Читать книгу The John Muir Trail. Through the Californian Sierra Nevada онлайн

29 страница из 67

Pacific Crest/John Muir Trail signpost just outside Tuolumne Meadows (Day 4)

Although the PCT coincides with the JMT for much of the length of the latter, there are sections where the two long-distance paths go their own ways. In particular the JMT and PCT do not coincide at the northern end of the JMT (ie. between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows) and at the southern terminus of the JMT (the PCT leaves the JMT a little before Crabtree Ranger Station and omits the traverse of Mount Whitney). In all about 175 miles of the JMT are coincident with the PCT.

The PCT is a trail of extremes, as it passes through six of the seven ecological zones of North America, from near sea level to over 13,000ft in altitude, from the ferociously hot deserts of southern California to the High Sierra mountains, from the temperate rain forests of the Pacific North-West to the volcanic peaks and glaciers of the Cascade Mountains. The highlights include the Mojave Desert; the Sierra Nevada including Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks; Marble Mountain and the Russian Wilderness in Northern California; the volcanoes of the Cascades, including Mount Shasta and Mount Hood; Crater Lake; Columbia River Gorge; Mount Rainier; and the Northern Cascades.