Tricia and I "ran" the 31.6 mile distance from Highway 108 to Highway 4 this last Saturday and Sunday. Well not really; we didn't actually run. But we did go very fast and very light (I started with 30 pounds and Tricia with just under 10). And we somehow missed (again) all of the precipitation that has been hitting the high country over the last several weeks.
We had a really great start on Saturday; a leisurely wake-up followed by a 55 minute drive to the pass (we were hiking by 9:00 a.m.):
Vicki hiked the first mile with us before turning around:
We reached and then traversed across the south side of Sonora Peak. This part of the trail is visible from the highway. Then the trail crosses the crest and heads north to the headwaters of the East Fork Carson River. It then follows the "river" first as a tiny rivulet and then as a stream until after five miles it might, maybe be called a small river. Here's Tricia just before the descent into the start of the canyon:
And here's a view in the opposite direction, looking up canyon from five miles down (in the prior photo Tricia is standing in the obvious saddle that is in the middle of this shot):
Nine miles into the hike the PCT leaves the river and moves up and to its west. Gentle uphill leads past pretty streams and, occasionally, really expansive views:
Stanislaus Peak seemed to always be visible. Here it is (the closer one) along with Sonora Peak (slightly left) and a six mile stretch of the East Fork Carson River Canyon:
We passed under Boulder Peak (a pretty but totally non-descript rubble pile that I climbed on one of Tricia's first backpacking trips in 2006):
By now we were 13 miles into the day and we were getting pretty weary. Slight uphill led to slight downhill. In spite of being tired however, we broke into smiles when we came to "Son of Hexentric." This volcanic rubble pile/peak had several faces that each looked like the Sonora Pass climbing route Hexentric. Here's one of them:
(For some reason seeing this formation made me think immediately of Rob. Maybe because I think he'll ask me how far into the Wilderness it is?)
As the day wound down we started to too. We began looking for a flat place to sleep near water:
And we found one, a nice one:
The photo of us in camp was taken by Elizabeth, one of only three other people we'd seen that entire day. She and her friend Don caught up near dark and we happily shared the area with them (they were doing the same hike as us, also in two days, and they were from Sonora - it was a real treat to meet them).
As Don and Elizabeth set up their camp and chatted with us, we all watched the evening light on the far side of the canyon. It was wonderful:
We slept that night under the stars, and there actually were some (we had a tarp handy though just in case). But, true to predictions, we would wake up the next morning to overcast, to the possibility of rain, and to another 14.8 mile hike to Ebbett's Pass...
