Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 44:
Total km driven to date: 8334km
Total km walked to date: 336.99km
Stanislaus National Forest – Toiyabe National Forest
69km drive
5.1km on foot
Keeping in mind that I was too quick on the last leg of my journey to get to Glen Helen and ended up spending almost a week in the same spot I am in no real hurry to get to Goldendale Washington. I still have 14 nights before I need to be there so I am taking my time. Today we only travelled 69km up and over the Sonora Pass onto the east side of the Sierra Range again. Shortly after leaving camp we stopped at the Donnell Pass Vista spot and took a few photos of the reservoir and dam from way above including the beautiful granite topped peaks much like Yosemite which is only about 20km south as the crow flies. We continued on our way, passing tons of campgrounds and lots of people, some beautiful places to stay right on the river surrounded by the granite mountains on all sides.
We left the flats and passed a sign saying “26% slope” Now I have been driving for over 8000km and up some crazy mountain passes but none have come close to 26%! The road winds up the granite mountain sides following the river with some spectacular views until you get to the top of the Sonora Pass at 9600ft where the mountains quickly change from the granite boulders into more rolling scrub again like I saw a few days ago. Near the top the valley opens up into some nice meadows full of wildflowers and I stopped so we could go for a hike. As you can see from the pics I randomly picked a hill in the distance and we hiked up it, definitely over 10,000ft we had commanding views in all directions, we spooked some deer and took a few pics and then headed back down to the truck. At the one little stream Axel decided to lay down for a while in the water to cool off, weirdo. We got back to the truck and quickly the road started going back down the other side, with a sign this time warning 25% slopes. Down and down the road wound until we were getting close to being back on US 395 and somewhat of civilization so I found a spot with a commanding view of the valley and set up camp for the night. Ax was being weird and awfully lethargic and didn’t want to get out of the truck which isn’t like him at all. After hanging out with him in the back seat of the truck for a bit I realized he had been stung by some creature on the top of his nose and it was sore to the touch and a little bit swollen. Im guessing it was a bee sting from our last camp, he doesn’t seem to be allergic because it hasn’t swollen bad but he is acting all tired and refuses to get out of the truck. I will leave him in there until bedtime and hope that he is doing better tomorrow, poor guy.
