[pct-l] crossing the Middle Fork Feather River Canyon

[David Hough reading PCT-L]

Going over a 12000' pass every day for a week sticks in your mind.
Other parts of the PCT, not so much.

When I started rehiking from Quincy-LaPorte Road to Bucks Summit,
I kept thinking that none of it looked familiar or memorable, except
the big bridge and a strange pioneer monument made of rails near
Bucks Summit, but no memory of any campsites or water sources - the
usual things one remembers.
Did I really do it before or have I been claiming to have hiked the
whole PCT in bits and pieces 2001-2013 in error?

When I got home, I looked for my previous effort and there it was:

 http://pcnst.oakapple.net/photo/cc-pct/m/2001-10-21-m07

I hiked it with Boris Nahlovsky, with shuttle service provided by
his wife Camille.
I wonder why I wouldn't at least have remembered Lookout Rock.
I had misremembered the strange pioneer monument made of rails,
thinking it must have been about the railroad down on the North Fork.

 http://pcnst.oakapple.net/photo/cc-pct/m/2001-10-20-m09

The monument has a new sign.

The trail was mostly in excellent shape, no tree problems or major
brush, but a few slipping-out sections in the canyon that required
only moderate care.     There was one piece of trail just south
of the big bridge over a loose sand slope that seemed to be on the
verge of undermining the rock work.

==

I didn't check the off-trail water sources.  On trail:

23 Sep:
The "delicious spring" at the junction with the Butte Bar Trail,
mentioned by Schaffer but not Halfmile,
was running well through a plastic pipe - about a gallon a minute.

Bear Creek and its tributaries nearby just east and west were all
running strongly.

24 Sep:
The upper Bear Creek tributary at 5297' was barely a trickle
and not worth the bother.

Lookout Spring was running well through an iron trough -
about a gallon a minute.

One of the springs just before Big Creek Road, not mentioned by
Halfmile, was still trickling and could be scooped.

25 Sep:
Seasonal sources at 5639' and 5574' were trickling but not worth
bothering, because

Big Creek at 5528' was running well.    It didn't look seasonal at all.

==

There were several hikers planning to finish up roughly 500-mile
segments.

I met a southbound through hiker who'd started late in Washington
and  was planning to stop for the year
at Echo Lake.    A southbound through hike is much harder than northbound;
one has to start in the North Cascades old snow and get through the High Sierra
before its new snow.    It was hard for Eric Ryback, and almost 50 years
later, much of the infrastructure that has developed for north-bounders
is of less usefulness to southbounders.

I once thought I'd do a southbound through hike,
but through hikes are no longer a possible future for me, so I'm glad 
other people are still trying.


Driving home, I was really impressed by how remote LaPorte is.   Makes
Quincy look like a metropolis.