Sat. Sept. 24     Miles today: 24.1         Total so far: 2,368.9     Miles to go: 270       No. CA Section O

Well, the wonderful wind, howling all night, did its job!  This morning was still cold (35 degrees) but bright and clear.  All of the places that were not under trees were covered with frost and there was even some frozen ground!  Bill and I were warm last night, though, and I was so comfortable that I overslept by 10 minutes, so we got a late start, well “woolied up”, with mittens, hats, etc. Mt. Shasta was looking quite lovely as we got underway.  It’s fun to see how little by little we are getting closer to such majesty, crowned with gleaming snow.

Not long after we had breakfast, a hunter truck went by, and it wasn’t long before we heard a gunshot.  The guy Mark, who gave us breakfast yesterday, told us that all his hunter friends find hikers annoying.  “Doggone those darn hikers!  Why don’t they stay out of the woods during deer season?”  Well, Mr. Hunter, I wish we COULD, but we have over 200 miles to go and can’t take 2 weeks off for your convenience! 

As we hiked along this morning, we saw evidence of a trail crew at work–we weren’t having to constantly push through bushes!  Somebody had “brushed” the trail, hooray!!  Eventually we caught up with the crew, only today they weren’t brushing and pruning–they were hauling rocks and doing “trail engineering” to fix a section of PCT that is constantly sliding away down the mountainside.  Way to go, California Conservation Corps!  You guys are awesome!  And what a challenge to create a stable trail on this VERY unstable mountainside.  We walked along a ridge where one side was fine, but on the other side, it looked as if the mountain just fell down. 

Besides having a better trail, which was great, I was encouraged at first by Bill’s seeming to feel better.  He was able to eat and said he felt “pretty good”.  Uphills are still awfully hard on him, though, and every time we had to do any climbing, he couldn’t go too far without having to stop and rest.  At 11:30 we were on a long uphill, and Bill said he just could not go on and had to stop for a rest.  My reaction was to feel very, very frustrated.  I had plenty of energy and was raring to do more miles.  So I unhappily sat down in a sunpatch by a tree (it was still a chilly day) and leaned against the treetrunk and waited for Bill, inwardly fuming.   Having nothing else to do, I was looking around at the trees, plants, etc., when to my surprise, near one of my feet I noticed a very small rock duck.  I stared at it, wondering, “What is that there for?”  Then I noticed a very faint path leading downhill from the other side of the tree I was leaning on.  I knew that we were near some springs where we’d planned to get water….hmmmm.  I told Bill “I’m going on an ‘explore’–that might be a path to the springs”, and headed out.  Wow!  Down the hill, out of sight of the trail, was a whole big camping area, right by the creek coming out of the springs!  There was plenty of nice clean spring water.  I hurried back up to the trail to tell Bill.

As it turned out, had we stayed on the trail till it “reached the springs”, we would have been out of luck.  The springs are in a big jungly tangle of vegetation, and we would have had a very hard time to get at them.  The next water was 14 miles away.  Had Bill not been tired and insisted on stopping, and if I had not sat down under that particular tree, we would never have noticed the tiny little rock duck and faint trail.  Ironically, the person who’d made the little duck had also scratched the word “WATER” on a rock by the trail, but he/she had propped the rock up facing in a direction that only a SOBO would see it.  We would never have seen it, being NOBO’s, and would have just sailed on by.    So AGAIN, I was ashamed of my impatience and VERY grateful to the Lord for taking care of our water needs AGAIN, with His usual perfect timing.  Bill and I ended up having a very nice, early lunch by the spring creek, and got plenty of water for the 14 miles ahead. 

After lunch, it was many more miles of climbing, till we were at 6,100 feet, the highest point in Section O.  Not too far from there, we met two very nice hunters–a dad and son–perched on a high ridge where they could see for miles.  We mutually wished each other well after a bit of talk, and a short itme later, we heard a gunshot.  Hope they got a deer!  Unfortunately, when we took our midafternoon break, Bill forgot his sunglasses, and awhile later I ended up having to wait for him while he went back to find them.  I spent the whole time he was gone praying and worrying because he was not wearing his red backpack, and there was a possibility that in his tan-colored hiking clothes, he might be mistaken for a deer……  Sigh.  I distracted myself by looking at the beautiful view of Mt. Shasta.  Finally Bill came back in triumph–he’d found his sunglasses–and we continued on a very long, climbing contour around Pigeon Hill.  The wonderful views were great compensation, though!  We could see Mt. Lassen on the horizon to the south, and endless rows of mountain ridges and valleys below us.

Finally we reached Grizzly Peak, with its fire lookout, and followed the slightly-scary-for-me PCT as it contoured around the southern and eastern sides.  Basically, the trail was blasted out and chipped out of the mountainside.  It was like a scratch on the side of a cliff, as far as I was concerned!  So I slowed way down and tried hard not to look at the dropoffs, while Bill sailed right on through.  Heights don’t bother him, and he doesn’t mind narrow, slippery/slidey trails.

