8/9/14 Saturday. Meet Up With A Friend! 8/10/14 Sunday. Our 1,400 Mile Mark At Hwy 4.

8/9/14  12.5 miles

Hiking by 6:30am we completed an uphill section that put us on a hilltop where I could look back and see 

lakes in the valley we'd just come from. Glancing forward there's a line of granite peaks giving way to more granite peaks in the distance.  We descended to a wooded basin containing Lost Lakes & Blue Lakes.  Once out of the forest we could see bare rocky mountains, our trail climbed up into these hill higher and higher until we were far above both lakes.

Looking down on one of the Lost Lakes.

Blue Lake with a lichen covered rock in the foreground. We took a short break here overlooking the lakes.

Contouring around the mountain we saw yellow flowers growing in the rocky soil up near the top of the peak.  I've not identified them yet.

Looking at my back trail around the rocky peak, Blue Lake lies below in the valley.

Once we rounded the mountain and dropped into the valley I took this photo from below looking back where we'd come from.

This is where we were going, into the high mountains rising in the distance in the right of the photo. 

We entered woods strewn with granite boulders and lake after lake. Filtering water from Tamarack Lake outflow we hiked 1/2 mile more until we found a tiny lake off trail that we stopped at for a rest.  

I swam to cool off while Peggy had a rest.  We were the only ones here but we kept an eye on the clouds that were building on the horizon.  After an hour we left the lake and hiked for a few hours more until we both were ready to stop.  The  day was warm and we'd hoped to make 15 miles but our feet were sore and the next 2.5 miles were switchbacks with no campsites likely.

In a large, flat, forested area near a stream we set up our tents.   Around 5:30 we started dinner then decided to go visit 3 men who had set up camp closer to the trail.  As we approached I recognized one of the men, it was John who hiked out of Belden with us weeks and weeks ago!  He was hiking south with 2 friends,  he'd flipped back to California after hiking all the way to Oregon's Willamette Pass.  

Peggy, John and I. 

We had quite a nice reunion catching up with each other and meeting his friends. Peggy had seen him on the trail near Burney Falls when she was hiking solo & I was resting in Medford and here we were meeting up again in the middle of the woods!

We noticed the clouds from this afternoon were black and hanging over us so we went about our chores and ate dinner, getting ready for rain that looked imminent.  Peggy pointed out that the  trees around us were notating in the wind which meant they drew circles in the air as the wind moved through them.  I hope they stay put and no branches fall if the storm starts.

8/10/14.  16 miles

It never rained much last night and the tents were dry in the morning.  As we hiked out we noticed the guys were already gone.  The trail climbed up into the crags and when we didn't think it would go further up...it did!  The scenery was spectacular.

See Peggy in the right lower corner. We hiked high in these crags and into others behind them.

We crossed this rock face.

The trail took us just below the crags and around the bowl. 

Looking at our back trail we could see where we were yesterday too.

My shadow on the hill below.

The trail kept taking us high into the peaks, it was stunning scenery.  

I looked up and saw a doe and fawn scampering over the rocks high above me, so sure footed. 

This rock formation looks like an eagle.

We contoured rock slopes, dropped into forested areas, then into meadows but the crags hung over the landscape for miles. 

Old gnarled sequoias dotted the rocky crevices, roots wrapped around boulders.  We noodled for 4 miles which felt like a lot of uphill instead of the varied trail I usually expect. Altitude is around 8,700 ft.  After leaving the crags we came to Upper & Lower Kinney Lakes where we took a nice break.  The skies were filled with grey thunderheads against the white granite rocks and blue of the lake.  We got some nice photos.

Upper Kinney Lake.

It was getting darker so we moved on down the trail. 

At Hwy 4 Peggy logged 1,400 miles!

We both felt like we'd accomplished so much, 1,400 miles is hard to imagine!

Just before this we'd come across a cooler of trail magic by Meadow Mary containing apples, we both ate one, they were so tasty!

After crossing Hwy 4 we did 1 mile of noodling then 1.5 miles of descending, rocky trail where we ran across a gentleman & his horse coming up trail. He'd taken supplies to a work crew by Noble Lake where we were headed.

We kept to the lower side of the trail, the horseman told us it makes the horse feel more comfortable. I guess the horse gets nervous if you are uphill of them.  

With clouds getting blacker and threatening rain we had 1.75 mile of difficult steep climbing to get to Noble Lake just below Ebbit's Pass. 

You can see the trail in the rocks to the right, it switchbacked up and up and up.

Once at the top I could  look back at the mountain ranges we'd come from today, storm clouds were threatening rain. 

We were exhausted by the time we set up camp and went looking for water at Noble Lake.  It was green with algae and really bad, finally we found a tiny spring of clear water running into the lake.  Once we filtered from it we could relax, have dinner and collapse into bed.