Bubb’s Creek by our last campsite at Junction Meadow

Friday, 26 June 2015. Junction Meadow to Road’s End, 8,400 to 5,035 feet. 10.4 miles. 

I didn’t take too many photos on this day, perhaps because we were all hustling and ready to be done with the hike. Visions of showers danced in our heads.

We woke to overcast skies and a certain mugginess in the air. We were a little nervous that it might start raining, so out came our rain gear and backpack covers to reside in the most accessible areas of our backpacks.

Danny made his breakfast of cheesy grits. For some reason, the dehydrated flakes of cornmeal mush didn’t completely disintegrate, so the overall consistency tasted like cheesey, savoury wet and limp cornflakes, which was not necessarily a bad thing. We’ll need to work on grits technique for future breakfasts/ meals. I already want to try out cheesy grits with ham for the West Coast Trail.

The trail out.

The trail back seemed to be covered with more vegetation. Plants became lusher; on occasion, our path was almost overgrown, as if not many persons traversed this part of the route. There were several times where we encountered towering forests of ferns almost obscuring the trail, some clusters as tall as I was. Danny would joke that he felt the need to always look back to check and ensure that I had entered the fern forest, just in case I didn’t materialize on the other end. Most annoyingly, the insects were out in full force on this segment of the trail. They kept buzzing around our faces and underneath my visor, and more than once I wondered if I should have stopped to put on my mosquito head net. However, thankfully, once again, they didn’t seem to be the biting kind of bug.

I was definitely tired. Danny still had some spring in his step, and led most of the way. Me, no matter how much I tried to muster the energy to go a bit faster, just could not speed up, despite the fact that I had a lighter pack in general. That helped a lot. Though it was not entirely comfortable, and I still had to shift the weight occasionally from my hips to my shoulders, less weight from food consumption did make for a noticeable improvement.

Danny’s rattlesnake friend

Nothing perhaps lit a fire more quickly under Danny than almost stepping onto a rattlesnake! This particular reptile, had apparently waited until the last minute to give its warning sound, much to D’s dismay. But thankfully no one was hurt, and we parted ways fairly amicably, though D had to catch his breath a bit and calm his rat-a-tat heart at the Sphinx Creek trail junction a few yards away.

How many miles to Road’s End?

After the junction, and after a series of pretty gnarly switchbacks winding down from 6400′ to 5098′ in elevation, we were on the last 2 miles back to Road’s End, though these trail signs in the same location and facing each other reported differently. The 2 miles seemed to go on forever! But – we started seeing more and more people – mostly day hikers it seemed, and the occasional backpacker or two, starting out, albeit a bit late, it seemed. It was nearing 1pm, and the heat was considerable, radiating from the sandy trail. The rain we thought might happen never manifested.

Deer friend wants some sembei?

Not 500 feet from Road’s End, a doe suddenly ran up to D. and I, looking at us as if it wanted something. We stared at each other for a good amount of seconds before she bounded off.

Finally Done! Danny Dawson’s photo.

Once back at at the Road’s End Ranger Station, we got a pleasant day hiker to take some photos of us, all tired and grubby, but delirious and happy to be done. She and her daughter asked for some confirmation that Mist Falls was around 4 miles away, and they were off on their own adventure.

Last meal at Cedar Grove Cafe

On to Cedar Grove Village for food and showers. The food was once again, in retrospect, not that great, but did fine for a post-hike meal. For some reason I chose a chicken-and-bacon ranch wrap when I really should have gone for a burger. D. asked for cheese and bacon on his burger and added some bleu cheese dressing. Smart man.

Shower tokens can be purchased at the store. Jared purchased his first, reporting that it was $2 per 3-minute token. I knew I wanted 7 tokens, as did D., but when I asked the cashier for that many, he immediately tsked and said that there was a drought, and there was a limit of 2 tokens per customer.  I asked for 4. And D. went separately and purchased 4 on his own. What I learned that day, though, was that I certainly can manage a 6-minute shower, and the store does buy back unused tokens with no judgement. The showers have hot water and are clean.

As we drove out of Cedar Grove, the temperature our car registered was 105 degrees.

Rae Lakes Loop Posts

• Day Zero
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Flickr Album