By sundown we’d reached the other side of Grizzly Peak and found a nice place to camp out of the wind in a grove of trees.  And it was VERY windy–howling in the treetops.  We bundled up well again for another cold night.  And I had to apologize to the Lord for not trusting Him the way I should today.  He just keeps doing all this cool stuff for us even when we are so grumpy and ungrateful!

Fri. Sept. 23    Miles today: 22.1     Total so far: 2,344.8      Miles to go: 294.8      No. CA N   Burney Falls Park

This morning was chilly, with clear sky to the south, but clouds in the north.  Even though we had 3 miles of hiking to reach Hwy. 89, we could hear the cars and trucks already.  We passed by very pretty Arkwright Flat with its meadow, and walked through the forest to the highway.  A half mile roadwalk (with lots of huge garbage transfer trucks roaring by) brought us to the impressive stone gate of Burney Falls State Park.  We walked in and had a nice chat with the ranger lady at the entrance kiosk.  She was very much interested in our hike, and also commented on the weather, which was looking ominous.  The “clouds to the north” now covered the whole sky.  “Don’t worry, it’s not going to seriously rain,” she said.  (And it turned out, she was right!) 

So we walked on to the store, which didn’t open till 9:00, and it was only 8:00.  No problem–we were very hungry and ready for breakfast. We got out our stove and breakfast stuff on the picnic table in front of the store, but we’d only eaten a few bites of our granola when a guy named Mark came by and invited us to his campsite for breakfast!  While he was making coffee, Bill tried out his hammock.  Was it comfortable?  Bill said  “Absolutely!  It feels great!”  We had coffee, juice, oatmeal, etc. with Mark, who works as a nurse.  He wanted to know about our PCT adventure, and we had fun talking to him till a bit after 9:00. 

Our box was waiting for us at the store, and wow, was it a good thing we showed up on a FRIDAY.  This time of year, we found out, the store is CLOSED from Tuesday to Thursday!  I was busy sorting out the contents of the box, when yikes!  It began to rain!  We quickly moved our stuff under the overhang of the store.  Bill was busy eating a breakfast sandwich he’d just bought.  He is feeling better, and his appetite is coming back, hooray!  I finished the sorting, bought some more stuff at the store, packed th packs, and we were on our way into PCT Section O, with the rain stopping.

We walked across roaring Burney Creek on a bridge where a dad and kid were fishing.  They had already caught one fat trout!  Not far from the bridge, we were back at the PCT.  A walk through pretty oak forest finally took us to the Lake Britton dam.  We got to walk acros the top of the dam, and then the PCT took off up the hill till we had an awesome view of the Pit River far below.  Then came a downhill to Rock Creek with its bridge and waterfall.  The PCT hiker grapvine had been warning that the creek water might not be safe, so we didn’t take any–just enjoyed looking at the falls.  Bill’s hiking today has been the best he’s done in a long time.  And when we stopped for lunch, he enthusiastically ate it all!

Once we left Rock Creek, we began the 8 mile, 2,000 foot climb up to Peavine Creek, where we planned to get water.  Bill did pretty well on the long uphill; he did have to slow down, but he never needed to stop and collapse as he’d been doing.  The fall foliage along the trail was just beautiful, too.  At Peavine Creek, Bill collected water, whle I took some photos of the autumn leaves.  On the other side of the road by the creek, some naughty PCT hiker had left a note on a “Sale Boundary” sign, and right by the PCT itself was a HUGE “Entering Logging Area” sign.  No kidding, as it turned out!  All along the trail after that, it was obvous that  selective tree-cutting was going on.  However, there were no workers today.

In the afternoon, the weather turned windy and cold.  It was almost like the gray clouds and th sun were having a war up in the sky.  We weren’t sure which would win, and fervently hoped it would be the sun!  The temperature was only 50 degrees.  Brrrr!  That was sure different from yesterday, when we met a fat rattlesnake sunning himself right on the PCT.  There was little sun today– Bill and I were wearing raingear and gloves just to stay warm.  After supper, we finished the climb up to Red Mountain, which included a very dramatic scene of huge powerlines “plunging down” into a deep valley.  We also caught a glimpse of Mt. Shasta, covered with clouds. 

But the long climb finally began to take a toll on Bill, plus the temperature continued to drop, till it was down to only 40 degrees.  He walked more and more slowly, till it got to the point where every step he took was an obvious effort, and by 6:45, he stopped and said, “I can’t go on.  I am wasted.”  So up went the tarp and we wore most of our clothing to bed inside the sleeping bags.  A bitter cold wind was blowing in the treetops.  I listened to it and thought, “I hope that wind blows AWAY the clouds!”  And I prayed for Bill.  We have less than 300 miles to go, now.  Please, Lord, help Bill to be able to make it.