Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California. Jeffrey P. Schaffer

      

      “You can’t buy more accurate information at any price.”

      – San Francisco Examiner

      The “ideal consultant,” according to Wilderness Record, this guidebook to the Pacific Crest Trail will help you find the PCT, locate supply access routes, water sources and good camping spots, and learn about the mountains and wilderness areas along the way. With Jeffrey P. Schaffer as your expert guide, you’ll learn about the geology, plant communities, wildlife, and history of the Pacific Crest Trail. Here’s a sampling:

      

The first part of this trail section is on a narrow, abandoned road through a forest of black oak, ponderosa pine and incense-cedar. Mountain misery, a low, sticky shrub, permeates the air with a subtle fragrance as the day’s temperature rises.

      

By doing this loop trail you get a feel for the rugged Donner Pass terrain and you can see how it hampered the westward progress of early emigrants, with their heavily laden wagons.

      

Before following the trail west, you may be overwhelmed by the symmetry and beauty of a huge dome looming before you.

      

The bedrock here is composed of metamorphosed volcanic rocks that were erupted perhaps 300-400 million years ago.

      FIRST EDITION June 1973

      SECOND EDITION September 1977

      THIRD EDITION June 1982

      FOURTH EDITION January 1989

      FIFTH EDITION July 1995

      SIXTH EDITION May 2003

      Second Printing August 2005

      Copyright © 1973, 1977, 1982, 1989, 1995, 2003 by Jeffrey P. Schaffer

      Formerly published as The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California; now the trail is covered in two books: Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California (From the Mexican Border to Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows) and Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California (From Tuolumne Meadows to the Oregon Border). A third book, The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 2: Oregon & Washington (6th edition, August 2000) is also published by Wilderness Press; it covers the Northwestern part of the PCT and is co-authored by Jeffrey P. Schaffer and Andy Selters.

      Cover and book design: Jaan Hitt

      Compositor: Jaan Hitt

      Original topographic maps: Jeffrey P. Schaffer and Bruce Appleyard

      Digitized maps: Ben Pease

      Original section maps: Barbara Jackson

      (We also thank Glenn M. Bock, Tom Ekman, Ben Pease, and Tom Reynolds; they all assisted us in our our efforts to digitize the maps for future editions.)

      Editors: Paul Backhurst and Kris Kaiyala

      Editorial assistant: Jessica Lage

      Managing editor: Jannie M. Dresser

      Cover photo: © 2003 Londie G. Padelsky, “Sunset at Lake Aloha, Desolation Wilderness”

      Frontispiece photo: © 2003 Jeffrey P. Schaffer, “Seiad Valley, view east of Klamath River”

      Back cover photo: © 2003 Jeffrey P. Schaffer, “Elephants Back, Lost Lakes, Mokelumne Wilderness”

      All photos by Jeffrey P. Schaffer or Thomas Winnett unless otherwise credited

      Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 95-9325

      International Standard Book Number 978-0-89997-317-3

      Manufactured in the United States of America

Published by		Wilderness Press
		Keen Communications
		PO Box 43673
		Birmingham, AL 35243
		Phone [phone]; FAX [phone]
		Fax [phone]
		www.wildernesspress.com

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliography.

      Contents: Northern California / Jeffrey P. Schaffer.

      ISBN 978-0-89997-317-3

      1. Hiking—Pacific Crest Trail—Guidebooks. 2. Pacific Crest Trail—Description and travel—Guide-books. 3. Hiking—California—Guidebooks. 4. California—Description and travel—1981- —Guide-books. I. Schaffer, Jeffrey P.

      2003 917.9’043

      Other books by Jeffrey P. Schaffer

      Carson-Iceberg Wilderness

      Desolation Wilderness and the South Lake Tahoe Basin

      Hiker’s Guide to the High Sierra: Tuolumne Meadows (with Thomas Winnett)

      Hiker’s Guide to the High Sierra: Yosemite

      Hiking the Big Sur Country

      Lassen Volcanic National Park & Vicinity

      The Geomorphic Evolution of the Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada Landscapes

      Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California (with Ben Schifrin, Ruby Johnson Jenkins, and Thomas Winnett)

      The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 2: Oregon-Washington (with Andy Selters)

      The Tahoe Sierra

      Yosemite National Park

      Disclaimer

      Hiking in the backcountry entails unavoidable risk that every hiker assumes and must be aware of and respect. The fact that a trail is described in this book is not a representation that it will be safe for you. Trails vary greatly in difficulty and in the degree of conditioning and agility one needs in order to enjoy them safely. On some hikes, routes may have changed—or conditions may have deteriorated—since