At 5:15am when I tiptoed into the house to use the bathroom,  Martha was already up and the dogs gave me an ecstatic, tailwagging greeting. I guess they figure I’m “family”–that’s a very encouraging thought.  The three cats, however, merely yawned, so I’m not sure what they think!  Martha made coffee for us, and it was interesting to watch her cooking setup.  In summertime, so as not to heat up the kitchen, she uses an electric hotplate.  In winter, it’s the woodstove.  She says her daughter, who is a chef, finds this to be quite a challenge! 

Martha told us stories about the guy who built the addition to her house–how he and his horse-powered (literally!) equipment were able to do everything necessary to felling trees, moving logs, and the actual building process.  It was great to hear all that she had to say–she’s a very gracious, but down-to-earth lady who is a real Christ-follower.  We enjoyed the coffee and a breakfast of tortillas, eggs & cheese before Martha headed out to feed all the animals and then go to work (she is a veterinary’s assistant), while we headed for Ammirati’s Market to pick up our resupply boxes and have a second breakfast!

Following Martha’s directions, we walked out the back of her property, through a horse arena, and off down River Road to the lovely River Trail.  It was a beautiful morning, and walking along by the river was very enjoyable.  When we reached Ammirati’s Market, we were astounded at the number of PCT hikers!  Some of them were people we’d thought were way ahead of us (somehow we’d caught up with them–I’m not sure how) and others were hikers who decided to just skip sections N and O and go straight to Castella. (They said they were afraid they wouldn’t make it to Canada in time, otherwise.) In any case, there were hikers galore at the market and post office and  it was fun to see everybody!

We decided to give our gear a good airing in the sun on the lawn, and Bill lay down to take a nap, while I went into the closed restaurant to write up stuff for this journal.  I couldn’t sit at any of the tables outside–all of them were full of hikers!  At one point,  a sweet but timid lady customer in the market came to me and asked if I would ask the other hikers “Does anyone need a ride to Dunsmuir?” I wondered why she didn’t ask them herself, till I realized that a large group of seasoned thruhikers does look sort of, well, grubby and tough. I went to each table and said, “Hey, hikertrash!  Anybody need a ride to Dunsmuir?”  Turned out everybody was headed back to the trail, but the ride offer was much appreciated!

Hikers slowly began drifting back to the PCT, but Bill and I and several others shifted to hanging out in the shade behind the post office.  I sorted food and loaded packs, then we had lunch, which included a half gallon of ice cream.  It’s hiker etiquette to share with anyone else who’s present, so we offered ice cream to everybody.  On a hot afternoon, it tasted good!  The Israeli girls were happily going through their resupply box, which included a bag of Israeli coffee.  Noga opened it up,  handed it to me and said, “Smell that!  It’s the smell of Israel!”  She and Shani told me about how fanatic Israelis are about the “right way” to make coffee.  From their description, it sounds like they do it sort of “cowboy coffee style”, boiled in a pot. 

By 1 pm, on a hot afternoon (sigh) we put on our heavy packs (4 days of a very generous food allowance) and walked over to the Castle Crags entrance to ask the ranger lady about the best route back to the PCT.  In 2005, we tried to find it on our own, and ended up doing a lot of wandering around.  We didn’t want a repeat of that experience!  Sure enough, she told us a very simple, straightforward path back to the trail.  Part of the route involved walking along an old mining flume, on a very nice trail.  We cheered when we got back to the PCT again, and began the big climb out of Castella– first through lovely oak forest, across several very pretty creeks.  According to our guidebook, the last of the creeks was the last water for 14 miles, so we planned to get water there.  To our great dismay, the creek was dry! 

But just a short way beyond the dry creek, there was a little sign on a tree that pointed off to the right and said, “Water upstream”.  So we followed a use trail, and sure enough!   Water!   Whew!  We took plenty.  At that point, the PCT got serious about climbing UP.  The trail tread was steep and rocky, but the views of Castle Crags were awesome.  The Crags really do look like a castle with walls and turrets, some of light gray and some darker.  The PCT takes you right up to the foot of the “wall.”  We stopped for dinner at a switchback, then continued climbing. 

At 6:40, we’d reached what the guidebook called “a forested saddle”.  There were no more flat places for a long way after that, so even though it was early, we decided to stop.  Bill and I were both very tired, especially me.  I really wanted to go faster on the uphills, but I am just “losing it.”  That’s why I brought extra food, in the hopes that it would help.  When we got out our ground cloth to set up camp, I groaned. It was all wet from the night before, and we hadn’t remembered to dry it in the sun when we were hanging out at Castella.  So I hung it over a bush to dry and just lay down flat on the ground to rest for awhile. 

The “forested saddle” had several nice flat spots, and were were among huge, beautiful trees.  It was very quiet.  Once the ground cloth was dry, we set up a cowboy camp and went gratefully into our sleeping bags.  We’ll finish the climb tomorrow, and it was nice to have an extra half hour to rest!  We needed it!

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: Still in dangerous bogs around the Entwash

Tags: Ammirati's Market, Castella, Castle Crags, Dunsmuir