Day: August 7, 2016

No more rain fell last night and I was able to get out early by 5:15 and hiked all day long until 8:30 PM.  I heard thunder towards the end of the day and snapped this picture just before stopping to camp.  The clouds being so tall have many different hues of color from the sun striking over the mountains.  While cooking dinner, I could see flashes of lightning in those clouds by heard no thunder.

Today’s terrain was much like yesterday’s, fairly level, not too rocky, exposed from lack of trees but cool with a breeze, and frequent water, but many of them were hard to collect from.  They also weren’t as cold as the ones from yesterday.  Since I have no more beer, it doesn’t make too much difference how cold it is, as long as it’s refreshing.  It was cool enough today that the water I carried never got hot.  When I started out in the morning, I was afraid I was going to be cold and regret sending the down jacket home.  it ended up being just fine with just the long sleeve shirt and long pants.

The one thing that was depressing about today’s hiking was that most of it was hiking SOUTHWARD in stead of northward.  It feels like going backwards.  I have about three miles of southerly hiking tomorrow, before it turns westward and then by afternoon turns North again.

I didn’t see as many people today as I was expecting to see, since their are trailheads near by and it’s the weekend.  I saw one new thru hiker in the morning, then again a few miles from camp.  And right where I camped I saw the couple that I had seen for the first time yesterday.  I only saw one family of day hikers all day.  That really surprised me.

In the early afternoon, I crossed highway 3 where you can hitch into Etna.  I was hoping there would be some trail magic there, and as I approached, I saw a row of six coolers.  I checked each one and they were all empty except for one that still had ice in it and a box of fudgecicles.  Every one of them was just a bag of brown goo, all of them having long ago melted.  There was also a bag of garbage that you could tell had far more garbage in it than came from the coolers.  All of the coolers were the disposable type, so you could tell this was just a bunch of stuff someone brought out and is not likely to come back to clean up.  I can see why the PCTA hates unofficial caches of anything.  They quickly become a garbage pile.

Karen bought the family size of tuna pouches, so I have been able to put half a pouch and one Mayo lack on a tortilla and make two tuna wraps for lunches.  I am amazed at how much I love eating tuna now.  I would have thought that long ago I would have sworn off tuna and mashed potatoes, but I still really like both of them.  I have to eat the tuna plain and not put it in my food, but I usually eat a small pouch while I am cooking my potatoes.

I didn’t realize the last four miles to my campsite were all uphill, but I wanted to make up for stopping a little bit early yesterday because of the rain.  I was able to make pretty good time up the hill, but kept stopping to take pictures of the sunset since the cloud formations were so interesting.  I was hoping to do 30 miles today and was very pleasantly surprised to find out I did over 32.  Most of the trail was mild, but there was still alot of climbing and alot of rocks.  I took only one hour long lunch break today instead of two and starting early really helped.  I did take lots of fifteen minute breaks today.  I think I’m ready for Oregon now.  Bring it on.

I got a good start at 6:15 but stopped about 7:30 because it started raining.  Yes, actual rain.  When I woke up, there was thick cloud cover overhead.  From about 3 onward, the sky to the north was tick with dark clouds and calling rain.  Since I am hiking North, it only makes sense that the rain would eventually get to me.

I really liked the campsite I had last night.  I slept well and there was no wind to speak of.  I was mainly glad to be away from the mosquitoes.  I still had more climbing to do in the morning, but it was not steep.  The day looked to be gradual ups and downs.  But I did not anticipate it being so exposed and so rocky.  I passed four more hikers waking up and two of them passed me late in the morning but no one from yesterday ever caught up unless they passed me late after I had already made camp.

I did pass alot of day hikers today.  I passed two trailheads and am just a few miles from a third right now.  Many of them had dogs, too.  Being the weekend, I will probably see more tomorrow and Sunday.

I wore the shorts today and it was hot enough for them, but good breezes kept me cool.  The exposed areas did give me a slight sunburn on my left knee, though.  It is supposed to rain tonight and possibly tomorrow, so I will wear the long pants tomorrow.

I hit two large lakes with camping spots right about 7:15 and some weekenders were camped there and had a dog and left their dog food outside their tent.  I didn’t feel comfortable camping with them.  There was another parking area three miles further that had flat ground before and after it and I thought that would make a good camping area.  I would still get there well before dark.  After about one mile, it started to sprinkle very lightly and I found some good flat ground with tree cover from the wind.  I decided that was about as perfect a spot as I was going to find tonight, so I went ahead and stopped there. 

I got everything set up just before it started to rain lightly.  I snuck into the tent and left the stove outside to cook from inside the tent.  It rained just enough to keep me pinned inside, but not enough to actually get anything wet.  I ate in the tent and then drank my last Mango IPA beer that I had chilled in the creek.  It was delicious.  It’s also nice to get rid of something heavy.  I need to try to do some big miles tomorrow so I can get to Seiad Valley early if possible, because I am due to arrive in Ashland on Saturday and have three packages waiting at the post office.  I don’t want to have to wait until Monday to pick them up.

