Miles hiked: 29.9.
I premade my coffee last night to have cold this morning so I could have a quick and quiet morning. I got up surrounded by hikers in sleeping bags but only partway on their pads after shifting around all night on the slanted lawn and packed my stuff and was hiking up the road just a bit after 5. The town was quiet with just a few dim lights here and there.
Got to the trail at 5:30 and started up the switchbacks climbing up the side of the Sierra Buttes through Douglas fir and white for forest that was plenty cool in the early morning. After a few miles it emerged out into a steep, rocky slope high above the valley and Sierra City and now I was really glad not to be doing this in the hot afternoon. The trail wrapped around from the south to west side of the Buttes, and it was still early enough that this kept me in the shade except when rounding little sub-ridges.
Around to the north side of the Buttes and could now see that there is a long ridge extending northward for the Buttes, which had been hidden from my vantage points to the south. The trail followed this rolling ridge for 13 or so miles, in and out of coniferous forest and over rocky little peaks. Basins fanned out to the east and west of this main ridge and held lakes of various sizes and shades of blue. Out to the west I could just make out the outline of the Sutter Buttes through the haze of the Sacramento Valley.
Had lunch and a short nap at a piped spring with chilling clear water and a few other hikers including Firecracker and Big Fish who I've been seeing the last few days and Maestro and Slumbercat who I hadn't seen since Hikertown something like 700 miles ago and who now have their dog Scout.
As the sun began dipping toward the horizon the trail dropped steeply off the ridge as it ended in spires and a steep sided rocky peak. Switchbacks took us down into a canyon and back into the peak of wildflowers, which I've sort of been out of since before Echo Summit. Paintbrushes and lupines and Clarkia and yellow asters that I may never know, all dashed along steep slopes and in wet gullies below rim rock of volcanic ash and flakey shaley stuff.
I made it a couple more miles and set up camp in an uncommon flat spot in this steep sided canyon and hunkered again so satisfied in my bug shelter while mosquitoes buzz around outside.
Birds:
Western Wood-pewee
Spotted Towhee
Steller's Jay
Brown Creeper
Fox Sparrow
Unk. Empidonax- maybe Dusky; in some willows along a little seep on a big hot exposed manzanita slope. First note of song slightly shorter than that for what I've been calling Hammond's up higher in the forest.
Mountain Quail
American Robin
Oregon Junco
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Mountain Bluebird- fledgling
Rock Wren
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mountain Chickadee
Pine Siskin
Hermit Thrush
Northern Flicker
No comments:
Post a Comment