This trip was primarily for trail work. I had noticed on my previous trip that the section of the PCT trail between roughly Twin Peaks and Ward Peak (actually, only part of that), was beginning to be brushed in again. Looking at past posts, it appears that I did some work here in 2014, but didn’t finish, and then finished in 2016. So it has been five years, at least, since this section was brushed. Most of my brushing I think of as ‘five-year’ brushing, cutting things back enough that the work will last about five years, so this works out.

As always, the tobacco brush (Ceanothus velutinus) is the fastest growing of the brush and the most likely to brush a section of trail closed. As with most plants, cutting it leads to it producing multiple stems, so the result of my 2014-2016 work is that a lot of the tobacco brush has multiple younger stems, which take much longer to cut. Sometimes I can get down to the root of the plant, and get it all out, but that is unusual, and doing this effectively would require different tools than I take, a pulaski or similar. I discovered, to my surprise, that at the oldest root wad of the tobacco brush, there is a large, deep taproot. Bitter cherry also spouts from the cut base and sends its stems into the trail, but it is easier to get out by the roots. Even manzanita, though slow growing, will encroach on the trail over time. Several other brush species, less common at least in this area, also encroach on the trail, but the fast growing whitethorn is not common along here.

The photo below shows a brushed-in section of the trail, the ridgeline switchback. And it still looks like that, because I did not get to this part in my work. In fact, I only accomplished about one-quarter of what needs to be done. My excuse is that it was hot in the afternoons and I could just not accomplish much. And it was hot – the rocks get almost skin-burning hot. The temperatures are funny. Up above the bridge the wind is often blowing, and was blowing the entire time of this trip, and it is comfortable. But when I squat down or sit down to cut brush, I’m out of the wind and it is very hot.

There are no water sources on the ridge between the springs in North Fork Blackwood Canyon and Five Lakes Creek, so I have to pack in water. I resupplied, from the springs, once during my trip, and when I ran out of water the second time, headed out. The three springs close together are very low, and I’m sure will dry up this summer. Another single spring further south is still flowing well. And of course North Fork Blackwood Creek is likely to have water all season. In years with more snow, I’ve been able to melt snow from the snowbanks that last on the east side of the ridge, but this year those snowbanks were gone back in June.

I primarily use two campsites on the ridge, the one heavily used by PCT thru hikers near the PCT/TRT junction, and a small one north of Twin Peaks that is not much used. I discovered that a wood rat lives nearby. It stole my plastic spoon, so I have to make a sort of workable one out of a stick, and also chewed on my pack straps and work gloves. After that night, I put everything away and hung my pack up in a tree.

On my way out the last day, a new fire southeast was popping up, the Tamarack Fire, which is still going as I write (Sunday, July 25), now about 66,000 acres and only a quarter contained. During my time on the ridge and then down at Tahoe, the smoke was all going north, along the east side of the Carson Range, so not affecting my area, but I understand that now some smoke is coming over to Tahoe and the crest.

On this trip, I took both insect repellent and my inner netting tent. Ironically, there were far fewer mosquitoes than there had been two weeks before, but it was still nice to go to sleep without the buzzing.

For this trip, I walked from Tahoe City to Kaspian Campground, which is where Barker Pass Road leaves the highway, walked up the road and then the jeep road past Blackwood Campground to the crest. Blackwood Campground now charges a fee – it was the last of the campground in the entire Tahoe basin that was free. As a result, it was empty. I headed north on the PCT from Barker Pass to my work area. Going out, I took the TRT trail down to Ward Creek, where I camped the night, and then on through Paige Meadows to Tahoe City.

I’m falling into a pattern of wanting to hear music after my backpack trips, so I went to the Saturday afternoon music in Squaw Village, blues by Mike Schermer, which was fun. It seems it is mostly locals, people who have homes or shares in the village, who attend these. There were a lot of kids dancing, having a good time.

And then home on the Amtrak bus from Truckee.

Tomorrow, in for more trail work. Maybe I’ll get to half or 3/4 done.

Photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/allisondan/albums/72157719601232047; Granite Chief Wilderness collection on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/allisondan/collections/72157637640215275/