Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California: From Tuolumne Meadows to the Oregon Border
Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California: From Tuolumne Meadows to the Oregon Border
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Overview
The PCT’s #1 Guide for More Than 45 Years
First published in 1973, The Pacific Crest Trail, Vol. 1, California quickly established itself as the book trekkers could not do without. Now thoroughly updated and redesigned, Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California starts in Yosemite National Park’s beautiful backcountry and guides you to the California-Oregon border. It winds past rivers, peaks, forests, meadows, fascinating geological formations, and other natural wonders.
Let PCT gurus Jordan Summers and Jeffrey P. Schaffer share more than four decades of expertise with you. They’ll help you with everything you need to know about this 776.4-mile section of the 2,650-mile trail. You’ll pass through Emigrant, Desolation, and Marble Mountain wildernesses; Shasta-Trinity National Forest; and Lassen Volcanic National Park; and you’ll see Lake Tahoe, Burney Falls, Mount Shasta, and Castle Crags.
In this book, you’ll find
- All-in-one guide by accomplished hikers who have logged over 5,000 trail miles
- Detailed trail descriptions and alternate routes
- Full-color customized maps, drawn to scale with one another
- Need-to-know information for day hikes, weekend backpacks, and an ambitious thru-hike
- Tips for locating the trail, water sources, and resupply access routes
This guidebook will be your truest companion. So now’s the time to get going. The trail awaits!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780899978437 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wilderness Press |
| Publication date: | 11/10/2020 |
| Series: | Pacific Crest Trail |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 40 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
SECTION I: Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass
The Route
Geology: At mile 942.5, before leaving the parking lot below imposing Lembert Dome, look at the large feldspar crystals in the rock of the dome’s base. This rock, called Cathedral Peak granite, solidified as a single unit several miles below the earth’s surface about 86 million years ago. The large, blocky crystals make outcrops of this particular granite—a pluton—very easy to identify, and they give rock climbers holds on otherwise slick, glacier-smoothed rock.
On the road to Soda Springs you go 0.3 mile west and reach a gate where a north fork climbs to the Tuolumne Meadows Stable. On the closed road you continue west to a fork (943.2–8,596') just beyond a minor gap, from which the left branch—the JMT—heads southwest to a bridge across the Tuolumne River, bound for Yosemite Valley. At the fork you keep right, climb a few paces, and take a shortcut trail due west to the road again, intersecting it in 0.1 mile at the Soda Springs area.
Trail Info From the springs area, our well-signed trail starts a rolling traverse northwest from the road. Just 50 yards before you reach multi-branched Delaney Creek (944.1–8,612'), a trail from the stable comes in on the right. No fishing is allowed here or upstream due to a planted population of endangered Piute cutthroat trout. Just 0.4 mile beyond the creek, near two small granite knolls, the Young Lakes Trail continues straight ahead (north), but you turn left (west), then continue northwest. In about a mile your trail approaches the Tuolumne River and then parallels it, sometimes at a distance, eventually making a short but noticeable climb on granite bedrock.
Geology In a gorge below, you may see, on the south side of the river, a dark mass, locally known as Little Devils Postpile—a remnant of a basalt flow that was erupted onto the adjacent granite about 8 million years ago. If it had been a basalt plug or a volcanic conduit, the columns of lava would be essentially vertical, not nearly horizontal. Despite repeated attacks by glaciers, this flow remains.
Now you descend north steeply to a forested flat and head southwest to bridge the Tuolumne River (947.0–8,303'). Continuing northwest, you pass Tuolumne Falls, some minor cascades, and then the high White Cascade, before your rocky trail meets a junction (948.1–7,975') with a trail to McGee Lake. Although it is easily reached, the lake is not worth the effort. The PCT bends north—a direction you’ll now pursue for miles—and descends to another bridging of the Tuolumne River. During maximum runoff, you may have to wade to reach the bridge.
Camping Just beyond it, the PCT meets a trail (948.3–7,890') that immediately bridges Conness Creek to arrive at Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp. Just north of it is the heavily used Glen Aulin campground. Only 15 yards beyond the Glen Aulin spur trail is the Tuolumne Canyon Trail.
