Sonora Pass is the second highest highway overpass in the Sierra Nevada. It’s also the last one on my list. Yum and I have traversed highways 120 4 88 50 80 70 and now 108. More red ink for our map of California! (we have a map on our wall at home with red ink tracing all the major roads we’ve traveled together)

First we stopped at Kennedy Meadow Resort. It’s a nice little place tucked away in a corner not far from the main road. There is a general store, a restaurant, a bar and many cabins and campsites by the river. About 15 minutes walk up the trail and over the hill is the huge meadow. The river flows alongside the meadow, and looks to be PERFECT for fly fishing. The water was a little high this trip, but in about four weeks it should be JUST RIGHT! I’ll be back.

Yum and I explored this area for a few hours and then continued our journey up highway 108, ever closer to Sonora Pass. Lightning arced across the sky and thunder BOOMED and echoed across the canyons and mountaintops. It began to rain pretty hard. The road became narrower and windier, and the rain turned to snow. Snow! This close to June? Yes.

It’s always amazing to me how unique and distinguishable the environment changes as I drive one of these highway overpasses. In the central valley it’s flat and hot and you mostly just see weeds and cows and farms. As you get close to the foothills of the Sierras the terrain becomes rocky and flat plateaus scatter the landscape among the plentiful oak trees and black volcanic rocks. As you climb higher you begin to see more pine trees and less oak trees. At around 5,000 feet it’s almost all pine trees and the weeds are long gone. At about 8,000 feet the trees are starting to thin out a bit and that beautiful high Sierra granite can be blinding in places. Above 8,000 feet is my favorite part of the mountains–up here it’s quieter and there are less people and the scenery is the most spectacular. On the way down the eastern side of the Sierras–no matter where it is, it’s extremely steep and jagged–there is a noticeable absence of trees and vegetation in general. As it flattens out again I’m in the high desert, and it’s hot and dry and dusty and… desert-y. And that’s pretty much how each highway goes, from west to east. And I love every inch of it.

So then. Once in the eastern Sierras Yum and I turned north on highway 395. After a quick detour on highway 89 we reached highway 50, where we drove down to Placerville and stopped at the Red Hawk Casino. Yum found $20 on the ground and was so excited she peed her pants. OK, not really. But she was super excited. She’s so cute! I love that little Yum =)

And then we went home.

Click here for pictures from our trip!

The PCT is a system of hiking trails that stretches from the Mexican border to over 2,600 miles North to the Canadian Border, through California and Oregon and Nevada. Most hikers start the trail in April and finish in September. Some 300 hikers attempt the trip each year–about half will complete the journey.

With the blessings of technology, today’s hikers are more connected than ever. They are able to update their blogs while in range of cell towers, upload pictures, and share waypoints on a map via GPS. Some even share videos.

Here I am, each day, reading the tales of adventure from the PCT. I can see their progress on Google maps and see beautiful scenery that I know that I’ll never see in real life. I’m both happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I’m able to follow along through my web browser, and sad that the web browser is the closest I’m going to get to hiking this trail.

What dedication, what stamina, what… ahhh, I don’t know what… ?

My favorite hiker is a fellow who calls himself Diamond Dave. I particularly like him because he’s a big guy, like me, at 6’4″. He started the trail this year at over 300 pounds, and now, a month later, he’s dropped over 30 pounds. Good luck Dave! Ohhh, I hope you make it all the way.

A charming couple that I’m also pulling for are Cindy and Andy. Andy is a professional gambler (you know, like the World Series of Poker guys you watch on ESPN?) Cindy is a technowiz that maintains their website with journal updates, GPS waypoints, digital photos, and even podcasts. Their entire journey is being chronicled online. And she updates often (thank you sooo much, Cindy!)

Here’s the website of a Kiwi who completed the PCT in 2007. I’ve spent countless hours on his website absorbing every bit of info regarding his trip. I’ve read every blog entry, seen every picture, and watched every video he’s got up there.

These are truly amazing people. I admire them like no others.

So not only is it the first day of Summer, it’s also Mon’s birthday. And that makes it awesome. So to celebrate Summer, and Mon’s birfday, here’s a pic of Mon with her husband, Michael, and son, Adam.

They dress like this all the time.

Mon says that 25 is older than dirt, but 35 is older than compost. So what’s 36? Oh, our 20 year high school reunion is in two years. Sick. What’s that smell?

Mon = Mon Frek = ‘eh Mon = Monica. She rocks. Rocks! Mon was one of my closest friends growing up. Sadly, for the past couple years I’ve been a bad friend. But I’m making the effort now! You’ll see! I can be a good friend! I’ll call, maybe even write!

And now, some pics from the good ol’ days…

From left to right: Javier, me, Dave, Monica, Big Rob, Bri, and Stoney the dog
Big Rob’s house, circa 1990
No long after this photo was taken, Bri projectile vomited in the bathtub. Mon tooks pictures. Dave and I pointed at Bri, danced around him, and laughed.

From left to right: my sister Becky, Michie, and Monica
My parent’s house in Hayward, circa 1991

Sorry for being a bad friend, Mon. Things will be different now, you’ll see.

Happy birthday, Monica!

Drove up Wednesday. Tried fishing some of the very small creeks around our campsite. No luck. Built a roaring fire to fend off the wet cold. Bundled up and spent the night shivering in our tent. 30 degrees. Ice on the ground in the morning.

No fishing? Colder than a well digger’s ass? Too foggy and cloudy to see any of the spectacular views Lassen is known for? We’re out.

Drove over to my favorite fishin’ spots near Lake Almanor. Kept 8 trout and drove to all the way down highway 89 to Truckee.

Highway 89. This is one of the most beautiful highways I’ve ever driven. It starts way up by Mount Shasta and winds through the southern Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada, through Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lake Almanor and Quincy and Truckee and Lake Tahoe and finally ends up near Lake Topaz on 395 near the California-Nevada border. You get the the wide range of California alpine scenery–the volcanic rock formations of the Cascades, the high Sierra white granite, various rivers and creeks, pine trees and oaks and aspens, craggy eastern Sierra barren rocks, and so on. The area between Lake Almanor and Truckee on highway 89 is particularly nice and filled with plenty of places to camp and fish. This is an area that I’d like to explore a lot more in the future.

Ahhh, Truckee… a nice, warm, dry cabin awaits us. We cranked up the heat and built a fire in the hearth, ate grilled trout with lemon, and went to bed early. Slept easily and peacefully in our warm and comfortable bed.

This morning we drove home, stopping by Grass Valley just because, and Auburn to look at houses and dream about living there.

Here’s a few pics of Lassen. Just a few.