Marble Mountain Backpacking

Lovely Place.

I had never heard of the Marble Mountain Wilderness, but it was on my friend's bucket list, so we went backpacking there one weekend. It is located north of Mt.Shasta, and it is a part of the National Forest. Saturday was beautifully sunny. We started in the woods and then ascended. When we reached the trail on the ridge, the view was amazing. Hundreds of mountains were seen as if they were waves. They range green to blue in the distance, then, behind them, there was blue sky.

We made a fire at the campsite because it was quite cold at night. However, my eyes hurt when the smoke came to me depending on the direction of the wind. To avoid the smoke, we had to change positions frequently. It made me feel cold, so I went to the tent because inside my sleeping bag was warmer. However, it was really cold anyway and I couldn't sleep almost at all. In the middle of night, it started raining. In the morning, the rain became snow. It was beautiful, but it was literally freezing cold. The altitude was only 6,000 feet, but I felt it was much colder than Young Lake at the altitude of 10,000 feet in Yosemite. I didn't know why. The good thing was that we enjoyed a sunny Saturday and a snowy Sunday. We saw completely different views in two consecutive days. I was glad that the order, sunny then snow. Otherwise, we would have had to sleep with wet clothes. 

 

We ate Thai/Vietnemese food on the way back to the Bay Area, which was tasty, and went home. I was so happy when I took off my wet socks and had a shower!

ラブリープレイス。

とある週末にマーブルマウンテンエリアにバックパッキングへ出かけた。マーブルマウンテンウィルダネスはカリフォルニア北部のマウントシャスタの北に位置するエリアだ。それまで聞いたことがなかったが、友人が行きたいと言っていて今回行ってみることにした。

土曜日は晴れ。まず森の中のトレイルを登っていく。そして登りの後はリッジを歩く。連なる数々の山が美しい（写真１枚目）。言葉通りたくさんの山がどこまでも続いている。１００はあるだろう。この景色をしばし見ながらリッジを歩く。気持ちい。青空に山が映える。青と緑のミックスだ。綺麗としか言いようがない。

そして湖のそばに到着、ここでキャンプをすることにした。夕方になると寒い！ ということで火を焚いたがそれでも寒い。夕飯、そして談笑の後、寒いのでスリーピングバックの中へ。それでも寒く夜あまり眠れなかった。標高はそれほど高くない（２０００m程度）が、寒い。案の定、朝起きてみると雪が積もっていた。テントにも雪がー。ぎゃー。次の日は霧が立ち込め曇り。霧が湖にかかる様子が美しい（写真２枚目）。

天気によって同じ場所でも景色が全く違ってくる。一部のトレイルは前日と同じだったが、霧がかかっていると随分違う。どちらも綺麗だ。同じ場所でも季節や天気によって百万通りの美しさが自然にはある。これだからハイキングやめられない＾＾