SIDE TRIP: When water is high, it is well worth your time to stash your pack and continue downcanyon on this trail to visit spectacular California Falls, LeConte Falls, and especially Waterwheel Falls, which is 3.4 miles from the PCT.
The PCT climbs north, sometimes alongside Cold Canyon Creek, to a forested gap (951.2–8,768'), then descends 0.5 mile to the south edge of a large, usually soggy meadow. Midway across it you’ll notice a huge boulder, just west. Its overhanging sides have been used as an emergency shelter, but in a lightning storm it is a prime strike target. Beyond it our distinctive route continues north, first for a mile through meadow, then on a gradual ascent through forest to a crest junction with the McCabe Lakes Trail (955.1–9,106').
Switchback down to this canyon’s floor, cross McCabe Creek (956.0–8,531')—a wet ford before the end of July—and then turn left (west) to ford powerful Return Creek (which is usually a wet ford and in early season can be a seriously dangerous one).
On the west bank, you walk but a few steps southwest before your trail veers right and meets the Virginia Canyon Trail (956.2–8,533'), which climbs northeast out of Yosemite and into the Hoover Wilderness.
Staying on your route, start downcanyon, climb west into Spiller Creek canyon, and then, halfway to a pass, cross the canyon’s high-volume creek. Beyond it you soon start up two dozen switchbacks that transport you up to a forested pass (958.4–9,560').
WATER ACCESS: Continue southwest down to shallow Miller Lake (959.8–9,467'), with good water available.
From the lake, you parallel a meadow north up to a low gap (960.4–9,598'), then execute more than two dozen often-steep switchbacks down to a canyon floor and a junction with the Matterhorn Canyon Trail (962.0–8,499'). You now descend left (southwest), reaching this majestic canyon’s broad creek in about 100 yards, where an often-wet ford greets hikers.
Heading downcanyon for a mile, you soon leave the glaciated canyon to begin the nearly customary two dozen, short, steep switchbacks —this time west into Wilson Creek canyon. You twice ford Wilson Creek, then ford it a last time (965.3–9,473') and start a switchbacking climb to windy, gravelly Benson Pass (966.4–10,125').
As the passes have become steadily higher, the canyons have become deeper, and our multistage descent down to and up from Benson Lake is one incredible effort. You begin uneventfully with an easy descent to a large meadow, reaching its peaceful creeklet just before a drop-off.
Camping: Veering away from the stream, you soon begin a switchbacking descent that ends at a south-shore peninsula (968.4–9,219') on Smedberg Lake. Most of the campsites, however, lie along the lake’s west and north shores. Leave No Trace principles encourage hikers to keep pollutants out of the water by camping at least 200 feet from any lake or stream. That’s only about 70 steps away, and it preserves the vista for everyone.
From the lake’s south-shore peninsula— below the steep-walled sentinel, Volunteer Peak—you continue west, passing a spur trail to the west-shore campsites before winding southwest up a poorly defined slab-rock trail to a well-defined gap. From it the trail switchbacks down joint-controlled granite slabs, only to climb south high up to a junction (969.5– 9,461') with a trail to Rodgers and Neall Lakes....
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
About This Book
Foreword
Pacific Crest Trail Overview Map and Section Mileage Table
Northern California Overview Map
CHAPTER 1: The PCT: Its History and Use
CHAPTER 2: Planning Your PCT Hike
CHAPTER 3: PCT Natural History
CHAPTER 4: Using This Guide
SECTION I: Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass
SECTION J: Sonora Pass to Lower Echo Lake
SECTION K: Lower Echo Lake to I-80
SECTION L: I-80 to CA 49
SECTION M: CA 49 to CA 70
SECTION N: CA 70 to Burney Falls
SECTION O: Burney Falls to Castle Crags
SECTION P: Castle Crags to Etna Summit
SECTION Q: Etna Summit to Seiad Valley
SECTION R: Seiad Valley to I-5 in Oregon
Recommended Reading and Source Books
Index
About the Authors