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

This morning I was up a little after 6 am, hoping Georgi would be, too, because I was hoping she’d let me have some thread to mend my pants.  I tiptoed into the house after saying hi to WS Monty, who was already starting breakfast in the “cookshack.”  Sure enough, Georgi was up and just as chipper and lively as ever. My poor pants were in dire need of another patch! Georgi steered me to her sewing stuff, and soon I was busy mending.  I put a nice big patch on the seat of the pants, where the fabric itself was wearing thin. 

Then I went to hunt up some coffee–it was ready, and Bill had just got up, so we took our nice hot cups and went to sit on a garden bench in the sun. Soon came the breakfast call.   Warner Springs Monty and Goodfoot had made a feast!  There were stacks of fresh blueberry pancakes, and huge skillets of fried potatoes with sausage, veges and eggs, with cheese melted all over the top–plus all the watermelon you could eat.  And did we eat!  It was so much fun to just hang out on a beautiful morning and talk to everybody.  After that, many hikers loaded their packs ready to head out.  The Israelis and I volunteered for KP, and spent the next 45 minutes or so scrubbing pots and pans and cooking tools.

Out of curiosity, I asked the Israelis if they’d ever run into Jews for Jesus.  They said, yes, they had, and very much respected them.  I asked what they thought of the extreme Orthodox folks who actually beat up Jews for Jesus volunteers when they’re out on the streets.  Noga said that she was appalled by that sort of behavior.  It turned out that Noga and the others are all secular Jews–they don’t even believe in God, and are not religious at all–but they respect those who are, and strongly believe in freedom of religion.  “I’m not down on religion,” Noga explained.  “But for me personally, it has no relevance.  I don’t need it, and it would just complicate my life.”  We talked some more, and I encouraged them to consider the possibility that Y’shua (Jesus) really was the promised Messiah.

Then I went back to our tent, loaded our packs, and set them ready to head out to the trail.  I thought we were leaving right away.  Nope.  Bill wanted to contact the Polaroid company to find out about getting the camera fixed.  He got on the Heitman’s computer, figured out how to get to the Polaroid website, and got the product support phone number.

I took the phone and dialed the number.  Then I waited on hold forever.  Finally Bill said, “Oh, forget it!  Let’s just send the camera home!”  But just as he said that, voila!  A guy from Polaroid came on the line.  I explained the situation, but he said, “Without a receipt, we will not fix it.”  Well, the receipt was at our house,  and we had no way to dash home and get it!  Finally the Polaroid guy said, “Actually, there is an alternative way to turn the camera on and off.”  He told me what it was, and it WORKED!   Hooray!  Whew!

By now it was after 12 noon, and a warm day, but we were very anxious to be on our way. Some other hikers were also ready to head out, so we all piled into Goodfoot’s little pickup truck (me in the cab with Goodfoot, and the three guys in the back with the packs). I dashed into the store to get us some lunch food and a bottle of Motrin for me.  My back hip is slowly improving, but I still need to take some Motrin, and I didn’t want to run out!

 It didn’t take long to scarf up the lunch, and a bit after 1 pm, on a warm afternoon, we were AT LAST headed back to the trail.  It felt so good to be hiking again, now that we were rested and wellfed.  The miles up to the Hat Creek Rim seemed to just fly by, even though the trail was pretty rough and rocky– soon we were cheering at the sight of Mt. Shasta, all snowy white and grand and impressive.  Mt. Lassen was behind us now, a streaky gray ‘n white.  We’d been told there was a cache near Hwy. 44, and finally we got to it–a collection of gallon water jugs.  We really didn’t need water, but we stopped there for a quart of lemonade and a Snickers.

The rest of the afternoon, we were walking the PCT along the Hat Creek Rim. The Rim trail is indeed very rough and rocky and has lots of weed seed stickers waiting to get into your socks, but the awesome views are worth it.  The trail takes you through various “fire zones.”  In the older ones, little trees are starting to grow back.  In the fire zone from last year’s fire, all is barren except for a few tufts of grass and some determined wild morning glories.  In one part of the “new” fire zone, somebody had REPLANTED the trees!!  Way to go!   We cheered for whoever it was.  One of my pet peeves is the idea that after a forest fire, you should “just let nature take its course.”  No way–unless you think it’s “good” to have silt runoff into creeks, and land that stands barren for years.

The wildflowers are all done for the year, except the Indian Paintbrush.  We passed many of its little flaming orangered “torches” held high in the brown grass.  There was also one kind of grass whose seedhead breaks apart into individual silvery-gold “stars” that dance and blow around, sparkling along the trail.  Very pretty!  All the dandelions have gone to seed and their round white seedheads looked like glowing white moons.  The trail itself is both very dusty and very rocky.  I was trying to walk fast, but the scenery was so gorgeous that I kept stubbing my toes on the rocks.  Ow!  My poor toes were really hurting!  I’d try to pay more attention to the trail, but the lure of oohing and aahing over views of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen, and the lovely Hat Creek Valley were just too alluring.  So many hikers talk about “The Hat Creek Rim” as if it were some sort of death march.  No way!  It is so beautiful!

At 7:15, we found a nice campsite off the trail behind some bushes, with a great view to the east of low forested hills and pastures.  A number of local creatures decided to comment on our presence–as we set up camp and got into our sleeping bags, there was a continual chorus of animal & bird noises.  It sounded as if they were talking about us!  Some hummingbirds even flew right up to us as if they were checking us out.  There were no mosquitoes–a good thing, because our legs and feet were the dirtiest they’ve ever been, and it took some doing to wash them clean.  Not only that, but because it was so warm today, the water in our bottles was warm, too, and that meant WARM water to wash feet with!  Nice!

We are glad to be back on the trail–by tomorrow we should be at Burney Falls!

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: Enter the northern downs of Rohan