Tues. Sept. 27      Miles today: 23.7     Total so far: 2,432.7      Miles to go: 206.2     No. CA Section P

Bill and I slept very well last night!  It was a pleasant night, not cold at all, and we were very comfortable.  Bill wanted to wait till a little later to get up, so it was 6:30 before we left our sleeping bags, packed up, and then (very civilized, indeed!) we ate breakfast at the TABLE of the hiker campsite.  It was our usual granola, but with the addition of some V-8 Juice to drink.  But when we went to put on our packs, you should have heard the groans and moans!  We had FULL loads of water (because the guidebook said it was over 22 miles to the next reliable water source) and SEVEN days of food.  Oh man–I could hardly even lift my pack to put it on.  I told myself, “Too bad, so sad–and it won’t be this heavy once we drink the water and eat the food!”

We had a bit of trouble finding the PCT, but in the end, there it was, just running a nice level course through the forest.  We couldn’t see Castle Crags at all.  But we walked along saying, “On to Seiad Valley, and we’re almost done!”  Then surprise!  We began to run into FLOWING creeks, which this time of year is very unusual.  We crossed one after another, saying, “Murphy’s Law–when you carry lots of water, you will find lots of water.”  Oh well.  And at last we began to see the Crags again.  At first the jagged peaks were just visible above the treetops, but as we circled to the west of them, the views became more and more stunning.  We were amazed to find even MORE creeks!  What a contrast to Section O, where a lot of the “creeks” were dried up.  The creeks here in section P are sliding over slabs of smooth granitic rock, which is very hard and very slippery.  We had to be careful when we crossed them!

The PCT climbs and switchbacks steadily up right alongside the Crags.  We felt as if we were in the High Sierra again, with heavy packs, rocky trail and awesome views.  And thankyou, Lord, Bill was having a “good” day today.  He was able to climb steadily, without plodding and having to stop a lot.  In fact, he was doing better than I was! Because I was worried about his health, when I loaded the food bags, I gave myself a lot more weight to carry than I gave him, so I was actually carrying a heavier pack.  Not only that, but it had turned into a very warm, sunny day, and I never do well on big uphills when it’s hot.  So this morning, it was ME who had to ask a couple of times, “Could we stop a minute so I can rest?”  Actually, till about 11:00 in the morning, there was a little cloud holding steady overhead, which was just big enough to block the sun.  I started calling it “God’s umbrella” because it didn’t blow away, and boy, was I grateful to have it there!  Once it finally did blow away, it got HOT on the trail!

We climbed and climbed all morning and into the afternoon.  One of the springs we came across was still running and it had a whole “grove” of pitcher plants growing around it.  I had never seen anything like it, and had to stop and do some “ooh and aah”-ing.  I also saw the leaves of many, many Douglas Iris plants, which  also surprised me because I didn’t know they grew up here. 

The PCT finally turned to the west and away from Castle Crags, but that just made for more awesome views as we looked back!  To be honest, I think that the SOBOs on the PCT have it better in this part of Section P, because the Crags are ahead of them instead of behind them.  AND they can see Mt. Shasta, too, while we NOBOs have to turn around to see any of it.  Finally we began a 3 mile westward crest walk toward the Trinity Divide, which separates the Sacramento and Trinity River drainages.  The air looked and smelled rather smoky, so we figured there must be a forest fire somewhere.  Down below us, looking lovely in the early evening light, were a number of pretty lakes.  We pushed on till we reached the Divide, thought about camping there, but Bill said (hooray!  Thankyou, Lord!) that he felt OK and could go on a bit. 

So we did mush on, and finally ended up in a tiny campsite on a ridge near the trail.  Oh, boy, did it feel good to lie down!  Our poor feet were SO tired from the constant climbing, heavy packs and rocky trail.  But it was a beautiful night–clear, pleasant, and calm, with a skyfull of stars.

Mon. Sept. 26       Miles today: 15.3        Total so far: 2,409          Miles to go: 228.9     No. CA O   Castella

At 6:05 this morning, it was still so dark that I double-checked my watch (by headlamp) to be sure the alarm was correct!  As it turned out, it was dark because of a heavy gray overcast–clouds had come in during the night, but they were very high clouds, not the low kind that hide mountaintops.  The result was an extraordinary, fiery red sunrise that i could just make out through the trees as we hiked along.  We were leaving the canyons behind and beginning to contour up and around mountains once more.  

The uphills were still hard for Bill, since he was again not feeling well, which meant that our progress was rather slow, but finally we made it to the top, and there was beautiful Mt. Shasta in the overcast early morning light–and wow!  All that canyonwalking we’ve done the last couple of days DID move us along.  I was surprised and happy to find myself looking at the WEST side of Shasta, which is the one I know best, from driving I-5 and from riding Amtrak.  Then only a little while later, we were greeted with an AWESOME view of Castle Crags!  Superwow!  I have never been able to see the whole thing like that before!  Bill and I were both very excited. 

