29 July. Mile 1448. Photo update

Silver Lake, outside of Bucks Lake.  This stretch of trail has a number of isolated lakes along the way.

Sunset clouds

More sunset clouds; I was camped on a ridge with a clear view.  A great spot and view.

Home, sweet home.  Rain cover optional; without it, you sleep under the stars.

Thermal Geyser, at Lassen National Park

Sunset from Hat Creek Rim.  I enjoyed temps in the mid 80s/30 rather than the usual 100+/40 that make this stretch infamous.

Burney Falls.  Just a mile upstream, Burney Creek is completely dry.  Water comes from out of the ground.  Chance to play the tourist.

In the distance, Mount Shasta.  A sort of 'lonely mountain' towering over the Northern California landscape.

Mile 1416. Burney Falls State Park. Update.

On this stretch of the trail, there's an odd inverse, where mobile data signals are present on the trail (where there aren't any power sockets), and are weak 'in town', where power is available, and civilization is present.  So, I haven't been able to update this blog when I was expecting to.

On the whole, my body is in a good place.  My stomach has readjusted.  I've loosened my laces, and my feet are no longer aching halfway through the day.  Most importantly, I'm sleeping decent hours and no longer suffering insomnia.

Weatherwise, it's much warmer now than in earlier months, but at the higher elevations, the heat is still moderated, and for the driest stretches, I've been lucky to have had cooler weather than the average.

There are small minimart stores every couple of days, and water is available at reasonably frequent intervals, so there hasn't been a need for hauling really heavy loads.

Northern California is a distinct landscape from the High Sierras and from southern California.  Geologically, what's new are the igneous rocks, and the prominent peaks on the horizon are volcanoes, Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta.

Photos to follow!

18 July. Mile 1270. Bucks Lake. Food.

My appetite is no longer as voracious as it was earlier on the trail.  I'm not sure if that's because I restored some weight, or because the terrain is not as quite as demanding, or something else.  But I'm no longer starving every hour.  (Still, I passed through Bucks Lake today and made short work of probably 2,000 calories.)

That said, I have effectively made food a task to be dealt with while on the trail, rather than an experience to enjoy.  I imagine this is the case for most hikers.  At this point, my diet of energy bars and nuts, "supplemented" with chocolate bars, corn chips, and candy, is aimed at minimizing the amount of time spent on food--no water to boil, no dishes to clean, not even a need to clean your hands, if you avoid touching the food.  While it's possible to cook on the trail (in the sense of doing more than just boiling water, say, adjusting heat or using multiple pans), I don't know any PCT hikers doing this.  It just takes time away from the primary focus -- hiking.  (One possible exception -- one guy's father is preparing his meals and then mailing them to him along the trail to be rehydrated with boiling water.  But, like the top chefs, it always helps to have someone to help with the prep work.)

Off the trail, however, food is very much something to savor, and an experience again, especially if you're sharing a meal with other hikers.  The food along the trail trends toward the basic, but after days of energy bars,  rehydrated meals, nuts, and oatmeal, most things look scrumptious, if for no other reason than the change in fare.

Memorable food, which sort of neatly falls into categories naturally:

Artemis Grill, South Lake Tahoe: the trail angel who gave me a ride into town recommended this to me, as it was in walking distance from the hotel.  While possibly pricey for many hikers, the lamb souvlaki platter I had for supper was well executed.  The souvlaki was juicy and tasty, and the grilled vegetables were I expect an excellent samexecuted summer California produce.

La Casita, Idyllwild: I had Mexican combo platters throughout the trail, but my tamales/chile rellenos lunch here was the best, excellent not only in relative but also absolute terms.

Jenny's Cafe, Independence: there's not a whole lot in Independence, not even a stop light, but breakfast at Jenny's was certainly pleasant, with the sausage, eggs, hash browns and biscuits and gravy well prepared.  The staff on the weekends includes an eight year old setting the tables.

Great Basin Bakery, Bishop: the best food I've had on my trip were the French loaf and giant cinnamon rolls I got at this bakery (which I found out about from one of those free tourist brochures).  Crusty, chewy bread, yeasty and not overly fatty or sweet cinnamon rolls; really enjoyed these.

Casa de Luna, Green Valley: taco salad (effectively burritos) -- nothing fancy, club warehouse ingredients (like Costco), but the hospitality and quirkiness (Hawaiian shirts from a long rack were mandatory overgarments) and camaraderie made this the best meal on the trail.  And then there were pancakes the next morning!

