30 mile day hike through Desolation Wilderness

So I decided Friday afternoon to see if I could hike from South Lake Tahoe to Tahoe City in a day. About 40ish miles. However along the way I decided that it would be a bit to ambitious and with a cold front moving in a bit risky. So instead I hiked to Tahoma. Still a solid 30 mile day hike. I started at just after 4am so I could watch the sunrise up on Mt. Tallac.
Then I proceeded north on the PCT through Desolation Wilderness before exiting the PCT at Richardson Lake and getting a bit lost on fire roads(adding on about 2 miles) before hiking down the Rubicon OHV Trail to Tahoma.I made it to Tahome around 2pm. All in all it was an awesome hike. However I am certainly feeling it today. It would be cool to make the hike all the way to Tahoe City in a day though. It will take a bit more preparation and probably a bit lighter pack. Mine weighed about 25-30 pounds as I wasn't sure if I would spend the night up there. The scenery was quite spectacular as my pictures try to capture.
Wildlife encounters:
About 30 min into the hike I glanced up the trail and my headlight settled on a pair of 2 beady eyes staring at me in the middle of the trail. I stopped dead in my track as I tried to figure out what creature this was staring at me. The eyes were close together about about 3 feet above the trail surface. Debating whether I should try and get my camera out to take a picture I opted to not and instead make noise in case it wasn't a friendly creature that would not appreciate a flash in its eyes. Upon making noise the creature turned to the left and sprang up and off the trail. The silhouette was unmistakably that of a mountain lion. That certainly got my blood pumping. I was on edge for the next 30 minutes and making sure to be plenty noisy.

My second encounter came just after 6am as I was climbing up towards Dick's Pass. I was strolling up the trail when I noticed a small furry creature ambling along just ahead of me. I made my way a bit closer and figured out it was a fat porcupine out for a morning stroll just as I was. I followed him up the trail for a few minutes before he veered off and down the side of the mountain.
Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/pvparsel/82830MileDesolationHike#

Map of my hike

Change in the Weather and the Work

This last week was HOT!! Wow, it was close to 90 degrees up on the mountain and it was brutal. However my crew was wrapping up our final section of trail on Mt. Tallac so having the end in site made the heat a bit more bearable. Luckily there is a strong cold front coming in today meaning it will drop from the high 80's to the mid to low 60's this week! Awesome! Possible snow showers also up in the higher elevations. May have to do a small backpacking trip this weekend.
I found out early this week that my crew will be moving over to a different worksite called Cold Creek. This is where the Forest Service Trail crew has been working all summer. However they have fallen behind schedule so we will be going over to help them out a bit. While details are still not known we should be doing more retaining wall construction and trail armoring for a very popular mountain biking trail. We could also be constructing some biking features like jumps and teeter-totters. This work will be quite different than what we have been doing since it is not in a wilderness area. We will be quarrying rock with motorized rock drills and transporting rock using cable high-lines and pulleys.
Since my last post I have been quite busy on the weekends. I have been home to visit my family. My 93 year grandmother is up visiting so I got to chill with her a bit and play a lot of cards. I also got to watch my brother race a half marathon in Salinas where he took 3rd place. I have had to go to Santa Cruz twice for work reasons and on the way down and back I have been able to visit a number of people including Marie, and Bri, and Himmel, and Solomon. I have also been able to go climbing a fair amount up in Tahoe. As summer is coming to an end and the weather will begin to cool I have been trying to get in the lake as much as possible.
There is a rumor that we will be doing 2 more weeks of work up the Tahoe area putting me here until mid-october. That would be very cool. And if that doesn't happen then I will have a bit of time off before my next project in Flagstaff meaning I will be doing something awesome still to be planned the first half of October.
Speaking of my first project back in Flagstaff, I will be leading a 6 week backcountry trails project in the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona. It will be 6 weeks straight in the backcountry with mules bringing us food and supplies every 2 weeks. Can't wait for that!!
That's all for now.

Rock Projects are a Huge Success

So we have finished the most technical rock projects of the summer and we had the head honchos of the Tahoe Basin National Forest Service check out our work and they had nothing but praise. The head of the Tahoe Forest Service Trails program also offered me a job for next year should I want to come back and work for him, so that is exciting.

They have since assigned us previously unscheduled rock work which means we will remain up high on the mountain instead of coming down to do routine maintenance work. So we will begin that work on Monday.

I am currently relaxing at home now and it is nice to come out of the mountains and sleep in my own bed for a change, rather than on a thermarest in a tent. That's all for now. I'm back to Tahoe on Sunday and will be passing through Davis to get Dos or Guad if anyone is around and would like to meet me there.


putting in one of the final stones on the largest wall


The completed wall


Completed stairs with Tahoe in the upper right corner


Completed small wall in foreground with finished stairs in the background


My crew working on two of our walls