As we stood admiring Castle Crags, it also started to “sort of” rain–drip, drip.  We raingeared up as a precaution, but as it turned out, we didn’t need to.  It only dripped for awhile, then just stayed gray and rainy-looking for the rest of the day.  As we walked the trail, along with the Crags views, we also began to hear the traffic noise from I-5 and the noise of trains.  The PCT wanders all over the place in the process of getting down to the Sacramento River, but I will say this–the forest we were winding down through was lovely.  It had very little poison oak (yay!) and many large, beautiful tres, several of which were turning fall colors.  The dogwood trees were specially awesome.  They had turned red–the color of a red rose, and when you see one from a distance against the greens of firs and other trees, you would think you were seeing a huge rosebush full of blooms!  Some of the dogwoods were more pinkish than red, so there was a lot of variety.  The bigleaf maples were bright yellow, AND they were dropping their huge leaves all over the PCT–sometimes to the point where we were almost “wading” along the trail through “leaf drifts”–a lot more fun than SNOWdrifts! 

By 1:30, we were walking River Road along the Sacramento River and looking forward to food and rest at Castella and Castle Crags State Park.  And the roadwalk was easier for Bill, which was good, because he still was feeling weak and tired all the time.  He said that all he wanted to do was just lie down somewhere and not have to move.  And that’s exactly what he did when we reached the big green lawn across from the Castella post office!  He just plain crashed, while I went off to do “town chores”.  First off was to get our box from the post office.  There was also a trail register, which I signed, but when I stood around in the post office reading other people’s entries, the postmaster guy asked me to please take it outside to read.  For a second, I wondered why, then I realized, “Oh, right, I bet I smell and look pretty bad!”  So I took it outside and had fun reading other hiker’s comments about Section O.  The most common one was about all the rattlesnakes, and I had to agree.  Out of all the PCT sections we’ve done so far, this one has by far the MOST rattlesnakes by the trail, but they were all quite polite; just buzzed and left.

I toted our heeeeeavy food box (7 days worth!) over and left it with Bill, then went and got some treats for us at Ammirati’s Market.  The several cats who hang out there were very friendly, and I stopped to pet and talk to them a bit.  Bill and I enjoyed our treats while sitting on the grass and watching the trucks whiz by on I-5.  Then I opened the resupply box, spread the contents all over the grass, did an inventory, wrote a shopping list, and went back to the Market.  I also phoned home with the message of “where we are now,” and asked for prayer for Bill.  He seemed better yesterday, but not today.  Actually, that’s been the pattern lately.  Every time Bill has a “good” day, the next day is a “bad” day.  We have only about 10 days of hiking left, and it would be awful to have to stop now because Bill became too sick to finish. I also had an eye on the weather.  We will be mostly in the 6,000 foot elevation range for the next several days, and the clouds look like rain, which this time of year up high, could easily become snow. 

Then, since there are no motels around here (or even trail angels), Bill and I walked “next door” to Castle Crags State Park and headed for the PCT Hiker campsite.  We set up camp, then Bill took some quarters, his tiny “backpacker towel” and his bandanna and headed for the showers.  Meanwhile, I did the final food sorting and filled our food bags.  Ouch, were they heavy!  Seven days is a lot of food!  Bill did not come back for quite awhile, and I was starting to get fairly worried about him–to the point of going to see if he was OK–when he finally came back, damp but happy.  “Oh man, that shower felt good!” he said.  “Sorry to take so long, but there were some CCC kids ahead of me, and they were sticking quarters in the showers like they were slot machines.  I guess they had a long, hot, grubby day today.”  Well, those CCC kids deserve every minute of shower time they can get!  We LOVE the work they do on the PCT.  Bill also commented that some of the kids were talking about how hard the work was and how (to their surprise) they were enjoying it, and it felt GOOD at the end of the day to be tired and grubby but knowing that you’d done a good days work.  Hooray!  At least there are SOME kids who now know that great feeling!

Well, it was MY turn to shower (we didn’t want to leave our gear unattended) and I enjoyed the walk through the campground to get there.  Castle Crags campground is actually very pretty.  Each site is unique, and they are not crowded together.  The only downer is the I-5 freeway noise.  I enjoyed the shower (Oh bliss!  Oh happiness to be clean!) then Bill and I ate supper and Bill went straight to bed.   We wish we could have a zero day, but we both agreed that we need to FINISH as soon as we can.  Before going to sleep, I prayed a lot for Bill to feel better and stronger tomorrow.