Wed. Sept. 21   Miles today: 18.1   Total so far: 2,309.8    Miles to go: 329.8     No. CA Section N

Bill and I had a very restful night sleeping on the folding camp cots in the incredible treehouse at the Heitman’s.  At very first light, the rooster next door started crowing, and I decided to get up and do some writing to make up for the computer frustration yesterday.  So I tiptoed into the Heitman’s house and sat down at the dining room table to write and eat some yogurt.  By 7:00, Georgi had coffee going, and  we had a very fun conversation about “fiber arts.”  I had been admiring her spinning and weaving, and was wondering if she ever dyed her own yarn.  Oh yes!  She showed me some more of her work–beautiful colors!  I also have spent a lot of time dyeing (FABRICS, in my case–silk and nylon for dance costumes), so we had fun talking over some of our “dyeing adventures.” 

Breakfast was fabulous, and I ate LOTS of French toast, bacon and fruit.  I LOVE thru-hiking!  I can eat as much as I want!  Then I worked on some lastminute details, till we were packed and ready to go (after a round of picture-taking!).  Georgi and Dennis welcomed, warmed and fed us, and we are very, very grateful!  Georgi dropped us off near the PCT at about 10:30.  It was a pleasant, warm, breezy morning, and we had a final round of hugs and best wishes before Bill and I set off.

We were hiking happily along the PCT, through the forest, so glad to be back on the trail, and with only a bit over 300 miles to go–until we heard several gunshots off to our right.  Oh rats, that’s right! It was hunting season!  We had totally forgotten about it while we were at the Heitmans.   So we stopped and prayed for God’s protection for US and good success for the HUNTERS.

Near the famous Subway Cave, there was a cute sign by the PCT which said, “Water at Cave.”  Since it was almost 12 noon, we turned off and walked to the Cave picnic area to cook lunch and then replenish our water supply for the long, dry haul ahead.  The picnic area is great–it’s a very pretty, peaceful, pine-treed park, and Bill lay down to rest for awhile on the soft pineneedle duff.  He said his stomach feels OK, but the rest of him does NOT–he says he just feels completely tired out/exhausted, all the time, not just at the end of the day.  But tired or not, eventually he had to get up, and we went back to the trail.

Not too long after that came several hundred feet of elevation gain climbing up to the Hat Creek Rim.  Most of the trail up was an abandoned old road, very rough and rocky.  Bill had to stop and rest partway up–climbing seems to be really hard on him.  But finally we were high enough to have great views–wow!  Shasta to the north and Lassen to the south…but the Lassen view made us say, “Oh, no!”  There was forest fire smoke rising into the sky out to the west of Mt. Lassen!  We were glad that the smoke was BEHIND us, but sad to think of more blackened forest. Sigh.

The farther we went along the Rim, the better the views became.  Mt. Lassen stood majesticaly to the south, and Mt. Shasta, crowned with cloud as usual, stood to the north.  We were mostly walking through a forest fire zone, but it was recovering very well, and the young pine trees were already a bit taller than I am.  We also had to walk around a huge canyon that cuts way back into the edge of the Rim.  The afternoon continued very pleasant and breezy–excellent hiking weather!  We had a nice supper, then pushed on to the former fire lookout site, where we set up camp–no tarp tonight!  We wanted to enjoy the gorgeous sunset.  We were serenaded to sleep by crickets singing and an owl hooting.  It was a good place to be!