7/2/18 - Cleaning up 2016 Part 1

Daily Miles Hiked: 5.1

Miles This Trip: 5.1

My anxiety over how treacherous the road would be up to VVR led me to wake up at 4AM again today.  I was out the door of the hotel by 4:45 and headed up into the Sierras.  The first 70 miles went by in about an hour however my fears about the access to VVR proved to be not completely unfounded.  At about 7000 feet the road condensed down to a somewhat eroded and potholed (yet somehow paved) single lane road winding up the mountain at sometimes ludicrous angles.  Every 20-50 feet would be a very tight turnout for cars to pass each other, but many of these were perched right next to a 1000 foot cliff with nothing stopping a very quick descent. I had to pass 11 cars on this remote road at 6:30AM. About 5 miles into this road I reached Kaiser Pass at 5184’.

This wasn’t the end though, as I had 15 more miles of this insane road.  Overall the last 20 miles took me over 2 hours to drive.  

I finally made it to VVR at about 8:30 and was able to purchase a ticket on the ferry that goes across Lake Edison back to the PCT.  There were about 10 thruhikers headed back to the trail as well.  The views from the boat ride reminded me why I needed to be back out here:

The ferry dropped us off at the far end, and all the other hikers headed back to the trail while others boarded the ferry waiting to get to VVR and get some R&R.  I on the other hand had a different itinerary.  2 years ago when I hiked through this area, we were racing against the clock to get to the ferry in time to get to VVR.  We decided to hike in on a side trail instead of chancing missing the ferry.  When we left the next day, in a moment of weakness I took the ferry out and hiked north.  So technically I had a 5+ mile walk from VVR to the ferry dropoff to connect my continuous footpath.  It was a very smooth hike mostly near the shore of the lake and I made it back to VVR by noon.

Once back it was back up and over Satans Road and back down to the valley.  I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to go back north but in the last couple days another option presented itself.

A good hiking friend of mine named Cookie Monster is back out here hiking again this year with his girlfriend and he had rented a cabin in South Lake Tahoe.  It was a bit out of the planned way, but I have many fond memories of my visits to Tahoe, and didn’t want to miss seeing this guy, so I headed there and arrived at around 8:30PM.  It was really good to see a familiar face out here, even if tomorrow I have to head north.

The first (and hardest) clean up spot is out of the way.  Tomorrow it’s on to Sierra City and beyond.

Keep on keeping on,

- Patch