We slept in the most comfortable bed ever last night. After rib dinner, incredibly crisp watermelon and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s we dragged ourselves onto the cushy memory foam mattress and passed out for 11 hours. The droning of a fan provided white noise and blocked out voices from the yard. It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had since starting the trail.
This morning we slept in – it was impossible not to – and then stepped into the bar for breakfast. Delicious home cooking and Margaret even made us an extra stack of pancakes to carry back to the trail with us. This afternoon or tomorrow morning they will be a treat. After stuffing ourselves we went back to the room to clean up and pack. By then it was already stiflingly hot and we rewarded our efforts with drinks and Popsicles from the store. I had some journaling to catch up on now that we had a good wifi connection so we sat out on our deck in the shade and passed the time. One hour turned into a few hours. We were sweating while just sitting there, cool drinks in hand, and this made it hard to think seriously about hiking up the road to the trail. That and the nearly 3000-foot climb to the buttes awaiting us.
We whiled away a few more hours as the peak of the 100-degree afternoon heat passed. Bob, the other owner of the inn, said that this weather is more typical of late August than July. At nearly 4 pm, after another round of cold drinks and Popsicles, we finally started up the road. Keith caught us a hitch to the trailhead that saved us a mile of road walking. Then, with full packs and lots of water, we started up the many switchbacks to the butte. The climb was almost relaxing. We were thoroughly rested, well shaded from the sun and happy to be heading away from the road noise.
After a few miles of steady climbing we broke above the treeline just east of the buttes, huge jagged towers of rock that still loomed 2000 feet over us. We skirted them, climbing slightly on rocky, exposed trail. Sometimes we’d pop into a canyon beyond the late sun’s reach and it was as though someone had switched off a heat lamp. At last we crossed a jeep road and entered a blissfully dark and cool forest. A little more climbing brought us to the end of the long ascent and the grade eased, leading us gently up and down through rocky, semi-open woods. We caught glimpses of the spines of rock from across a deep valley. They were painted pink by the setting sun.
We crossed a few forest roads and had to consult our GPSs to find out where the trail led. Usually it’s much better signed than this. Eventually we found our way to a ridge high above Packer Lake and spotted a campsite a short way below the trail. We jumped on it and hoped there were few enough bugs to cowboy camp. The moon is incredibly bright tonight – we don’t even need our headlamps.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 1207