Western States 100 Trail - Part 2

I didn’t have much going on at the weekend so I decided to attempt another section of the Western States 100 trail.  This time I was going to camp somewhere near the trail and hopefully run into the Granite Chief Wilderness to spot where I left off last time.  

On Saturday afternoon, I drove in the Land Cruiser up to the eastern end of French Meadows Reservoir.  That is about 100 odd miles and it takes nearly 3 hrs.  I had intended to camp in the Talbot camp and then drive up the trail the next morning to find the Western States Trail.  However, after all the fires in California, all the campgrounds were closed so I had to find a clearing on the side of the trail and camp there for the night.  

The camp spot

I say camp, I camped in the car and stretched out on the back of the Land Cruiser.  Not much headroom, but it is warmer and a whole lot easier than pitching a tent.  By the time I got situated it was gone 6:00 pm so all I had time to do was cook (reheat) a little food and then get ready for nightfall.  By 7:00 pm it was bitterly cold and I was in my sleeping bag inside the car.  That meant it was going to be a long night ahead - I read for a while, I slept for a while, I read a while more in the middle of the night and I extricated myself from the sleeping bag when the sun came up around 7:00.  

A quick breakfast and it was off to find the trail.   According to the map the fire road out of the Talbot area intersected the trail somewhere up the hill.  However before we got too far the road we got to the boundary of the Granite Chief Wilderness Area and the road was closed off with boulders and downed trees.  They don’t want vehicles going into the Wilderness area - I guess I should have realized that.

End of the Road

So that didn’t bode well so I backtraced down the hill and consulted the map again.  There was another road to the west that also crossed over the trail and I knew that road so I thought I would give that a try.  I thought it would be too far to the west to allow me to run to my last stopping place in one day though.  I wanted to keep the miles under 20.

I parked up at the trail crossing and set off up a nice gently uphill trail to Red Star Ridge.  It was cold but not too cold.  After a mile or so the trail merges with a road and I believe that is where there is an aid station.  There were a couple of hunters up there that I chatted to for a while.  Apparently it is deer hunting season.  Hopefully I don’t look much like a deer.

The trail into the Granite Chief Wilderness

The trail in this section is quite nice.  Not too steep for the most part.  Up and down but quite runnable and the views are spectacular.

I carried on the ridge top trail for 5 or 6 miles enjoying every bit of the trail.  It was beautifully sunny but the wind was blowing, and the wind was cold.  A sign that we are getting close to winter and it’s not the place to be in a T-shirt and shorts in winter.   The trail dropped down a fairly steep hill and I came across a couple more hunters camping at the bottom of the hill.  They hadn’t seen any deer but judging by their garbage pile they had consumed a lot of beer the night before.  Nice guys though - we chatted for a while.

I continued on and crossed a road that comes in from Soda Springs and then a really nice bit of flat wide running trail.  Just lovely.  I was thinking about what my turnaround time should be and had decided that 1:30 was the time and that would give me a couple of hours daylight cushion if I slowed down on the return.  Then around 12:45 things started to look familiar and all of a sudden I was at the point I stopped last Wednesday.  That was a good feeling to not have to push things too far.

Deja Vu all over again

The return wasn’t so bad.  Other than one long steep uphill most of the trail was sloping the other way, downhill.  I did become perturbed by a new set of animal tracks on the trail that weren’t there on my way out.  A footprint with 5 pads not quite as big as a mountain lion.  At least that’s what I was hoping.  I did however pick up a rock to act as my weapon if I was attacked by this unknown animal.  The tracks stayed with me on the trail for a good 5 miles.

Bobcat, Coyote, Labrador?

At the end of the day I was getting a little tired and a little cold.  All day the wind had kept blowing and it was now nearing 4:00pm and it was getting cold.  It was a nice sight to see the Land Cruiser appear in the trees and the end of what was a 17 mile run for the day.

A most welcome sight

I came out by continuing north to Robinson Flat and then out the Foresthill Divide Road to Foresthill and Auburn.  A great day but perhaps the last one for this year.  Winter is on the way.