PCT: Paynes Lake to South Fork of Scott River

We got lost today.   Well, not lost, just took a detour and then bushwhacked back up to the trail.   It only added a couple miles to our day and a little blood loss from all the scratches!

Our day in numbers:

We awoke to a glorious light and sprang from the tent in wonder.   The rising rock face from the lake was aglow and we had front row seats.   It was an awesome beginning to our day.    Soon though, we hiked into an old burned area in the Russian wilderness.   The trail was overgrown with brush and the trail littered with trees blown down.   It was in this area we took a well used trail that went downhill.   It was a jungle gym and we climbed over and creeped under and walked around many blow downs.   Then we met two day hikers and said ‘howdy do’.   Our little pea brains finally realized that we were on a spur trail.   We opened our app and saw where we went wrong and then we compounded our problem by making another error.   We decided to go cross country back to the trail guided by our phone app. 

It was steep.   It was brushy.   It was brutal and by the time we got back on the PCT, I was done for the day.   Haha!   Not really, but it did zap a lot of our energy reserves.   The regular trail was tough here too, due to the blowdowns, and we made slow progress until we departed the  Russian Wilderness and re-entered the Trinity Alps Wilderness.   It was once again a beautiful day in a magical land with  silver peaks glinting with  snow.   Wildflowers bloomed and the ever watchful Mount Shasta seemed to loom around every corner.  

Unfortunately, our day ended back into a burned area.   This was from a fire last year and the trees haven’t begun to fall from decay, so the trail was still smooth sailing.  It was kinda captivating in a stark, melancholy kind of way.  

We are camped at this lovely green spot surrounded by burn.  There are swarms of mosquitoes and, once again, they are all around me, but not biting me.   I think I have a new super power. 

An engaging and interesting 60 year old Swiss hiked up and asked to camp next to us.   We were happy to oblige.  He came out west to do a southbound hike.   Arriving in Seattle he discovered that departing from Canada was a no go as there is too much snow, so he started at Crater Lake in Oregon instead. As an ultra runner  he can do big miles and plans on hiking south through the Sierras, then returning to Crater Lake to hike north to Canada during his three month visa.  He plans to come back next year and hike the desert section.   He is a physiologist from the university in Lausanne, Switzerland and is doing some very interesting research on the positive effects of moderate altitude in regards to aging.   We talked at great length and I look forward to looking into his research later.  He now goes by the name of Sandals.   I bet you can guess why.   Ohh!   I forgot the best part of his story.   We told him our mishap today and he told us how he got off trail for 23 miles in the Marble Mountains.   He said he was in the middle of nowhere at some lake and had to spend the night and backtrack the next day.   His story sure made ours seem small.   We all decided that the signage for going southbound was lacking, and it really is.   The trail is less intuitive as well.   We better up our game a bit tomorrow.