Tues. Oct. 4     Miles today: 22.9        No. CA Section Q

The first thing I did today was go to the window and look out at the sky.  Oh no!  Still gray and cloudy!  There was even some ground fog in the Etna valley.  Stepping outside confirmed that it was VERY cold.  But we checked the latest weather reports for today, and every one of them said, “Sun!”.  So we decided to be brave and head for the PCT. 

Vicki Harrison insisted on feeding us one last huge and awesome breakfast, then we tossed our packs in the back of Dave’s pickup, said goodbye to lovely Alderbrook house, and we were off!  I have to admit, though…I was scared.  There looked like a lot of snow on the mountains, and the snow level was down awfully low. Would we be able to follow the trail, or would we get lost?  Well, the snow was beautiful along the road.  We felt as if we were driving through a Christmas card.  Dave was wishing out loud that he’d thought to bring his camera!

At the PCT trailhead on Etna Summit, we shouldered our packs, while Dave wished us all the best, and kindly took a picture of us “ready to roll” in the snow.  I took a deep breath and said, “OK, Lord, here we go!  Please help us find the trail!” and we were off.  At first the snow on the trail was pretty shallow, but the farther we went, the deeper it got (fortunately never more than 10-12 inches, so only twice were we a bit uncertain about where the trail went).  Since it was nice, fresh, powdery snow, there were lots of animal tracks, including a bear, whose paw print looked impressively big next to Bill’s track!  Not far along from the Summit, there was a PCT register, which Bill signed.  The last dated entry before his was on Sept. 18!  Bill said he wrote that tomorrow is our 37th wedding anniversary.   Awwww, how sweet of him!   Since we’ll be ontrail that day, we can celebrate when we get to Ashland!

All day long we were walking through snow.  I had snow powder all over my feet right up to the tops of my gaiters.  But the forest-in-snow scenery was incredibly beautiful, and it wasn’t too long before the sun DID come out and we had a stunning blue sky to go with the pure white snow.  At one point a narrow ridge just off the trail gave us a view of Mt. Shasta all snowy white–no more gray with dirty white streaks.  And it turned out that the only real “hazard” we had to face all day was big globs of snow falling off the trees and landing on us!  When that happened, we had to “dust off” whichever one of us the glob had landed on, before it could melt down our neck or on our pack.  Also at times, walking under the trees was like walking through a rainshower, they were dripping so much!  The air was cold, but very clear and fresh, and best of all, it SMELLED like snow!

But by afternoon, Bill began to “fade.”  He had been doing great all morning, hiking at a good pace, but now he began once again to have a very hard time with any uphill climbs.  So once again, to lighten his load, I took a bunch of food out of his pack and put in in mine.  Before sundown, I was seriously starting to watch for a place to camp, a bit concerned because everything was covered with snow and Bill was really getting tired and slow.  But just before it really got dark, I spotted a usable patch of bare ground under some trees.  Hurray!  We hurried to put up the tarp.  Brrrr–it was 36 degrees when we crawled into our sleeping bags.  Figuring it would be a really cold night, we were both wearing almost all our clothes except raingear, in order to stay warm.  But it was wonderful to be back on the PCT and to know that Seiad Valley was only another couple of days ahead, then the finish line at Ashland!