After breakfast in Lone Pine we began driving back to Medford, but first we wanted to stop at Mono Lake and walk to the waters edge.
Peggy had been assistanting her friend, Corinne, conduct a study of the lake's arsnic level some years ago. She explained some of how they conducted experiments, some things of interest that I would understand. The lake is an unusual place, smelling of sulphur.
Birds gathered to feed on these flies. Indigenous people used to dry them as a source of protein & we talked about what arsnic levels would have been in a diet like that. Oddly, the flies are able to convert the arsnic into a less toxic type. There are limestone columns, called tufas, that are created when spring water rises through the alkaline lake waters. Tufas rise along the lake shore in varying sizes and shapes. We stayed maybe 1/2 hour then continued driving north.
Our road took us past Lake Tahoe driving the west shore, just beautiful but very crowded, tourists and vacationers everywhere and lots of roadwork holding everyone up! We arrived at the rest stop on I-80 near Soda Springs where we hitched a ride last year just as we walked off the trail. Getting back to the trail last year after picking up our resupply box no one wanted to take us back to I-80 so we had to skip 3.8 miles. We had decided to make those miles up on our way home. After we changed into our clean hiking clothes we met a young couple at a picnic table who had just decided to go home to Colorado. They'd hiked to this spot from the border of Mexico this year and decided they were finished for awhile. Chatting with them about their accomplishments, we talked about the trail and told them we had just completed the whole trail except for this small 3.8 mile section. If we arrived back and they were still here we'd take them into Truckee to catch a bus. Locating the trail we left the car at 4:00 pm and started hiking south, we encountered ups, downs, switchbacks, puddles, dirt packed trail, rocky steps and lots of granite. The trail went under the freeway using 2 culverts so we entered those tunnels and walked toward the sun on the other side!
It took 2 hours to arrive at the road where we'd gotten dropped off last year. We touched the blacktop and turned around. We were racing the sunset now trying to get back in less than 2 hours. We made it by 7:45 pm with enough light to find the car. The kids were gone, hopefully finding a ride to Truckee, but tucked under the wiper blade was a note on a PCT map, "Congrats! First beer is on us!" A $10 bill folded into the note! What fun, it really cheered us! On the road in the gathering dark we chose to eat dinner & stay in a hotel in Aurora eating around 9:45 and into the hotel at 11 pm. Yikes, way past hiker midnight which is 9:00pm.
The next day we drove into Medford around 4:00 pm, I'm home at last having completed our 4 year journey from Mexico to Canada on The Pacific Crest Trail. Thank you Peggy for walking with me into this grand adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment