Day 73 - Rancheria Creek to Cascade Creek
Finally the night wasn’t too cold. I slept well with only my base layer. It felt nice. Getting up in the morning was easier too, and the sun shone on us quite early. A short walk from our camp we had our first Ford of the day. Surprisingly, we managed to get across with some rock hopping. A while later, we had to ford across the Stubblefield, that was a bit harder, and I got one foot wet.
We were both in dread of fording the Falls Creek later in the afternoon. Yogi’s book had one hiker telling of 9 feet deep cold water we’d might have to swim. At the end the water were no deeper than our ankles, and we just waded across barefoot. It was easy and quick.
In between we had many short and long climbs and short and long descents. The trail was hard and dull. and full of mosquitoes. We caught up to Smuggles, Lighthouse and Heat Wave. They also plan to get into Bridgeport, but maybe just for a quick resupply and then head out on the same day. We also met Joey again, who heads straight to Tahoe.
After climbing to Dorothy Lake Pass, we finally started our final descent. We were aiming for the bridge near the 1,000 miles mark. I caught up to Idan right near the mark, in a decent campsite. Smuggles and Heat Wave were just heading on. I think they finally camped at the bridge, 0.2 miles away.
Tomorrow we will get to Sonora Pass. We might camp there, or try to hitch to Kennedy Meadows (North - a different place than the one 300 miles back). On the next day we will get down to Bridgeport, for full resupply, and some rest.