We woke up this morning to clear skies and cool temperatures, but things warmed up very quickly!  All day long the trail grade was very gentle (except for the climb up from Hwy. 3), and normally I’d be able to hike really fast.  But the trail was also mostly very rocky, and after my bad fall yesterday, I was kinda spooked about falling again.  My gashed knee is pretty sore but I can walk on it OK.  The bruised ribs hurt every time I take a deep breath, so that’s actually more of a problem.  And my “hiker hunger” has totally vanished.  I make myself eat out of duty.  Weird.  But hooray, another whole day of NO pain in the back of my hip! 

We leapfrogged all day with various other hikers, especially Croatian Sensation, Not a Chance, and Tangent.  We even met Billy Goat, hiking SOBO.  He told us that only 3 hikers over 69 years old are “left standing” on the PCT this year–himself, Bill, and Yeahbut.  I hope all three of them get to finish!  Billy Goat has been talking to the Israeli hikers, and they persuaded him to come do the Israel National Trail next spring! 

Along the PCT, it’s mostly pretty dry except where there is a spring running across the trail and when that happens, the mountainside is intensely deep green with thick grass and wildflowers– very pretty. Since we never know if a spring will be running or dry, we tried to stay stocked up on water all day.  The trees up here are usually not too big–I think it’s pretty tough to be a tree on these high ridges.  We could hear cowbells and mooing down below, but no “sign of cow” up on the PCT.

Finally we came around a ridge and there, right across from us, were the Trinity Alps!  We cheered and were so glad–we feel like the Trinities are “home turf”, since we’ve camped there before among their beautiful rocky peaks and shining lakes.  The PCT never actually GOES to the Trinities, but does have a lot of nice views of them as you hike along.  We could still see SNOW on the peaks!  Very pretty to look at, but I am sure glad we are not hiking in it!

By afternoon, though, I was really having trouble with stomach pain.  It got so bad that I had to ask Bill to stop a couple of times so I could rest.  And uphills just about did me in.  I felt as if I had no reserves of strength left, either physical or emotional.  Whenever I stumbled on a rock (which I did many times) I had to choke back tears and fear.  And Section P is SO BEAUTIFUL–normally I would be enjoying every minute of it, but instead I’m hiking in “survival mode.”  Not fun. The climb out of Hwy. 3 just about did me in, and at the top I plain ‘ol collapsed for awhile before I could eat any supper. 

At camping time, the sky was clear, so we just rigged the net tent (yes, there were mossies!) and before we went to sleep, I asked Bill to please pray for me.  I hope all goes better tomorrow.  And I will say one good thing about my fall on the rocks yesterday–it “fixed” my glasses!  Back in the Sierras, I’d accidentally stepped on them, and they were bent in a way that made them very uncomfortable.  But when they hit the rock yesterday, it bent them back into a much more comfortable line, so now it doesn’t hurt to wear them!  That is one plus!

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: In the plains of Rohan under the moon

Today was a VERY good day and also a very bad day. On the good side, my hip pain is totally gone! I can now walk freely without limping. And my ability to hike on rough, rocky trail is really improving. It was rocks on trail almost all day, and I still managed 26 miles. Wow!  Another wonderful plus was that much of the time today we were up above timberline, with fabulous views that extended for miles. 

The downside, well, that began late in the afternoon. All day, I’d been  been dealing with what I think is a digestive problem involving sort of stomach cramps and pain– no fun– and suddenly I had a slight “accident” which resulted in having to shed my pack and go offtrail to clean up my underwear.  Frustration!  I so badly wanted to make as many miles as possible, and the cleanup job took awhile.  Then after supper, we started to hike on, and I had only gone a few steps when I stubbed my toe on a rock and fell very hard onto some other rocks. Thank God, I was not seriously hurt, but badly scraped, bruised and gashed.  My left knee had a gash in it that should have had stitches, but we were miles from any help, and of course my poor pant leg got all torn and bloody.  My left arm and hand are all scraped and bruised, as well as my ribs.  The side of my face hit a rock, too, and  my glasses were bent but they did not break.

Bill had to be very patient while I sat by the trail and cried, partly from pain and discouragement, and partly thanking God very fervently that all I had was a collection of bad “owies” but nothing truly serious. Meanwhile overhead, the clouds had moved in and thunder was rumbling and echoing off the mountains. I finally pulled myself together and limped off along the trail again. 

Well, that was pretty bad, but it didn’t happen till the end of the day (probably because I was tired).  The majority of today was wonderful.  We were leapfrogging with several other hikers, and tended to catch up/meet up with them at water sources or at shady places.  We saw Shin again–he looked really good, and was hiking fast, though he said he took a zero yesterday because he was so tired.  And best of all, we met our first REAL SOBO’s!  They weren’t just flipfloppers–they’d hiked all the way down from Canada!  They were a French couple, and very sweet.  We also met a lot of flipflopper SOBO’s–some had come down from Ashland, and some from Trout Lake, WA.  Another couple we met were taking photos of the hikers.

Water is always an issue on this part of the PCT–we have to be very careful and very aware of our water use and where the “next water” is.  We even had to cross a pretty large snowfield–the first in quite a few days.  As I said, the trail is quite rocky most of the time–either lava rocks or granitic rocks, but it has a comfortable mix of flat sections, uphills and downhills.  Down below us in the valleys were many pretty lakes, and we could see there were campers next to them.  The wildflowers were very nice, and yahoo!   We spotted our first beargrass!  That’s always worth a cheer–you KNOW you are getting closer to Oregon when you start spotting beargrass! 

When we stopped to camp for the night (we found a very nice campsite!), the thunder was rumbling, but we never saw any lightning.  We put up the net tent under our tarp, because the mosquitoes were definitely a presence, and I was so sore from all my “owies” that I needed to be able to lie down and sleep in peace.   I thought about all the things that had happened today.  I tend to “debrief” myself and ask, “What can I learn from this?  What could I do to solve____ problem?”  I decided that for the stomach problems, one thing I could do was eat more slowly.  I’ve been sort of gobbling food down so as to get back on the trail ASAP.  And when we get to Etna, I’m going to find some chewable digestive enzymes and see if that helps.  I also decided that maybe I’m having trouble with uphills because I’m so terribly thin and way behind on calories.  I asked some of the other hikers what they do to stay ahead of calorie deficit, and the top two answers were “Nutella” and “Peanut butter.”  So I’ll look for those in Etna, too.

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: See distant smoke from Isengard

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

God is amazing! Today was another “miracle day.” For starters, the trail was very nice all day– minimal blowdowns and bushes, and though two of the uphills were looooong–one was 6 miles–all were all easy grades. Not only that, but much of the trail today was in shady forest, which was wonderful, because it was a hot day and water sources were few & far between.  The trees were so pretty, and there were so many elevation changes that the vegetation variety was fascinating.  I really like looking at all the plants along the trail, and elevation changes make for a lot of differences.  

 Having a good trail that was mostly in the shade was wonderful, and at the end of the 6 mile “up” the views were just amazing– a panorama of Mt. Shasta, Cinder Cone, Interstate 5, and Castle Crags, all sort of lined up and saying, “Look at me!”  Wow!  The snow on Mt. Shasta is melting fast–each day there is noticeably less.  My only frustration was that for some reason I’m starting to have a bit of trouble on uphills.  I find myself getting tired easily and slowing down.  I was surprised when ‘the rest of the gang” didn’t catch up with us today.  Bill and I had the trail all to ourselves.

All day I was thinking and praying about “where shall we camp tonight?” Last time we stayed at the PCT camp in Castle Crags state park, but given the number of hikers, I figured the poor little PCT campsite would be very crowded. Not an appealing thought!  But camping somewhere else out in the woods was illegal. I kept mulling over what other options to consider.  But by afternoon, I felt that God was telling me, “Trust Me. When you get down to River Road, just ask.” So I resolved that I would do just that.

Bill and I hiked down the miles and miles of switchbacks of beautiful forest, heading down to the Sacramento River. Suddenly Bill stopped. He said he needed to “dig a hole” (hiker term for go to the bathroom) and that I should not wait, but keep going and  meet him at River Road. “Hmmm,” I thought, “this is interesting.” So I hiked on. Just as I reached the road, along came a car. I stopped and waited for it to pass, but the driver waved me across.  “Maybe I should ask HER,” I thought, so I asked the lady driver if she  knew any place  we could stay the night (it was 6:20pm) and the driver, Martha, said, “Yes– my house!”

Martha’s house was up the road a little way, so I waited till Bill showed up, and we walked till we found the right address– a real, handbuilt, 2-story log cabin (part of which was built in the 1880s!)  It turned out that Martha and family are lovely Christians, and we were so blessed to be able to stay with them.  Martha said that the “new” part of the house was built by a PCT thru-RIDER who’d stayed with them several years ago.  He does oldtime style logging with his horse, and she invited him to come back when he was done with the PCT and build an addition on to the house.  He did all the necessary logging right on the property, and used the horse to bring logs to the building site.  Martha said it was a blast to watch–the guy actually “rode” the logs as the horse brought them in.

Martha fed all her horses and animals, then she fed US a wonderful dinner, which included fresh produce from her garden.  It was so great to be able to hang out with fellow Christ-followers who love to help other people (and animals, too–Martha likes to help sick and abandoned animals).  We were blessed by their fellowship and prayers.  Martha also told us that this last winter was “pretty bad–a lot of wet, heavy snow.”  She said that many trees went down (so that’s why we’ve had to deal with so many blowdowns).  Right on her own property, she lost a number of big trees. 

