Monthly Archives: August 2021

PCT trailwork and exploring 2021-08

Leave a reply

This is a trip from last year, that I forgot to post. It turned out to be the last backpack of the season for me, as fires closed the national forests and the two or more trips were not made. The trip from Monday, August 9 through Friday, August 14, 2021.

Duck Lake

I went in at Barker Pass, coming up to Truckee on the train, then bus to Tahoe City and down the west shore to Kaspian Campground, then walked up the paved and dirt road to the pass, and camped a bit north of the pass. The air was clearer both up on the ridge and down in the Tahoe basin than it had been.

The main purpose of my trip was to finish off a section of the PCT that needs brushing, and had last been worked about five years ago. It was not brushed closed, but was approaching that. Cutting brush usually goes fast, but hauling he cut brush off the trail take up more than half the time, depending on how long I have to carry or drag it to a good location. Many people who do light trail brushing just drop the cutting where they are, but over time that results in a wall of cut brush along the edge of the trail, which looks bad and blocks views. I haul the brush so that it is at least six feet off the trail, often more, and out of sight. It is interested when my brush stashes evolve over time as the brush gradually breaks down. The air was clearer up on the crest, but seemed to be getting worse down below.

Doing trail work on the ridge, I have to haul up water for my trip from one of the sources below. In this case, the springs in the north fork of Blackwood Canyon, down the switchbacks and back up, with about seven liters of water. Though the air was clear, there is a layer of smoke aloft and it seems to be descending towards the ridge. I finished the section of brushing late in the day, with a few drops of rain from increasing clouds. With this section, there are no places between Barker Pass and Granite Chief that really need brushing, though there are locations that could use some attention.

Next day I headed south along the PCT. The smoke is thick now, and I’m hiking with my KN-95 mask, and walking more slowly than usual. The smoke seems to be regional now, not just plumes from the fires. Water at the springs, and more water at the creek south of Barker Pass which is flowing cold and well, though everything else including Miller Creek is dry now. I continued on to Richardson Lake, where I camped along with eight other backpackers. I’ve noticed that all along the PCT there are more campsites, and the campsites are bigger, the result of the huge increase in the number of PCT thru hikers. I see about 40 thru hikers a day now, whereas in the pre-Wild (the book and movie) days, it was about 5. I took an afternoon walk to General Creek, tip-toeing carefully through abundant tiny frogs. Tree frogs, I think.

While around the lake, I saw a mustelidae that was moving too fast to clearly identify, many grouse, dragonflies with green and blue bodies and bright blue banded tails, bright green frogs in the grass at lake edge.

The next day I hiked on to Lost Lake, which is south of General Creek. There is a new trail, constructed by TAMBA, replacing the old road. The road had problems, but so does the new trail. It loses elevation for no good reason, and then climbs very steeply to make up for it, and winds almost a mile out of the way for a so-so view. I have never been fond of trails laid out by mountain bikers, too much like pump tracks and too little like trails, but this one is particularly bad. Trees were cut off at waist height rather than the ground, brush piles right beside the trail, very steep tread with no attempt at erosion control. But once reaching the lake, it is nice. I took a swim, walked around the lake, and watched the end of the day cloud color. I took a walk around Duck Lake, which is really a pond, shallow, but an interesting place not much visited except by ducks.

Last day I walked out the General Creek trail to Sugar Pine Point SP, and took the bus back to Tahoe City and then Truckee, and the train home.

The Caldor Fire started that day, though I was not aware of it on that day. The Tamarack Fire, southeast of Tahoe, was still going but not producing much smoke, and the Dixie fire was still going and contributing to a regional smoke.

Here in February 2022, I’m wondering when the snow will melt enough to head into the Granite Chief again. The fall storms brought deep snow, and it was looking like a very late year, but it hasn’t done much since, so who knows. I have started backpacking again, but in the bay area and Sierra foothills.

Photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/allisondan/albums/72157719722926893; Granite Chief collection on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/allisondan/collections/72157637640215275

more PCT trailwork 2021-07

Leave a reply

This trip was mostly a trail maintenance trip, continuing the brushing between Twin Peaks and Ward Peak, particularly the very brushy section in the middle.

I went in at Barker Pass, walking up from Kaspian Campground to the ridge. Not the short way into the wilderness, but useful because the closest spring to my work area is along the PCT/TRT in North Fork Blackwood Canyon. Other springs are nearly dry, and streams are very low, but this one is still doing well, cold snowmelt water out of the talus slope below the ridge line.

I made progress on the brushing last trip, and this trip was able to fill the gaps between other short segments I’d done, leaving only the hardest part to do, the brushed-in ridge line switchback. So I feel good about the work accomplished, everything to the south done. But more to do. I replaced the cutting blade on my nippers before this trip, and it made a big difference. Below, the tools of the trade: nippers, folding saw, worn out gloves, and new gloves. The nippers and folding saw are both Fiskars, which make the best lightweight tools, about a pound each.

The majority of the brush I’m cutting is tobacco brush, Ceanothus velutinous, it grows faster than the others. Bitter cherry also crows fast, but the stems are easy to get to and cut easily. But even the slow growing pinemat manzanita and sagebrush do eventually encroach on the trail. The photos on Flickr (link below) show several of the brush species that I’m cutting, though not the most common tobacco brush. Huckleberry oak and white thorn are very common brush at somewhat lower elevations.

Chinquapin

With all the time up on the ridge, I of course had ample opportunities to watch the sunsets, and this section of the ridge is one of the best places. I also watched the patterns of smoke from the fires. Last trip was mostly smoke from the Tamarack Fire to the southeast, with the smoke mostly heading north well to the east. This trip was mostly smoke from the Dixie Fire, well to the north but producing a lot of smoke. Sometimes the Tahoe basin, to the east, was socked in with smoke, sometimes clear. Less often the west slope of the Sierra was smoked in. Fortunately, at least during these weather and fire conditions, the crest is free of smoke most of the time, just a hint of smoke smell from time to time. The smoke does produce some spectacular orange sunsets. Though there are good sunsets any time there are layered clouds to the west, not just layers of smoke.

The weather was also unusual. Monday night it rained off and on throughout and into the next morning. Never heavy, but still enough to require my tarp. This kind of weather is common summertime in some other mountain ranges, but not common in the Sierra. The rest of the week it rained at least once a day, but light rain from the edges of the thunderstorms. The storms were forming over the crest before moving east to the Carson Range, a reversal of the usual pattern. It has been a while since the forest smelled largely of dampness and humus, and it was enjoyable. But the rain was never enough to thoroughly wet the soil, and it is still dry below.

The woolly mules ears are drying to yellow and brown, but not quite dry enough to rattle in the wind, that sure sound of fall. The less common arrowleaf balsamroot, however, is dry and rattling.

Early one morning when walking through a mules ear meadow to my work site, a dark sleek animal dashed across the trail, going downhill and moving very fast. The glimpse was so brief I’m not certain what it was. Probably a weasel, but could also have been a marten or fisher (all are in the same family Mustelidae). I also saw a Clark’s Nutcracker hanging out on the ground. I usually only see them in flight between trees, or in trees, but this one provided a close up view.

Tomorrow I’m headed up to finish off the brushing, probably two solid days of work. Depends on the smoke, however. The crest is often free of smoke, but the hike into the crest from Lake Tahoe level is in the thick of smoke, at least today.