Thursday

Hiking the PCT at Sonora

Our hikes were short but wonderful. The elevation was difficult for us (from sea level to 9,000+ feet in one week left us breathless), as was the heat, but experiencing at least a few miles on the PCT was nice and helped us appreciate what Brad is doing each day.

Carolyn, Forest Service

Heidi, Forest Service

Sego Lily

Mr. Ed at Sonora Pass

9600 feet and few trees

Stark and Beautiful

More Angel Action at Sonora Pass

This day thru-hikers really, really enjoyed magic on the trail. The biggest angel of all is Pinky -- clearly the blue ribbon winner! Pinky caters weddings down Napa Valley way so she's an expert, and on the day she was an angel at Sonora Pass, it was clear an expert was in charge. Pinky hiked the PCT last year - this year she wanted to give back some of the magic she'd received. So, early in the morning, she arrived with bins and bins of food. The feast began with scrambled eggs, bacon, pastries, fruit and coffee. It continued into late morning with cheese and wine. Not yet finished, she followed that with barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. All day thru-hikers were fed in style by Pinky.

Ed and I had decided to be angels at Sonora Passs that day too so we just tossed goodies into the mix, and went for a hike.

Pinky, Angel Extraordinaire!

Tzitora

Scratchy

Pull'en

Itchy

Tangent & Holstein

Hannah

Charlie

Too soon, Goodbye Brad (and Benton too)

One xero day for Brad (Trail name Freestyle) of eating, resting and computer work before he returns to the trail, this time with Benton. We say goodbye and then Ed and I do a little hiking and angeling at Sonora Pass before we too depart, glad we'd been there in that beautiful place and delighted to have seen Brad again.

Benton, Ed and Brad at Sonora Pass

Freestyle and Benton depart from Sonora Pass

Spring Rain

Robert Hass

Now the rain is falling, freshly, in the intervals between sunlight,

a Pacific squall started no one knows where, drawn east

as the drifts of warm air make a channel;

it moves its own way, like water or the mind,

and spills this rain passing over. The Sierras will catch

it as last snow flurries before summer, observed only by

the wakened marmots at 10,000 feet,

and we will come across it again as larkspur and penstemon

sprouting along a creekside above Sonora Pass next August.

And the snowmelt will trickle into Dead Man’s Creek and

the creek spill into the Stanislaus and the Stanislaus into

the San Joaquin and the San Joaquin into the slow salt marshes

of the day.

That’s not the end of it: the gray jays of the mountains

eat larkspur seeds which cannot propagate otherwise.

To stimulate the process you have to soak gathered seeds

all night in the acids of old coffee

and then score them gently with a very sharp knife before

you plant them in the garden.

You might use what was left of the coffee we drank in Lisa’s

kitchen visiting.

There were orange poppies on the table in a clear glass vase,

stained near the bottom to the color of sunrise;

the unstated theme was the blessedness of gathering and the

blessing of dispersal—

it made you glad for beauty like that, casual and intense,

lasting as long as the poppies last.

Wednesday

Brad Arrives at Kennedy Meadows North!

Ed and I were camped at Baker Campground at Kennedy Meadows North (west of Sonora Pass and a resupply spot for thru-hikers) looking forward to Brad's arrival some time the following day. We were all soundly asleep when Brad came crashing through the door. He'd arrived at Sonora Pass at midnight, after 36 hours of tramping and then managed to get a hitch to the campground. We'd left a note for him on the back of the PCT trail sign so he knew approximately where we were.

Much excitement, especially by Benton, as he jumped and jumped and jumped and ran circles around Brad in his delight. Brad crashed on his tarp in his sleeping bag outside the trailer and then there he was (yippee!!) the next morning.

Note the heart on the ground in the photo below. Brad had just come up with the idea of Heart on the Trail so was demonstrating his hiking-pole-created hearts.

Brad & Benton play their first morning together in 8 months

Our first day with Brad was spent mostly feeding him. We went to the lovely little restaurant at Kennedy Meadows and had breakfast; then as he was working on his computer he purchased lunch at Kennedy Meadows; and later that evening we cooked him a big steak on the camp fire. There were, of course, endless snacks in between. He was never full, with the hunger persistent. Literature reports a male will burn 6000 calories per day hiking.

Freestyle at our little Baker campsite in Kennedy Meadows North

Trail Angel Sleeping Bare

Sleeping Bear, waiting for his thru-hiker son, was providing cold drinks, chips and dip for the hikers passing through Sonora Pass. He was there for about four or five days with his RV parked on the east side of the pass. He was spending about 4 or 5 hours each day at the pass, reading, waiting, welcoming, serving and enjoying visits with passing hikers. Ed and I added our angel contributions to the "tree" and hung out for a spell too. We also walked south on the trail to experience a bit of the PCT at Sonora Pass. I tried to get all the names of the hikers, but both my memory and notes failed me on occasion.

Ed, Twisted, Creep

Don, Sleeping Bare the Angel, ?

Don

Group of PCT hikers gathered around Angel Sleeping Bare

Strider

Mad Dog Murphy

Smile

Bloodbank

Nu (from a town near Tokyo and spoke very little English)

Brian

Sonora Pass PCT Thru-Hikers at Angel Stop enjoying
Trail Magic

Karen (Jaw Bone's mother)

Tickled Pink

Carpenter

Creeper

Fourth Stop -- Sonora Pass

These photos are of Sonora Pass where we traveled from east to west on Highway 108. Our traveling experience on the West Coast is that the north-south roads are big, crowded, fast and unpleasant. But, the east-west roads are uniformly fabulous! Highway 108 was no exception. We don't recommend it for the weak of heart though. It is steep and narrow with serious curves and twists and grades as steep as 26% in some locations. Warnings are posted for no trailers and those warnings should be heeded. We pulled our little tent trailer and it was more than we wanted to deal with. Going up was slow but not too bad, although challenging, but oh so beautiful! Going down required great caution plus a rest for heated brakes. Sonora Pass is one of the highest automobile roads in California at 9,624 feet. The PCT hikers are coming down to the pass.

The Ponderosa Pines and sparse understory are such a contrast to what we know here in the NW where our forests are cedars, pines, spruce and fir with a thick understory.

Sonora Pass is where we will meet Brad in early July! Ed has not seen Brad since he departed for New Zealand in November, nor has Benton. I saw Brad in San Diego when he returned from New Zealand and was preparing to begin the Pacific Crest Trail in April.

Third Stop - Eastern Oregon

Leaving Salem, and the NW Tandem Rally behind, we headed for eastern Oregon, sunshine and warm weather. We camped at a National campground slightly southeast of Bend. We were now in the pines and would be in predominately pine forests until we returned to the NW. The firs, cedars and hemlocks would be more rare as the pines and oaks began to dominate (beautifully) our landscapes. There's something about the smell of pines and oaks and sun and dry grass and the sages and other fragrant herbs that is intoxicating. Fragrance stimulates my childhood memories and provides the first hint of my golden California roots.