7/22/14 Tuesday. A Walk in the Clouds

7/22/14.   7.2 miles

We heard thunder for quite some time last night but I never heard rain.  We woke at 5:30 and Peggy had some rain on her tent but the trees must have sheltered me, I had a dry tent.  We were hiking in the cold by 6:30, both of us kept our light jackets on. As we came out onto an open hilltop,  fog was blowing across the trail!   Brrr.  We were inside the cloud that hung on the mountaintop!

We moved up the trail and could look back and see the cloud stuck on the  top.  We had enough water for our 7.2 mile hike but came across this note from Patches about the spring. 

"Great Spring! Only 100 feet away...

Bottoms up!"

On this part of the trail there are lots of logging and access roads that we crossed as well as logging activity.  We saw a loaded log truck coming down a mountain road. 

Walking through the forest I heard a noise, glancing up hill as I walked I thought I'd see a deer.  Instead I stopped abruptly and whispered to Peggy,  "Bear!"  She closed the distance to me and saw this.

It was a 1-2 year old bear, not afraid of us at all.  It stood there long enough for us both to get our cameras out and snap 2 shots.  Then it climbed up on a log to get a better view of us and we decided to get away.  It always stops my heart a bit seeing big animals in the wild. It was thrilling though!

Donomore Meadow was overgrown, I'm glad it wasn't very wet, we'd have gotten soaked. 

Donomore Meadow. 

This old cabin is near Donomore Meadow and can be driven to on the back roads.

As we climbed up the trail to the border it was sunnier, the clouds dropped away and we came upon the sign for the border.

Canada is 920 miles, Washington is 498!

Hooray, we made it!

We let out a victory whoop hoping Robin could hear us at the top of the pass just 200 some yards away.

Robin had his trail magic laid out and had already fed 6 hikers (2 were horse packers riding on the trail).

We had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, toast & jam, fresh peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, brownies, ginger ale.  That was what we ate but there were other things we didn't have a chance to eat!  Robin's trail magic is superb!  He said Patches and her parents had been there too and chatted with him about our meeting 2 days ago at Cook & Green Summit.  It's a small hiking community!

We'll rest up, resupply, Peggy will get a new tent and we'll plan the next portion going south from Sierra City to a place called Red's Meadow just south of Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. It should take us 24 days if we go to Red's Meadow. Stay tuned for the next part as we strive to finish California's PCT.