Day 98 – 21 miles/1440 (7/3/22)
Maggie and I woke up early to beat the crowds to Burney Falls. We packed up around 7 and checked out the falls, the cool mist chilling us in the shady morning light. It was amazing to see so much flowing water in a part of California that otherwise felt quite dry. The permeable volcanic rock doesn’t hold water on the surface, but in some spots like Burney Falls, the water shows itself.
After some brief navigational difficulties in the state park, we got back on trail just after 8 am. We crossed the dam holding Lake Britton and started climbing. The trail takes a long westward hook around the south side of Mt. Shasta, and here we were entering Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
We left to dry lowlands and returned to forest of firs and Douglas-firs. This was second growth, clearly an old logging area with old, rotting stumps sawn many decades ago. In places where the trees decided not to grow, we passed through some overgrown shrubs. It was cloudy and humid for the afternoon, welcome relief from the burning sun we hiked with the last few days. We walked by some active logging areas. There were clear cuts right up to the trail, and the occasional pile of felled timber. The unseen costs of wood.
We periodically got nice views of Mt. Shasta beneath the clouds, a lonely mountain we would be seeing for the next several weeks. We clambered over some gnarly blowdown near the end of the day, but by the time we were done hiking, it felt like the day had gone by fast. We camped next to a logging road, stopping early-ish to get to bed early.
Day 99 – 24 miles/1464 (7/4/22)
We were up and moving on trail at 7 am for our Independence Day hike. The trail took us through more logging land and manzanita fields. Once again, there was some over grown shrubs and bush whacking like the day before. We hiked for a couple miles with Beanie Pete, a retired high school teacher from the bay area. We had briefly met him once before near Donohue Pass, about 500 miles ago. It was nice to chat with someone while we all moved up the trail.
Maggie and I ate lunch on the high perch with a view of the rolling hills to the south. We cruised on along the ridge, lots of small ups and downs. Yellow lupines highlighted our path. We descended down at the end of the day into pristine forest with some big old incensce-cedars and Douglas-firs.
The understory was lush and damp, and I felt we were finally getting into the temperate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest. We made it to camp just before 6 pm. Three others were set up when we arrived, four more arrived later making the campsite rather cozy. We didn’t mind, as we were set up on the edge. Everyone was quiet and in bed by 8:30 pm. It felt like a somewhat easy and fast day for having covered 24 miles. We enjoyed a few hours of relaxing in camp.
Day 100 – 21 miles/1485 (7/5/22)
Woke up at 5:30 am to quiet in the camp. We made oatmeal. Most everyone else packed up and left before we got out of the tent. Maggie and I got on trail at 6:55 am. It was an easy 7 mile cruise down to McCloud river for our morning snack and water break. The weather was still overcast and quite humid, which was a nice break from the sun, but we felt sticky and sweaty. The trail climbed up 2,000 feet, so we put podcasts on to zone out. Near the top of the climb, I turned my attention to a rocky clearing on the right (interesting plants almost always occur on these little nooks). There was, however, something to the left calling out for attention, a rapid buzz, sort of like an insect. This was no insect, it was a rattle snake! Maggie pointed it out to me. The snake was not poised to strike, rather it was slowly slithering away. That’s when we noticed it wasn’t one, but two snakes curled up on the warm rocks. Upon further inspection, we noticed it wasn’t two, but more like five snakes! Whew.. we skirted high to the right around them and snapped some pics.
We dropped back down through old growth forest, the incense-cedars making a show now with large burned out caverns. The broadleaf decidous trees began making a green tunnel, a magical translucent green light in some spots.
**NEW CONIFER ALERT**
In case you couldn’t tell by now, I quite like conifers. Don’t ask me why, it’s just another rabbit hole of curiosity I’ve gone down. As we were walking, a smaller tree with dark green flat needles started appearing here and there. No cones were on the branches or beneath the trees. I was puzzled at first… “What are you?,” I asked. Little did I know I was uttering the name in that very sentence (at least a homonym of its name). It took me until the following morning to realize I was looking at Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia). Yews do not sport cones to hold their seeds, rather they have berry-like arils, the one below undeveloped. Kind of cool to see not just a new genus of conifers, but a new family!
