What's for dessert...
Day 239
11-1-2006
Started: Outside Tahoe City, CA
Finished: Middle Fork of the American River near French Meadows, CA
Today's Miles: 29.4
Total Miles: 3827.4
If we could write a recipe for the perfect hiking day we would have to make sure it had every ingredient that was present in today's hike! We'd start with the twist's of a morning meander, shake in a huge belly laugh, throw a vigorous mountain climb in the mix, reward the grind with some delightful above treeline ridgelines complete with unreal far off views, put a dusting of snow in there somewhere to keep things exciting, drop in to the most diverse environments that sit deep in a huge valley tucked between high granite peaks, top it all off with a peaceful campsite beneath tall pines with the sound of a rippling creek flowing by and the result is a scrumptious day of hiking! Wow, we need to stop talking about food, we suppose you can tell we had power bars for dinner! As for the day of hiking, it truly was the perfect day. We really did start with a morning meander, and we had the Truckee River to lead the way. We woke up on the bank of the Truckee River just off the Tahoe Rim Trail where it passes by the southwest side of Tahoe City. We strolled along a bike path that ran right along the waters edge and enjoyed a relaxing pace as we watched the river twist and turn, sometimes in large pools that reflected like glass and at other times rippling through shallow rocky areas. The river flows through the bottom of a canyon that was shaped by a glacier two million years ago. The exposed walls of crumbling granite rock still tell the ice age story today. Before we took our turn away from the Truckee River and started our climb into the beautiful mountaintops we came upon a small shopping plaza that had an open sign in the window of a café. Just before the café came into view Sheri turned to Randy and excitedly asked, "do you smell food?" Randy's reply was in the deep voice of his best Yogi Bear impersonation, "Hey Boo Boo, I think I smell a picnic basket!" For whatever reason, the moment hit both of our funny bones and we shared a long and refreshing belly laugh. After laughing the rest of the way to the café we went inside to get Sheri a cup of coffee and couldn't resist an egg and cheese sandwich made on a freshly baked croissant. The staff in the café were very nice and took interest in our Journey, as we prepared to head out into the mountains they offered us some tasty pastries as parting gifts. They would have made for great mid morning snacks, but Randy couldn't wait that long, so as we began to climb into the mountains only crumbs remained. The climb out of the valley up into the Granite Chief Wilderness was absolutely breathtaking! Breathtaking because of the elevation change as well as breathtaking because of the fantastic views. We hiked through a ski resort and actually went right across the slopes and under the towers for the chair lifts. Luckily Mother Nature has decided to grace us with a wonderful Fall and so the slopes didn't have more then just a patch or two of snow. We would sure love to come back with our snowboards when the snow gets deep, though. While in the Granite Chief Wilderness we spent time hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail, a wilderness footpath that goes North and South, a left turn takes us to Mexico and a right turn takes us to Canada. The PCT refueled our love of wilderness trail hiking and we could definitely see ourselves trying to tackle the awesome mountain route sometime in our future. We were recently asked what our favorite surface to hike on was, and while this hike has shown us just about every surface in just about every condition we both were able to quickly respond, "a footpath through the wilderness." The hiking we did today in the Granite Chief Wilderness offered us just that! The alpine forests and meadows mixed in with the rocky peaks provided us with outstanding mountaintop walking. Once we reached the ridgeline the vegetation gave way to bare rock and we couldn't help but feel like we were on top of the world. The views were indescribable! We stayed on the windy ridgeline taking in the sights until the cool mountain air forced us to get moving and warm back up. The weather that we have been racing to these higher elevations is giving us a good fight and as we approached the highest point of today's climb the sky decided to treat us to a short snow shower. It was just a dusting and it didn't accumulate at all, but it was just Mother Natures way of telling us she held out as long as she could and winter is on it's way. We followed switchback after switchback down off the ridge and deep into the Picayune Valley. The terrain through the valley was so amazingly diverse that it seemed to change every mile. There were moments where we hiked across wide open meadows, moments in tall old growth forests, moments scrambling across exposed rock outcroppings, moments we could see the high granite peaks of the surrounding mountaintops and moments when the thick pines surrounded us with deep dark woods. Today's hike literally had something for every taste, if it's wilderness hiking you crave then the Tahoe National Forest and the Granite Chief Wilderness is what's cooking! Tonight we are tucked away under some tall pines near the middle fork of the American River, not far from the French Meadows Reservoir, and the sound of the water is extremely relaxing. The sound of the wolf that howled at the moon for the last twenty minutes or so not to far from our tent wasn't so relaxing, but it was really cool to listen to. We absolutely loved today's hiking and if we could we would put in an order for days like today everyday! Even the most seasoned hiker would find the ingredients in today's hike to be mouthwatering. So, the only thing we are wondering at this point is...what's for dessert?
Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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