Day 76: Marmots and Igneous Rocks

Ridge above Sonora Pass - campsite with fireplace near Asa Lake
Mile 1021 - 1041
Total 20 miles

Waking up at a perfect spot high on a ridge above 10,000 feet, I enjoy a warm breakfast in the early sunrise. Dawn and sunrise are my favorite parts of the day and I'm thankful for every one of them! Shortly after the highest point of the ridge the PCT enters another wilderness area: The Carson - Iceberg wilderness. Then it descends down into the headwaters of the Carson river that eventually flows east into Nevada's Great Basin. The path goes through a diverse pine, fir and aspen forest.

The snow plant grows here in large numbers- its peak season is two to three weeks after snowmelt. South in the San Gabriel mountains that was in end of May, here in the northern Sierra it's in half of July.

Across streams and springs full of water, wet meadows, colorful flower patches and old juniper trees, the path climbs a little bit above the valley.

Up in the rocks I meet a representative of the best dressed PCT hikers: a marmot. Just like north Europeans, the marmots like to maintain a big personal space when seeing humans. But if you don't cross that space around them, they'll just watch you, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing up.

Shortly after watching and being watched by the marmot, a big pile of dark colored basalt rock appears out of nowhere. Probably a volcanic plug with hexagon and pentagon rock shapes. I am entering an area of geologically recent volcanic activity.

After encountering the lone volcano I enter granite again, with its big smooth boulders and wet mountain meadows in between. Views open up towards Sonora Peak in the south.

The mountain meadows are full of colorful flowers, mules ears, paintbrushes, astras and many others. There are little streams and brooks bubbling everywhere, fed by deep snow fields in the slopes.

Then another isolated volcano appears, surrounded on all sides by granite and dense forest ...

The path takes a sharp turn into the eroded valley of Wolf Creek. The rock face above the valley also must be an igneous rock type. Luckily for tired hikers the trail doesn't go all the way down but it follows the contour and then heads up again by gentle switchbacks and not by steep stairs like few days ago in Yosemite.

In the saddle above Wolf Creek the sun is starting to hide. And mosquitoes are starting their activities. I greet with a trail volunteer crew working on maintaining the PCT and then go past a campsite with a well protected fireplace. One hiker Braveheart from Alaska has started a fire and invites me to join. I gladly join her and cook a full bowl of herbal tea, we talk until it gets dark, make sure to completely put out the fire with water from nearby Asa Lake outlet, and then go to deep sleep, protected from mosquito bites by our mosquito-proof bivy tents.