Maggie and I stopped for water 18 miles in. We had been in contact with a couple of friends, Jeff and Ella, from Santa Fe who were hiking southbound on the PCT. I had predicted this would be the spot we would cross paths with our friends. We sat down, and within 10 minutes, a pair of SoBos approached. Sure enough, it was Jeff and Ella! They sat with us and we talked for a while, catching up and sharing stories of the trail so far. While we had been making friends on the the trail, there was something special about seeing familiar faces, especially out here in the deep woods of California, 1,000 miles from home.
After an hour of chit-chat, we parted ways with Jeff and Ella, then hiked three more miles to Squaw Valley creek. We camped at the trailhead with 7 others, including Michelle, who was section hiking the PCT. She was a Connecticut native, Oregon transplant. We shared memories of Connecticut with Michelle over dinner.
Day 101 – 16(-3) miles/1501 (7/6/22)
Maggie and I took it easy in the morning, making hot oatmeal for breakfast. We were on trail at 7:30 am. There was just one big hill to get over to I-5. It was still overcast and humid in the morning, and by now, we were complaining about feeling sticky. We climbed up the hill, of course, which would have been largely uneventful, except we had to navigate “the octopus.” Some civil engineer working for the Forest Service must have been trying to spice things up in the drafting room, because we found ourselves in an intersection of eight dirt roads with no obvious sign pointing us in the right direction.
After trying a few options and checking our GPS, we were back on trail, cruising uphill and eager to get to town. We took a quick snack break at the top, watching the hummingbirds play around us. We hiked fast as we could down towards I-5. We opted to take a shortcut that shaved 3 miles off the PCT, but we had to carry water from start to finish as a trade off. Worth it. Our short cut also provided outstanding views of Castle Crags across the valley.
We saw lots of bear scat on the way down, but still no bear. Just a few miles from the highway, I called and booked a room at the Dream Inn in the town of Mt. Shasta. Nearing the end of our hike, we crossed the 1500 mile mark. Five hundred miles, three times, wild to think about. This one felt satisfying, on top of excitement to take a zero in Mt. Shasta the next day. Also, of note, I realized my hair was getting long enough to try a top knot. It’s a look, and I’m a fan.
As we continued down, traffic noise was slowly growing as we descended. At the bottom of the trail, we found a case of hard seltzer! We each took one can of trail magic, and we made it to I-5 around 12:30 pm. Three hikers, Wonderboy, Beast Mode, and Schrödinger were waiting to hitch. Schrödinger had left nearly an hour after us and mysteriously passed us without us noticing..? We decided that he definitely used some form of quantum teleportation. We sat with the guys in hitching hell. It’s impossible/dangerous to even try on the interstate, so you just have to hope someone will pick you up by the on-ramp. At least a bus was coming in a couple hours as a fall back. We made lunch on the side of the road and drank our seltzers. About an hour passed. The guys went under the bridge for shade. A blue CR-V dropped off a load of hikers on the other side of the highway. The driver actively avoided the three guys under the bridge and stopped by to offer us a ride. We took it, perhaps feeling a little guilty about the unspoken “first come, first serve” rule of hitch hiking, but we were going to different towns anyways. Our driver was a nice local man, John, who managed a business. He was taking an extended lunch break to help out some hikers. He drove us straight to the Dream Inn.
The inn was more of a house that was a time capsule from 1950 than a typical hotel. Wall paper, framed needle point art, decorative plates, chandeliers, brass lamps. Do you get the idea? There was a nice kitty too! We showered and relaxed for a bit, then wandered over to the laundromat. We went to Pipeline for dinner – the beer was great, burgers were awesome too. It was a chill night otherwise, and we were in bed at a reasonable hour.
Day 102 – 0 miles/1501 (7/7/22)
Resupply day. We got our day started with dank breakfast burritos at Yaks. Went to the gear store, which was kind of a let down for Maggie. She needed new shoes and a new stove, but no dice on both… Got groceries. Got in touch with Bennet and Burrito-with-a-J, and we made plans to hang out. They came over to the Dream Inn for a little garden party. ScrubJay and RoadRash, Canadian couple we met at VVR, showed up later as well. We shared fresh fruit, drinks, and lot of laughs. Maggie and I agreed to get a taxi with ScrubJay & RoadRash. Everyone cleared out around 4 pm. We chilled hard since we were done with all of our chores. We ordered Thai take out and ate it on the front porch as the sun was setting.
Distance Over Time 