Fontanillis Lake to Five Lakes Creek (mile 1135.9).
Miles hiked: 27.7.
Woke to a Common Nighthawk flying around in the dawn doing its buzzy call. Everything was pretty wet from the night's dew and I tried to wipe as much off my sleeping bag before stuffing everything in my pack and heading out. The trail dropped down a few hundred feet, passing above Velma Lakes, then continued gradually on down into a broad canyon. Most of the first 10 miles were in a thick pine and fir forest with not much opportunity to look out over long views. But the trail was easy and I made good time.
I stopped for brunch at Richardson Lake, sitting and talking with a hiker I'd met yesterday. He had spilled a handful of trail mix on the ground, and as he packed up to continue on and appeared not to have any plans to clean it up, I mentioned that M&Ms and stuff aren't really that good to leave around for critters to eat. He countered, strangely, that we cause an impact just by being out here, as if that somehow justifies not making an effort to reduce that impact. I told him that many of the same reasons for preventing bears from getting our food also hold for other animals, and he said he didn't know why it was a bad idea to prevent bears from getting our food. We went back and forth a while and I explained these things as he finished packing, and he picked up his mess. While I've always been very nonconfrontational, I don't really mind talking about this stuff with other hikers. But it's pretty sad and disappointing when someone who's done the AT and is now halfway through the PCT needs such a basic Leave No Trace lesson. Those of us spending the most time out in wild places should be the ones doing the most to take care of those places.
There were another 5 or 7 miles of closed in forest walking after brunch, with the trail crossing several jeep roads now that we're out of the wilderness. But then after passing a dirt parking lot with a dozen cars at the Barker Pass trailhead, the trail climbed up the face of a steep mountain slope with great views east over Lake Tahoe. After a couple miles along the face of this slope, the trail climbed up to the top and thus began a spectacular ridge walk along the eastern boundary of the Granite Chief Wilderness. There were long views across Tahoe and down to the west. I passed a couple smoke jumpers who had jumped in a couple days ago on a little fire and having put it out were now scouting the best and quickest way to hike out.
After 7 miles up on this ridge, the trail passed along the upper edge of Alpine Meadows Ski Resort the switchbacked down a steep slope to cross over Five Lakes Creek. The hiker from earlier was there, and he said he'd grabbed some food from the smoke jumpers' camp without asking. It turned out they had more than enough and were headed out soon so it didn't impact them, but I still decided I don't need to spend too much time with this guy and camped on the other side of the creek.
A Wilson's Warbler foraged to within 3 feet of me while my dinner soaked, and Song Sparrows sang up and down the narrow riparian strip.
Birds and such:
Common Nighthawk
Mountain Chickadee
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Oregon Junco
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Fox Sparrow
Western Wood-pewee
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Steller's Jay
Brown Creeper
Hermit Thrush
Western Tanager
Belted Kingfisher
White-crowned Sparrow
Lazuli Bunting
Townsend's Solitaire- fledgling
Turkey Vulture
Pika
Song Sparrow
Wilson's Warbler
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