8/14/2023
Section: Milepost 1635.6 to 1614.8
Total Trail Miles: 1325/2650
Distance: 20.67 Miles
Moving Time: 09:06
Elevation Gain: 3724 ft
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Well, we slept moderately well last night. The “Weird California Deer” kept the forest sounding very alive most of the night, but we were almost too tired to care. Today, our objective was to get as close to the pass above Etna, CA as possible and leave as little mileage as possible for us the following day. Along the way, we crossed the 1325 mile marker, putting us at our own, personal halfway point of the PCT.
The stage we followed today climbs a bit out of Buckhorn spring, staying high on Big Ridge while making its way south-southeast. We are in the Marble Mountain wilderness and it is a gorgeous area of northern California. At the end of Big Ridge, the trail gains and descends from a number of small saddles, mostly above tree-line, before progressing through a series of alpine lakes and passing directly under the Marble Mountain. The trail passes through one final pass, transitioning to the northeast side of a ridge and finishing on the banks of a small alpine lake. The original intent today was to get to Shelly Meadows, however, we found that it may be called the Marble Wilderness, not due to the mountain so much as that it feels like you are walking on marbles the entire time you hike here, and that sucks - so we cut it a little short today.
I don’t have much for today, it was pretty innocuous. We hopscotched with a German couple from the Black Forest area and most of our interactions with them were high fidelity flashbacks of the last two years of our life living in Germany - i’ll just leave it at that. The temperature was definitely cooler today. Not by much but enough to be appreciated. Anything south of triple digits is something to cherish I suppose. Way out south, we could see something snow covered. Whether it was the Sierra or just some high sections of the Cascades was difficult to discern.
Towards the end of the day climbed through a number of small saddles and gained the tree line, getting fantastic views west and east at the Marble Mountain wilderness. We crossed under Kings Castle mountain and took a rest at Paradise Lake. Walking on the rock strewn ground most of the day had spent us and Amanda asked the tell-tale question “how much further?” “5 miles” I answered “how are you doing?” “Think I am done, can we stop here?” As we usually do in these situations I proposed a compromise. “There are some nice lakes about 2 miles out with campsites, can you make it there?” I asked. “If I have to,” she replied riley. We carried on. The Marble mountains were truly gorgeous. We passed the German couple refilling water at Big Rock Fork, just under Black Marble Mountain and traversed across Black Marble Valley. We crossed over another saddle above the tree-line and descended the other side, storm clouds threatening in the distance. Another mile brought us along a ridge at 6400 feet where two small lakes sat nestled under some bare peaks. At the second one we stopped and made camp. The Bellingham couple was already in their tent so…missed that Bellingham connection again. We took a spot about 20 feet away and left a third, if non-optimal, spot for the Germans who showed up about 20 minutes after us.
I filled water while Amanda set-up the tent. It was a bit tight but with rain threatening we put up the rain fly. After dinner we cleaned up and went to bed, ready for the light show we were almost certainly going to get that evening.
