Mile 1251.5 to 1261.7 – 10.2 miles total hiked on PCT

When morning came, I was tempted to jump in the river again. But without the hot hike through the dead forest the previous afternoon the effect of jumping in of a cold river just wouldn’t be the same.

Plus it would’ve been pretty cold. 😀

When I stopped to get some water from a tributary of Bear Creek, I heard a large sound in a rock falling somewhere to my right.

Sounds like something big so not a squirrel bear mountain lion a deer I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything else and I didn’t hear anything else right away when I got up to finish filling my water I heard another big wrestling in the bushes to the left and down for me.

I called out to see if it was another hiker further up the trail that I couldn’t see through the bushes, but nothing replied

So I was pretty sure it was a animal at that point just wasn’t sure how big or what. Fortunately, I’ll never find out because it never showed itself



As PCT saying goes: A trail that goes down will eventually have to go up again.

Which is very true of the Feather River. The long, hot descent to it the previous day was followed by a long climb. My FarOut app showed about 3500 feet to climb over 10 miles almost Sierra-type descent and re-climb. Although at 10 miles it shouldn’t be that steep.

Hopefully. 😜

After the long descent through the dead burned out forest the day before, I was pleased that the climb up from feather river was mostly in live forests with plenty of shade.

The green forest lasted about 8 miles and then there was another section of dead burned out forest. There were some bushes and and small trees starting to grow back, but the black scared trees and fallen trees and limbs of the burned trees dominated.

As I near the top of the climb, I started getting great views of the surrounding area. Even in some that burned out areas you couldn’t see too far but now I was starting to get a wide view of what surrounded the area that I’d been climbing through.

Spectacular!

There was a rock formation called “Lookout Rock” that came into view.

Even via a distance, I could see why it got its name.

With a nice flat top, it was obviously a favorite place for people to come to see the view to the east.

It wasn’t that far from the roads that led to Buck Lake, so day hikers along with PCT hikers could come and enjoy it.

But as I have not seen any other hikers or human beings this day, I had it all to myself.

I’ve been asked what my favorite part of the PCT has been, but it’s always hard to qualify one view versus the other.

But this one was fantastic all by itself.

There was a whole circular arch down below and to the north of Lookout rock. I didn’t go down to it, but there was a pass that looked like other people often did go down and admire it from of close.

The Grandview from the area and from Lookout rock settled my decision on where to camp for the night.

There didn’t seem to be much further up the trail that would get give me the same kind of grand view so I decided to stop early and find one of the nearby campsites described in the FarOut app.

There were several north of Lookout rock, but they all suffered from one big flaw: they have no shade and no possibility of shade until the sun was almost setting around 7 or 8 PM.

Since I was stopping early around 4 PM, those sites were not going to be comfortable or enjoyable that evening.

So, I ended up backtracking a few hundred feet to a campsite below Lookout Rock and ended up stopping up there after just about 10 miles because I had finished the big climb and it exhausted me. Plus, I found a campsite with a fantastic view. 😄

Well, not completely shaded from the sun. There were still enough living trees to the west that it would be in shade enough of the time that I could enjoy it without having to dodge the sun all the time.

While the ridge and trees to the west somewhat muted the the direct sunset view, the view to the east was spectacular that evening.