Another full day today.  Packing, mailing, eating, and hiking.  I tried to sleep in, but 5 am fits like a comfortable glove.  I have not watched any TV in two months except for one movie at the hostel in Mammoth lakes.  I decided to turn on the TV and I found the swimming Olympic trials in Omaha, so I watched three sessions of that.  I had so much leftover pizza and fruit, that I never went out for breakfast, I just ate my extra food.

Then the packing began.  The groceries were uncomfortably heavy walking back last night, so I knew I was in for a treat packing.  I did not think I bought too much at the grocery, but alot of the things I did buy were heavy.  Like salami, two blocks of cheese, refried beans and more tortillas.  Tortillas are heavier than you think.  I needed to sort out four more days of food and stack them with the heavier days at the top.  I have two food bags.  One contains a stack of gallon zip lock bags with one day of food in each.  That contains tomorrow plus food.  The other bag is smaller and contains the current days food plus “the kitchen” bag with miscellaneous ingredients and things that are multi day.  The tortillas, salami, cheese, and beans are for all four days I bought and go in the day bag.  The heaviness was added to by packing out two beers and a liter of Squirt.  It looks fuller than with the bear canister through the Sierras.

There were a few items I could ship home and some I could ship the Ashland.  I shipped the trekking pole and one short to Ashland.  I haven’t used the pole in several days and may just return them instead of replace them at REI.  The shirt I sent ahead is gray, and it’s still a little hot, so I’m not quite ready to part with the white(ish) one yet.  I decided to send the gloves and down jacket home because I don’t think I’ll need them until Washington, so I can just bring them when I return back to the trail from the wedding.  There were also some medicines I didn’t need and I had to buy a big bottle of Motrin, so I counted out what I’ll need and sent the rest home to use in Washington.  I also sent the solar charger home.  I don’t think ill have enough sun to be able to use it once I enter Oregon.  Hopefully the battery will work better without it.

I checked out at 11 and went to the outfitter next to the laundromat to look for some new socks.  I am carrying three pair and two single socks are developing holes in the bottoms.  They did not have Thorlos but they did let me stash my pack there while I walked Bout town.  Neither of the other two outfitters in town had Thorlos either.  Oh well, nothing left to do except eat.

I made my way down to the Burger Frosty to check it out.  They had just opened so I stopped in.  A double cheeseburger with fries and a blackberry shake.  I don’t dare tell Karen how good the skinny fries were because she loves skinny fries.  The burger was good and the shake great.  I could have had another one.

It was kinda neat walking around downtown with Mt Shasta behind the shops.  It really is a cool looking mountain.  I walked back to the outfitter to get my pack and try my luck at hitching out of town.  I found a place where people were going to the interstate but still had plenty of area to pull over.  It took about half an hour but a mini Cooper pulled over and picked me up.  It took a while to get there, but I got back to the trailhead about 1:30.

The part I had to walk next was a roadwalk on the road I had just travelled to get there, but I had to walk it to be official.  It was less than half a mile and fairly shady, so it was nice.  My right heel was still bugging me, but it was better than yesterday.  It mainly hurts on downhills and today would be mostly uphills.

I met two new hikers just getting dropped off at the other end of the road walk.  I walked up a little with them for the next hour and a half.  I ran across them at a creek at 3 PM and I was feeling sluggish, so I tried to take a quick nap.  Even though I don’t sleep, laying down for 45 minutes or so really does put a little juice back into the tank.  I made some coffee as I left.

The next time I saw them was about 5 PM at another creek, and about four more hikers were there with them.  Everyone had stopped for water.  I was going a few miles further to get water.  This section has lots of seasonal water and most of it is dry, so I will have to be diligent about where to get water.

When I stopped to get water, it was the last water and campsite before the long big climb started.  I was on the fence as to stay or go.  It was 7:30 and the next campsite was 5.5 miles away on the side of a steep ridge.  I would need to use the headlight for half an hour since I would not get there until 9:30.  I was tired so I was leaning towards staying there.  I found a perfect level tentsite, but the mosquitoes made my decision for me.  They were pretty bad there and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt.  I headed up.

The climb was not too bad.  The sun was low, there were only small rocky sections, and the grade was not too steep.  I was on track to take the full two hours I thought it would take when I spotted a set of neat flat rocks on a little outcropping of rocks.  Hidden around the corner was a perfectly flat sandy site.  I would have breeze in the morning, a great view of the sunrise, and had great sitting spots to et.

I set up quickly and went straight to the rocks to eat.  I had enough lunch food, so I decided to make burritos for dinner to get rid of the heavy beans and cheese.  They were good.  Black bean and raw milk sharp cheddar with some hot sauce and they were great.  But not as great as one of the mango IPA that I packed out.  A few Cheetos and dinner was done.  Pleasant dreams to me.