We had just rounded the third bend in the canyon, when we came upon
the upper meadows. For the next three days we were again off the Pct
into the spine of the Sierras, this time it was along the Matterhorn
Ridge. The plan was to avoid Yosemite's mosquito infested north
country. On my last time thru, these vengeful creatures had broken my
spirit with the hord that attacked day and night. Now the plan was to
stay above 9000' until Sonora Pass when the Geology of Basalt flows
would bring salvation.
The approach to Burro Pass walked along the ascending meadows of the
Matterhorn Canyon. The flowered filled meadows seemed to reveal a new
color around each bend, giving life of color to the granite white
walls with lupine, columbine, and paintbrush. The views of the
Matterhorn, Sawtooth ridge and Whorl Peak were a climbers dream.
Smooth white and tan spires held aloft into the 12000' skies, urging
the dreamer to go higher. We made the top of the pass to find a small
little tarn that stood below two chutes of Finger Peak.
We left the Burro Pass area and began to work our way towards Mule
Pass the second of the Two Asses Passes. It was here that we began to
follow the tracks of a mountain lion. Every time the trail crosses the
snow so to did the feline's a couple of times as we walked through the
steep granite chutes, the lions tracks were perfectly inside the
tracks of a climbers boots. We knew that after turning two trail
junctions, he was headed towards Peeler lake on the otherside of the
Yosemite Divide. That day ended with us bellow the spite of Crown
Point above a chain of jewel like lakes in the Hoover Wilderness,
wondering if the cat was in the same valley.
The morning sunrise across the Eastern Sierras was glorious. It was
like the beginning of a symponey as the light cast across the valley
with the desert in the distant horizon. That day we continued to
follow the tracks of the cat that finally turned uphill near the
popular Peeler Lake. This was our last encounter with Yosemite as we
slipped in and out it's backdoor at Buckeye Meadows. After this we
followed our blueblaze down the Buckeye to an old Snow Survey Cabin in
a meadow. Of had a few ruins around of other cabins, and by the looks
of the sulfur rich hillsides and tailings, it once was an old mining
village. But now all that was left was a small wooden cabin overgrown
with grass and wildflowers besides a creek woods. Idillic!
One more pass to go before the blueblaze was over, Kirkwood. This I'd
where I meet my advisary, mosquito! They came like waves when you
stopped. Many times if we just keeps moving they would just follow
behind. It was a great ascent to the pass. We came to some bear tracks
crossing the pass into the long fields of the Piute Meadows below.
The last of the trail before the PCT was a huge back meadow ofthe
Waller River. Tower Peak stood like a King's Thorn over the meadows,
and at the far end an old Forest Service cabin. We took the evening
and pitched out near the cabin, having dinner on the porch. It was a
well loved cabin with a great view of meadows and the peaks of the
upper Walker in the fading sunset. A mosaic of rocks of colors and
shapes had been layer down in a wheel in front of the cabin and it
seemed a good place to wish the Yosemite Blueblaze good by. In the end
we never saw the cat and I only saw the black bear as he wondered dim
light across the meadow, but it was a good blueblaze and well worth
leaving the trail for, and should be the "offical" PCT route north of
Tuolumne Meadows.
Ridgewalker
From the backcountry mile
Ridgewalker
山武士
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