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Rae Lakes Loop: 8th to 10th August 2005 Day 1 By 7 am we were storming down the trail having driven the 6 miles from Cedar Grove to the trailhead at Road's End while eating our breakfast in the car (Starbucks bottled Frappucino® TM mochas, a banana, and a few Lu cookies). Emily set the tone for the entire trip by setting a fierce pace and by 8:30 am we stopped for a break at Mist Falls, some 3.8 miles from the trailhead. Indeed, for the entire trip Em led the way and at times it was all I could do to keep up.
Our stop at Mist Falls was nice since we were able to sit out on smooth exposed granite in a breeze which gave us relief from the terrible flies and gnats, but thankfully not mosquitoes, that were hounding us. Our next stop would be at 9:45 am at the southern end of Paradise Valley, although we didn't know it at the time. Here we found a superb swimming hole in the Kings River. It met all of our criteria for a perfect swimming hole with crystal clear water, access via a stone ledge, lots of sun, and of course no bugs. As it would turn out, it was the best swimming spot we found on the entire trip, although it was quite cold.
We continued up Paradise Valley, stopping for another dunking at 11:15 am just downstream of a fisherman, until we reached the designated campgrounds in Upper Paradise Valley around noon. We once again got wet, ate lunch, and took naps, in that order. After our rest it seemed way to early to stop for the night, plus the swimming was not good, so we started up Woods Creek.
This would turn out to be a fairly hot, dusty, and waterless trail despite following a creek the entire way. It should be mentioned however, that Woods Creek would be considered a raging river in many parts of the world. However, we plugged along and by 4 pm we reached a drift fence indicated on the map and things became much easier as we entered Castle Domes Meadow. We would later agree that the stretch from Upper Paradise Valley to the first drift gate was the least pleasurable of the entire trip.
It was at 5 pm that we reached the PCT/JMT, crossed the huge wooden suspension bridge, and set up camp for the night, joining about 20 people that were already there. This turned out to be a wonderful place to camp since it was close to water and for some reason had no bugs. Despite the large number of people we didn't at all feel cramped and it was nice to talk to some other people after a day spent almost entirely amongst ourselves. Among the characters we met were an Englishman from Blackburn (near Manchester) who was hiking the entire JMT and moved very slowly around the campground, twin teenage brothers who had a broken stove and had to cook dinner over an open fire, and solitary older man who only went a few miles each day and packed everything but the kitchen sink. |
