[Written July 26, 8AM]

I sit on a rock surrounded by paintbrush, columbine, and a small five-petalled flower of pure indigo - perhaps a type of penstemon?  The air is cool, the sky again a clear blue backdrop to the surrounding peaks.  I’m not yet really ready for a break, but have seen enough already this morning to want to journal a bit.

Deanna dropped me off at Barker Pass an hour ago for a solo attempt at this section.  Although I chose this section as one that was tractable as a day hike, and not so stunning as to require sharing, it is in fact an amazing and varied stretch of trail.  Unfortunately, my camera battery gave out this morning while I tried to capture a panorama of the lake and early sunrise.  I’m missing the camera desperately already!

The Barker Pass Trailhead is at the top end of Blackwood Canyon, and the trail first winds along the rim of the canyon, with steep drop-offs of hundreds of feet to the bouldery bottom.  Whole fields of wildflowers spread out across the hillside - my favorite was a long stretch of yellow mule-ears in full blossom laced through with spikes of purple lupine.

The trail then descends the canyon walls in steep traverses of scree and boulder fields, with snow-fed creeks every few hundred feet.  I even crossed my first snow field - though it was only about five steps wide…

The steepness of the terrain provides gorgeous views down the canyon, through trees bent downhill at the base from a childhood of annual glacial pressure, between rocky outcroppings blanketed at their base with steep scree slopes, to the Lake shining in the morning sun, and the purple mountains beyond.

A hummingbird (third sighting so far) just buzzed me, I guess I’m sitting in the middle of his breakfast table.  Time to move on, around the base of a grey volcanic post pile, past the gurgling stream I hear ahead, and to other amazing sights presently unknown.

[9:30AM]

I’m going to have to slow down a little.  My GPS says I’ve come 3.4 miles from the trailhead, but it also reports an average speed of 2+ mph, which would mean I’ve come about 5 miles.  And sure enough, I just passed the fork with the Pacific Crest Trail, which coincides with the Tahoe Rim Trail for 50 miles, and here continues north through the Granite Chiefs Wilderness.  The map records this fork at 4.8 miles.  I guess my new GPS is just not measuring total distance accurately.

The Granite Chiefs Wilderness is fascinating to me.  I’ve stepped inside it only a couple of times, and entering it from here or from the top of Squaw Valley is an intriguing experience.  You top a ridge, pass the boundary sign, and step directly into a magical realm.  The flora diversifies, with new alpine wildflowers suddenly appearing.  Even the trees tend towards the fairly-land, bowed-tip hemlocks, and the ancient, gnarled, wizard-like bristlecones. The ridgetop drops away into a wide bowl surrounded by cliffs that resemble, well, granite chiefs.  This trail is definitely a repeater - perhaps continuing on through the wilderness instead of veering eastward around the rocky castles aptly named Twin Peaks, and descending into the forests and meadows below, as I have begun to do.

[3:30PM]

Two sections down - six to go.  This section was fairly easy, thanks to my caterers.  After my early morning drop off, Deanna and Laine went back to camp, enjoyed hanging out on the dock for a while, and then picked up a fine lunch to meet me with at Ward Creek, 11 miles into the section.  I arrived at a bit after noon and they were sitting in lounge chairs in the shade waiting for me.  How European this segment seems, between the sheer traverses reminiscent of the alps to chocolate milk served up cold half-way through!

After an ample hour cooling my feet in the stream and enjoying the repast, we arranged to meet again at 4PM at the Truckee River trailhead.  This final section was rather uninspiring, except for a beautiful stretch called Page Meadows.  Really a shallow lake nearly covered in reeds, this opening in the forest has at its perimeter a host of silver snags - perfectly skeletal remains of trees who perhaps succumbed to excessive moisture.  These spires stand out against the green trees lined up behind them, and made a dramatic backdrop for the array of wildflowers edging the shore.  The trail is built up and skirts the edge of the meadow-swamp like a primitive boardwalk.

Despite some doctoring of emergent blisters, the last downhill segment was rather tough - more switchbacks but thankfully little loose rock to contend with.  I tried to go slow since downhills are the hardest on my feet, but nevertheless didn’t feel much like stopping and finished this 5.1 mile stretch in 1:45.  With an hour to wait I strolled across the footbridge and up the road the final quarter-mile to the Tahoe-Brockway trailhead.  I touch the kiosk to claim completion of Barker to Brockway.  Strolling back to the river, I really feel how hot and hard the pavement is - time to get off my feet.

I floated in the Truckee River until some kids noticed a small yellow-striped water snake swimming nearby.  But he’s moved on, and the sun is still hot - I think I will float peacefully until my guardians arrive.

[Mileage: 17 | 36.2]