7/8/18 – Peter Grubb Hut

Day 18

Miles: 1,179.26 to 1,160.76

Everybody in our camp of 5 people is up around 5:00 a.m. IKEA, an Asian gentleman packs his bright yellow tent and is the first one out, heading north. The rest of us are southbound.

Climbing comes easy in the morning. The path is well graded and we have wind. Lots of wind actually, and it’s rather strong and cold.

The ridge line we walk is lined by lupine and mule ear, a relative of balsamroot. We get views of several lakes, and in the distance there are taller mountains still covered in snow.

Near Snowbank Spring we come across a small snow patch. How cool is that. We also find Roller here, the gal who camped with us last night. She tells us there was a deer walking around her tent all night and she got less than two hours of sleep. She still plans to get to the Highway and spa nearby but now she thinks that she might spend two nights there to rest.

We meet Roller 1.87 miles further at a creek where we plan to stop for lunch. She is really tired and does not think she can make it all the way to the highway. She asks us if it’s ok to hang out with us until we get to Truckee. We laugh that now we are the Southbound bubble.

Our camp is near Peter Grubb Cabin. It’s possible to spend a night inside the cabin, the entire top floor is meant for sleeping but we’ve heard the other night they had 20 people crammed in there. Thinking snoring competition, we happily set up in the forest by the cabin and enjoy an evening outside until about 8:00 pm. That’s when mosquitoes start swarming, completely out of the blue, and we retreat to our tents.