Fire season continues on the trail.  There's a 15 mile closure in Washington, and a 17.5 mile in southern California, back at Big Bear.

18 July. Mile 1257. Plumas National Forest.

Morning sun over Plumas National Forest

Commemoration of the Donner Party at Interstate 80 rest stop.

12 July. Mile 1153. Donner Pass.

On the bus ride back to South Lake Tahoe we passed through a line of thunderstorms complete with torrential rains, plenty of lightning, and dark clouds that snuffed out any daylight.  The local Tahoe paper had photos of of golf ball sized hail and a waterspout over the lake from earlier in the week.  The unusual weather has cleared.

The High Sierras took a lot out of me.  In spite of my break, my stomach and feet are less than stellar in response to the return to trail food and hiking.

Pleasant surprise at Dinner Pass -- the local ski lodge is open on summer weekends, so I had an unplanned sandwich, fries, and soda for dinner.  Afterwards, a local showed myself and some other hikers his drone.

Lake Tahoe in the distance

Sunset over Dinner Lake

July 9. Books.

I originally started this hike with an e-reader packed in my bag.  However, I hardly used it, as I found myself belonging to that class of hiker that tends to keep hiking until running out of daylight.  So, I removed the e-reader when I added all my gear for the high sierras.

Naturally, with the longer daylight hours and elevation-enforced shorter daily mileages, I actually had a fair amount of down time during daylight hours in the mountains, which I filled looking over a California state map and those free tourist brochures available in motel displays.  I can spend hours looking at maps and thinking about space and imagining journeys and destinations.  (My world atlas was one of my belongings that merited being kept when departing India.).

Still, one can only spend so much time on California maps, so when I reached Mammoth Lakes, I decided to add weight in the form of a paperback to my kit.  Over the last few weeks, I've been reading (mostly off the trail; weight remains key!).  My focus has been fiction:

*Dead Until Dark - the first in the series of Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris that served as the source material for HBO's television series True Blood.  I never saw the show.  A mystery wrapped around vampires and relationships.  I bought this at the Mammoth Lakes library's used book store, the Book Chalet, and left this at the Mammoth Motel 6.  I haven't read or seen any of Twilight, but from what I know, there seem to be some parallels.

* Talking God - one of many of Tony Hillerman's mystery novels woven around daily life and culture of the Native American Navajos in the southwestern U.S.  This was my trail book for the past 200 miles.  In coming off the trail:

* Mr. Mercedes - Stephen King's 'hard-boiled' detective novel, free of the supernatural, but not the horrific.

* The Wishstones of Shannara - the second book in Terry Brooks' original Shannara trilogy, and the story of the group I remembered most enjoying.  A 'quest' book involving journeying over long distances; hiking the PCT makes me think of quests.

* The Last Ship - William Brinkley's post-nuclear apocalypse tale of a lone Navy destroyer at sea.  There's a TNT network television series based on this book, but from what I've read so far, and from what I've seen of the TV promos, the TV storyline is dramatically different from the book, which in many ways is an ode to the ocean and to naval crews.  This book is physically too big for the trail, so completing this will have to wait.

For the trail:
* Siege of Darkness - in my bag, a one dollar purchase of a used R.A. Salvatore Dungeons and Dragons fantasy novel from the 90s.
* The Blessing Way - to be received up the trail, this is the first of Tony Hillerman's Navajo crime fiction novels.
* Blood Test - more mystery/crime fiction, my first dip into Jonathan Kellerman's work with an early story in his Alex Delaware series.

July 8. Back to the trail...

It's been an extended break!

* Administration: I think I've finally closed out the outstanding paperwork due this summer, including some required hard copy documents.

* Word Cup 2015: Success for the U.S.!  What a tournament for Carli Lloyd!  The U.S. was more consistent and had greater improvement in its play than all the other teams.  (I think the best match, though, was the quarterfinal between Germany and France -- end to end action and intensity.)

* Inclement weather: there have been some heavy rain storms in the Lake Tahoe area over the past week, and flash flood watches the past two days; hence, I'm still off-trail.  I am heading back tomorrow.  The area can certainly use the rain, as the lake level is quite low, given the drought.

* Calories: I was down 20 pounds when I left the trail; I'm presently down 13.

* The future: I've looked ahead at the balance of the trail, and have planned out resupply points, and possible exit points depending on different possibilities for what I'll be doing in autumn (I've been thinking a lot about this).  For going forward, I'm not expecting to be taking many zero days on the trail, weather and forest fires permitting.