miles with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. 

After 2 attempts to climb Devil's Peak last year, next week we hope to finally get to the top.  Maybe.



Clouds building up

view from Andesite

Loch Leven

Four of us from the 8:30 group went up the difficult road by Long Lake Reservoir, past Huysink Lake, to the backdoor trail to Loch Leven.  The road has NOT been scraped recently and is very difficult.  Our Subaru barely made it, having to back out and try new approaches. 

We largely opted to explore off-trail, hiking around Salmon Lake and up rocks for views.  Only a few of the resident catfish were visible.  We rejoined the trail to Lower Loch Leven and headed to Middle Loch Leven for our lunch stop.  There, Becky regaled us with her recent trip to France, complete with map.

After lunch we hiked to Upper Lake on the correct trail this time.  Once at Upper Lake, we went off trail again and up on the rocks on the east side.  We explored up there for quite a while, looking for landmarks from high points.

We had hiked 8-9 miles with an elevation gain of 1,777 feet to the height of almost 7,000 feet.  Hopefully the larger group will be back next week and we will do the Castle/Basin hike.

Barker Peak (almost)

dog hikers

Five of us headed off during a high wind advisory to try to climb Ellis Peak from Barker Pass at Tahoe.  But Barker Pass Rd had not opened for the season and we ended up trying to drive up a jeep road that was parallel to it.  Bumping along, we came to a fallen tree blocking further progress.  So we parked and hiked up the rest of the way.  Going was okay for a while but became very steep in places. 



thru hiker

At Barker Pass we came across a helicopter landing pad and four huge propane tanks.  We couldn't figure out what they were for. Deciding that Ellis Peak would be too far and windy, we went West on the Barker Pass Rd for a short way to PCT/TRT (Tahoe Rim Trail) trail head.  There was a toilet, maps, and picnic tables.  The wind was howling so the outhouse was welcome relief.  We had not see anyone else the entire day but at that place there came a truck (used the jeep road) with a couple of guys exploring, and then a group of hikers and their hiking dogs.



PCT/TRT
 

Tahoe Lunch View

We knew that the higher we went, the worse the wind would be so we headed north on the trail through gorgeous high country.  Flowers were in blooming in abundance, coating the hillsides and blowing in the wind.  Windfalls, rock outcroppings, and tortured trees with backdrops of snow-covered mountains (Crystal Range?) delighted us.  We had reached a ridge on the side of Barker Peak which the trail had skirted.  As we were struggling to stay upright, we decided to go to the leeward side and hunker down for lunch behind a large fallen log.  Big blue Lake Tahoe was in front of us and we could also see the TRT as it headed by some large rocks and on to Twin Peaks, where it left the PCT.  After a leisurely lunch we braved the wind to climb higher on Barker Peak but soon it became too strong so we headed straight downhill through the mule's ears to pick up the trail at some distance below.  Each  downward step brought a diminished wind. 

After returning to Barker Pass, we headed the other way on the road to see where the Ellis Peak Trail took off.  Oh well - that hike will have to wait until a future date.  We had hiked 8.2 miles with an elevation gain of 1,880 feet as high as 8,115 ft. 

We are not sure of our plans for next week as quite a few people in our little group will be busy with other commitments. 

Desolation Lunch View

Wind Advisory

Barker Peak Shoulder

Twin Peaks

Ellis Peak

Mule's Ears Slope

Trail Not taken

Culbertson Rock

Culbertson Lake from lunch spot

large tree

After parking at Loney Meadows, four of us took off cross-country from the split on the Rock Lakes trail towards Culbertson Lake.  We headed into a fairly open woodland with lots of downed trees, some of them quite large.  And some were eaten out at the bottom by termites.

We were looking to explore the rocky area that Akiko and I had seen on our hike of the three weeks ago.  We had observed an area that we hadn't explored just south of the ridge between Upper and Lower Rock Lakes. 

"floating tree"

Climbing the drainage

Ellen looking for a route

As we arrived at a very steep rock face, it seemed like the best approach would be to climb the steep, almost dry drainage.  As crawled up, we had to sometimes crawl under fallen logs blocking the way.  Soon we were on a sun-exposed mountain with amazing views.  We climbed using all fours on beautiful iron bearing rocks with mostly uncrumbling handholds and firm places for our feet.  We passed snowfields and tarns of snowmelt.  Flowers in the crevices were penstemon and phlox. 

Penner on the left and Culbertson on the right from top of mountain
 

Some pictures and map from Frank.

Find our way up talus and scree
 

We ate lunch overlooking Culbertson Lake.  Afterwards we went up further for more views of Upper Rock Lake, Sawmill Lake, and Penner Lake.  We were amazed at the proximity of Penner and Culbertson.  We had never noticed that from Penner. 

Wasps and unrelenting sun let us know that we had overstayed our welcome so we hastened off the 7258 foot un-named mountain to cross country and pick up the trail at Lower Rock Lake.  We had hiked only 7 miles but a lot of that was cross country, with quite a bit of rock climbing.  We were plenty tired by the end of it.