Tonight, we are camped on Martha’s lawn, with beautiful flowerbeds nearby, and even some peacocks wandering around!  All I can say is “God’s guidance and timing are awesome!”   If I’d been ONE MINUTE earlier or later getting down to the road, I would have missed Martha’s car, and who knows where Bill and I would be camped tonight?

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: Find Gandalf and enter the boggy Entwash

Today turned out to be a “miracle day” for us, a miracle of God’s guidance, for which we are mega-grateful!  Everything was pretty normal when we got up at 5:15, determined to get to Moosehead Springs for water (our supply was really low!).   The two Israeli girls, Shani and Noga, had the same idea!  We had no trouble finding the place this time–in 2005, the only indication of where the springs/creek was located was a little sign scratched on a rock that was sitting on the ground.  We would have missed it, only Bill was not feeling well at the time, and he sat down right near the sign! 

All early morning long, the PCT was a bit of a slog– the trail was mostly uphill, plus it seriously needed blowdowns cleared and bushes pruned back. We climbed over all sorts of  tree-fallen-across-the-trail obstacles, shoved and bullied our way through bushes, and even had to go around a large snowpatch! Compensation– awesome views of the deep green, forested Northern California mountains!

But around 9:00am, without knowing it, we walked off the PCT and on to an abandoned road. It looked like nice PCT trail, with plenty of  footprints, wildflowers and beautiful views. We hiked merrily along till the trail went back into the forest, and there was a strange, unmarked junction with an obviously well-used trail.  “What could this be?” we wondered.  We couldn’t find anything on our map.  After some puzzling, we gave up and kept on hiking till 9:30, when we stopped for our usual Snickers break.  After that, our nice trail started to be very overgrown, and we were pushing through bushes again.  Not a problem–we’d been doing plenty of that already this morning!

A ways further down, we were met by an indignant dog, who ruffused at us and growled.  Right behind the dog was  a keen-eyed, tanned older guy.  He sized us up.  “Are you PCT hikers?” he asked.  “Yup!” we grinned.    “Well, you’re not on the PCT.”  We were shocked.  It turned out that the guy was out planning for his deer  hunting trip in October, and had come up this abandoned road to reconnoiter a bit.

 He set us straight as to where to find the PCT (“Up there on that ridge”) and we hurried to turn around and get back on track. Thank you, Lord, for that hunter guy! If we hadn’t met him, we would have wandered who knows how far off our trail!   Eventually we found the PCT again and determined to be a LOT more careful about following it!   A ways along, we met a bunch of hikers we’ve been leapfrogging with.  “Where have you been?”  they all demanded.  “Well, um, actually, we were lost.  Sigh.”  “Bummer,” said the gang.

A short time later, we all reached the “go around/or over Grizzly Peak” part of the trail.  Some of the guys opted for “go over”, up to the fire lookout; we opted for “go around.”  We’d had enough of going offtrail to last us for the rest of the day!  The PCT is an amazing piece of construction here.  There are places where the trail literally crosses the face of a cliff.  The trail engineering is amazing!  I enjoyed lily-watching, too.  I’ve noticed that in the sunshiny stretches, where the trail goes through chaparral, there are white lilies blooming, whereas when you go down into a canyon and are walking by a creek, you see orange lilies.  This is definitely a “lily section” of the PCT!

 At the top of the climb around Grizzly Peak,  we stopped for some hot cooked lunch, then headed down for water at Deer Creek.  The rest of the gang had passed us when we stopped for lunch, but we caught up with them again at the creek.  Everybody was washing socks and as much as they could of themselves, too.  It was a warm afternoon, and we were all sweaty.

From Deer Creek on, for a good while, the trail was VERY nice!  It had recently been groomed by an AmeriCorps team.  Thanks, guys!

Finally at 6 pm, we reached the McCloud River.  We’d thought of maybe camping there, but it was still a bit early, and there were a lot of car campers, so we crossed the bridge over the roaring, bluegreen McCloud, and followed the PCT uphill into the woods and canyons.  Even though it was evening, it was still 90 degrees in the shade,  and mosquitoes zoomed in every time we paused for a moment.

We finally stopped to camp at the road down to Ah Ni Ta.  We were busy setting up our net tent, when 3 dayhiker ladies came along and stopped to talk.  They recognized that we were thruhikers, and regretted that they had nothing to share with us, foodwise! “We ate it all,” they said.  “Wish we had some leftovers.”   They drove away, and we batted aside the clouds of small mosquitoes so we could dive into the net tent for the night!

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: Enter Fangorn in search of the Hobbits