July 8. Day 68.

Kinney Lake to mile 1072.5.

Miles hiked: 22.5.

My tarp was arranged just so, that I could lay in bed and watch the sun come up over the rim of Kinney Lake. So I just laid in bed and did that, the. Had a fairly slow morning trying to dry some stuff and didn't get hiking until a bit after 7, perhaps my latest morning yet.  

The first several miles were incredible, the trail winding through gentle slopes of sagebrush and wildflowers, tracing around a tall sawtoothed ridge of some volcanic origin. The ridge was made of spires and towers and twists and turns of rock and looked like the sort of place you'd find an outlaw hideout in a Louis L'Amour novel. The sun shone through just a few clouds but the air stayed cool all morning. I could hardly put the camera away.

I rounded to the north side of this big volcanic mass and had a view north east toward Carson City and also much closer to the east at a plume of smoke with a helicopter landing nearby to I guess drop off some firefighters. It was only about 10:30 at this point, but already the clouds were building and darkening, and it looked like we had another day of character-building weather ahead. I was up high on an open wavy slope, and really didn't want to be there when he lightning and hail started again, so I was rushing down switchbacks and trying to make it back down in to some real forest before the sky let loose.

I didn't make it.

In stead I found Fix It huddled next to a tree in a small copse, waiting out the rain and hail. I found my own good big tree and we stood there chatting across the trail. Before long Hufflepuff and Phil showed up, quite a bit wetter than I was since they got caught on an exposed, steep, landslidey hill. Lightning flashed and thunder banged right above us. The 4 of us waited until around noon when here was a brief let-up in the rain and the hail quite altogether.

Mr Fix It, waiting out the hail.

We had another 1/4 mile to go before the trail dropped over a saddle and down into dense forest. We set out as a fast-moving 4 person train, trying to get down into the forest before the weather got us too much. This pretty much worked, but we did rained on and a bit more cold. Down in the shelter of the trees we had some snacks and get better clothes on, and then we sort of split up and walked a few miles separately.

Hufflepuff considering a rock-hop...

then deciding to take the wet-foot route.

The trail wound around several forested lakes, then began to climb up above Blue Lakes, where I've camped with family and friends several times. I was waiting out some more hail and lightning before getting up high again, and the other 3 caught up with me just as the weather broke a bit. We continued on together again, as the last few close lightnings flashed around. We climbed up on to a bare ridge covered in flowers and with views over the beautiful Hope Valley to the east, down the canyon of the Mokelumne to the west, and up and down the spine of the mountains to the north and south. I was starting to have some shin-muscle pain like I had a few hundred miles ago, but this time in the other leg; I think it's from all the fast hiking/jogging downhill running away from weather he last couple days. So I slowed down a bit and finished this amazing ridge walk alone thru country I know pretty well. 

Climbing up above Blue Lakes.

Looking back south.

We all regrouped at a little campsite along a little stream below a big Half Dome-shaped volcanic mountain called Elephant's Back, sitting around on the damp ground eating dinner and watching the clouds clear and the sun set.

No idea what this is called.

Birds:

Williamson's Sapsucker

Red-breasted Nuthatch 

Mountain Chickadee 

Oregon Junco 

Yellow-rumped Warbler 

Brown Creeper 

American Robin 

Cassin's Finch 

White-crowned Sparrow 

Rufous Hummingbird 

Lazuli Bunting 

Lincoln's Sparrow 

Mountain Quail 

Clark's Nutcracker 

Brewer's Sparrow 

Green-tailed Towhee 

Pine Siskin

Stellar's Jay 

Orange-crowned Warbler 

Western Wood-pewee 

Olive-sided Flycatcher