Carson Pass

I’m back at our kitchen table, being dined on by mosquitoes that came in when the door was left open while we were off in the mountains. The dawn is slow in dawning here at the equinox time and I’m in that first slow period before my day starts popping.
I used to work at the Health Dept with these two good women and those were appreciated times that soured and slipped away but back in 1997 we started back packing together once a summer and that tradition has continued despite much change in our work lives and in our bodies. It may not mean anything to anyone but I wanted to chronicle our trips:

1997 Gold Lakes Basin trips to Sardine Lake and Deer Lake under the Sierra Buttes
1998 North side of Lassen around Cinder Cone and to Butte Lake and Snag Lake
1999 Modoc County to Medicine Lake and the Lava Beds and Capt. Jack’s Stronghold
2000 The west branch of the Feather River
2001 Paddled Loon Lake and hiked in the Desolation Wilderness
2002 Canoed the Albion and Big Rivers as well as the cove at Van Damm State Park
2003 Hell Hole Reservoir canoe trip and hike
2004 Deadfall Lakes and summit of Mt. Eddy
2005 Paddled Lake Tahoe into Emerald Bay, hiked Barker Pass on the Tahoe Rim Trail
2006 Hiked Grouse Ridge to Island Lake and out Carr Lake
2007 Hiked the Boulder Lakes in the Scott Mountains of the Trinities
2008 Hiked from Carson Pass into the Mokelumne Wilderness and Frog, Winnemucca, Round Top and to the oh so steep Fourth of July Lake

Being up at 9000 feet it’s dry but the freezing cold lakes are great for shaking it off midday. The plants are mostly dried out and setting seed now and you have a real sense that this is the end of a glorious summer.
Our bodies aren’t used to carrying packs and heavy weight nor rocky steepness but at the end of it I feel great peace with my well earned aches. For me being up there when the full moon was rising and the red sun was setting and we were the fulcrum…that was the highest peak.