It’s hard to believe this was our first chance to hike together since the Fourth of July, but projects at home and busy weekends have served to significantly limit our hiking opportunities. The stars finally aligned enough to allow us some time to explore the west end of Blue Ridge – we had hiked short portions of the PCT in this area before, the most recent being an attempt to watch the sunset from open slopes above Vincent Gap back in April. We started west on the PCT from Grassy Hollow about 10:30am, initially covering the same ground Chris had walked with Pedro and the older boys last July. The forest here is gorgeous, with white firs and other evergreens mixed with Jeffrey and ponderosa pines as well as mountain oaks – the oaks, in particular, add their own special golden touch to the scenery this time of year, although they were at the peak of their fall color a few weeks ago. The PCT gently rises and falls all along this stretch west of Grassy Hollow, following the contours of the northern ridgeline for about three miles before dropping sharply south and west about 1,000′ to Vincent Gap. About halfway there, we found a confusing sign pointing to Jackson Lake – we knew there was a trail running northward at some point, and the steepness of the grade below that junction led us to believe that the PCT went left – wrong, as we soon discovered when we found ourselves in the Jackson Flat group campground within a hundred yards or so. We poked around a bit looking for PCT markers before eventually deciding to backtrack to the junction – as we left the campground, we met another hiker arriving from Vincent Gap who confirmed that the other trail we had missed was indeed the PCT. On the right track again, we continued west, treated to beautiful views near and far. The desert to the north was especially clear today, and we could easily spy, as usual, the pyramidal Owens Peak near Ridgecrest – remarkably, and far from usual, we could also see beyond the light grey forms of Mt. Whitney and Mt. Langley as well (Olancha Peak was invisible to the naked eye, but its hazy form appears in the long zoom photos – for reference, Mt. Whitney’s summit is some 155 miles away from our vantage point). The views also opened up to the west as we rounded the end of the ridge, and we found one particular stretch where the forest opens up to be a perfect place to watch the sunset, as we had suspected. After descending about 200′, we met the Forest Service road we had stopped at on our April hike, deciding to return via the PCT instead of following the road eastward to Grassy Hollow. Our walk back was uneventful, although we chose to save about 0.7 miles by walking the more-direct paved road near Grassy Hollow instead of the PCT’s longer path. Although a cool day that never climbed out of the 40s, the scenery was especially beautiful in the crisp fall weather.