Sept. 22, Thurs.–23.7 miles–No. CA N

Thursday, September 22nd, 2005

Thurs. Sept. 22   Miles today: 23.7      Total so far: 2,333.5    Miles to go: 306.1     No. CA Section N

The cricket serenade last night did a great job–we both had a very good night’s sleep on our perch high above the Hat Creek Valley, by the old fire lookout.  It turned out to be a beautiful morning–not cold–with plenty of moonlight to make getting up easy.  As we began our hike, we met the first of several groups of Black Angus cows.  I guess none of them like hikers, because they ran for it as soon as they spotted us!  The morning light on the mountains was beautiful, especially on Mt. Shasta.  When we “skipped up” to Ashland back in June, I was looking at Mt. Shasta and saying, “We’ll be back!”  And now we are!  Whenever we feel tired and our feet are hurting, all we have to do is look ahead at Shasta and say, “Here we come!  We are almost there!” 

By breakfast time, we had easily covered the 3 miles to PCT-famous “Cache 22”, a water cache hidden near Forest Road 22.  We had a great breakfast, with entertainment provided by stories from the notebook at the cache.  “Papa Amigo”, who provides the cache, left a note saying, “You don’t need to thank me for the water–I know you’re thankful!  Instead, please write one of your ‘trail tales’ for my son Luke.  He loves hearing them.”  So the notebook was full of great stories, and we added one of our own, about when we were lost and then found in the Three Sisters Wilderness.  We looked for stories by other hikers we knew, and were delighted to find one from Josh & Anna about how they totally ran out of food in the High Sierras and were delighted to find a FOOD cache along the trail.  Even though the food had obviously been “done over” by rodents, Anna said she didn’t care–she was too hungry to fuss about the mess.  Whew! 

Then it was time to head out again, and I made sure my pack was done up in “deer season” mode, with my red bandanna lashed across the top.  I was determined NOT to be mistaken for a deer!  After Cache 22, the PCT sometimes goes away from the Rim, but when it does, there are great views to the east, and also a lot of walking through what looks an awful lot like African savannah.  Even the juniper trees grew in odd, Africanesque shapes.  But finally the trail came back to the Rim and stayed there, with a wonderful view back south toward Mt. Lassen.

Finally the trail began to come down off its Rim perch and travel through an old lava flow area that was very tough on our feet, but otherwise fascinating.  There were caves and pits and all different colors of lava. The black lava looked the “newest.”  Poor Bill’s feet hurt so much from the lumpy lava that where the PCT parallels the highway, he left the trail and walked the road instead.  I stayed with the trail because I was worried that if the trail went “sneaking” across the road (as it often does), we might miss it.  But it turned out I need not have worried.  THIS road crossing was very blatant–painted footprints leading right across the pavement!  We cheered, and headed on through a mixed pine and oak forest till we finally reached the creek we’d been walking towards for 30 miles–Rock Creek!  Here we hesitated.  The guidebook said that there’d been a question as to whether the water was safe to drink, even though it came from a nearby spring.  We looked at it and it looked a bit iffy.  In the end, Bill just took a little for washing his feet and we walked on, admiring the fall foliage near the creek.

The PCT then went right past a still-functioning 1920’s PG &E hydroelectric powerhouse.  When I stopped to take a picture of the modern PG & E truck with the OLD powerhouse, one of the workers came out and asked if we were PCT hikers, and before we knew it, they were giving us all the water we needed, plus a bag of tomatoes and lemon cucumbers from one of the guys’ gardens!  We talked to them awhile, then went on, past the fish hatchery, where the tanks are well-netted to protect the fish from the birds, and on to Baum Lake, where there are LOTS of ducks and geese (no wonder they have to protect the fish!).  The water in the lake comes both from the hatchery and the powerplant.   It’s a pretty lake, and the trail follows the shore for awhile, then it was up the hill and back in the forest, wehre I enjoyed seeing the oak tree leaves turning bright reds and yellows. 

For supper we ate all the tomatoes and cukes and some sandwiches.  It was so good!  If we were back home instead of hiking, we’d be feasting on garden produce like this every day! But this hike has been so fantastic, I would not trade it for anything!  Bill said he was feeling a bit better today, and he was actually able to enjoy eating instead of just choking things down.  He also was able to hike a little bit faster as well, though still not up to his usual speed.  We walked on till we were 3 miles from Burney Falls State Park and stopped early to camp, ’cause we prefer camping out in the woods.  If we kept going, we’d end up having to camp in a noisy campground, AND we’d have to pay for it!  Instead, we got a beautiful campsite in a grove of oak trees that were all turning gorgeous fall colors.  Their fallen leaves plus pine needles from the pine trees made a soft carpet for our ground cloth, and the crickets were singing again.  I looked at our miles for today and was very pleased that even though we weren’t hiking “full speed” and had stopped early, we almost got 24 miles in.  Shasta, here we come!

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