When we quit the trail, 2 1/2 weeks ago (near Lone Pine, Ca.), lots of hikers who had been ahead of us had turned back due to the difficulties they were encountering with the heavy snowpack and swollen river crossings. Since neither of us was willing to risk life and limb like some of our braver counterparts and rather than quit the trail altogether, we found a 150-mile section beyond the Sierras and east of Redding that looked passable--we took a bus to Reno, visited my Dad there, took the train to Redding, caught still another bus to Burney, and hitchhiked to Old Station where we resumed our hike as far as Dunsmuir. There, we called it quits (temporarily) and took Amtrak home for a two-week R&R.
When we were passing through Burney, having lunch, a young hiker from Richland, Wa. (there are many hikers on the PCT from Washington) presented himself. Ryan had also skipped the Sierras and was looking for company on the section we were about to start. He hated hiking alone so much that he was willing to share the trail for a couple of weeks with a couple who are old enough to be his grandparents (and then some!). It is a rare person who is willing to slow down to match our pace.
Ryan became our pacer and navigator as we hiked through the lava beds from Lassen to Castle Crags (near Dunsmuir).
Then, at Burney Falls state park, we added another hiker, Natural High (yep, that's his 'trail name') to our little group. He had just started his hike and was also looking for hiking partners (actually, he had begun his hike only four days before, had gotten two days into it, had become seriously lost where the trail became covered by 4'-6' of snow and turned around and hiked back to his starting point to look for someone who had at least minimal navigational skills with whom to hike)--well, we carry a GPS and we're not too choosy about the company we keep, so it was like a match made in Heaven for him. Last we saw of those two guys, they were undecided where to head (as we jumped on the train headed for Seattle).
Ryan cooking dinner.
The first leg of our "leapfrog" section was along Hat Creek Rim, a dry, hot ridge of lava rocks above the valley between Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta.
The lava flows have left some interesting formations and one morning we walked through a lava tube--a long tunnel-like cave left by molten lava.
At Burney Falls where the water travels mostly underground before emerging to spill over the rocks at the state park.
The second half of this section was a bit more challenging at least for one of us (that would be me).
First, the mosquitos were out in full force and I dutifully and annoyingly lived up to my trail name despite bathing in Deet.
On the second day out, we encountered snow and spent the greater part of the day looking for the trail buried beneath it.
Natural High sliding down a hill (on purpose).
This did not present much of a problem to the three men in the group who all had snow experience, but since I have pretty much avoided it all my life, I slipped and slid my way through the day, alternately batting frantically at the mosquitos and scratching my many bites.
Mt. Shasta from afar, and a closer look:
As we got closer to Castle Crags, we read in our guidebooks that the upcoming trail was some of the best maintained trail on the PCT. But we had arrived there too early in the season and the trail was littered with sticks and brush left by the winter storms. I found myself constantly tripping until finally I was unable to catch myself and fell with a thud, landing on my forehead and nose before I knew what had happened! Mike, of course has recorded this unfortunate event on the camera but I have censored the results so I will leave my black eye and scraped and swollen nose to your imagination.
I am now recovered and mostly looking myself as you can see below.
Leaving Tacoma's Union Station, heading back to Calif. to try and get in another 1,000 (or so) miles before the Winter snows begin.
I am glad to have had a couple of weeks rest from all this adventure and am ready to try it again. So here we are on the train going south. We will arrive in Lone Pine on Friday and begin the hike through the Sierras on Saturday July 30.
We have been eating everything caloric in sight for the past two weeks and we've each gained about five lbs. We re-packaged the remaining resupply boxes (adding things which we now know will be more tasty), had ourselves a real nice rest, and we are both anxious to get back onto the trail--the next section will include about 300 miles of the John Muir Trail, and it doesn't get much better than that!
As a token nod in the direction of reality, we have lowered our goals and expectations for this hike. Rather than completing all 2,700 (m/l) miles, we have decided we'd happily settle for reaching the Columbia River. Sooo..., as soon as we've crossed over the Bridge Of The Gods (at Cascade Locks), or the first snow flakes (or even a few raindrops) land on us--whichever occurs first--we're gonna head on home by bus ASAP! That still leaves somewhere around another 1,000 miles to go.
There may be a few really tough hikers in their 20's who will make it to Canada this year (but not many--and not us!). This was not the year for us to complete this hike, we've learned what it takes (and we are not into cutting our backpack weight down to 10 lbs. and hiking 30-40 mile days for weeks and weeks) and also we have not been lucky as to the weather.
C'est la vie! It has been, thus far, a great trip.
Mike and Jan
Location:Amtrak north from Tacoms
