Tag: PCTsobo

Hello California

Day 41. August 6

It was a pretty view in the morning. I was up high. There was a ceiling of clouds just above me. Low clouds skittered around the hills below.

Remaining clouds burning off in the morning sun.
Perfect trail

It was a great day of hiking, mostly slight ups and downs along ridges. In the late morning I came up to a wonderful water source: a spring that had been tapped with a pipe.

Spring Water.

A trio of ladies came to the spring as I was filling up. They were retired and had been doing PCT section hikes for years. All at least in their 60s, they were boisterous and energetic and brightened my day.

I was just walking along later in the day when I heard some people getting out of cars and preparing to go on a day hike. I said “Hi” and kept walking. Their energetic Labrador kept running to me and then back to them. I was surprised to stumble on the trail marker noting the state line between Oregon and California. I tried taking some selfies and the day hikers were nice enough to snap a photo. Dutifully I wrote my name in the trail register and continued on, feeling a lot better knowing I had walked from the northern border of Oregon to its southern border.

Water was just a little scarce. I filled at a creek where cattle grazed (not the best) and late in the day settled for a stagnant pond. However, there were some very interesting rocks. They had multiple thin layers. Some of them reminded me of how croissants are made…with layer upon layer of thin dough.

Layered like croissants but much tougher to chew….

More puzzling was a strange toilet fixture. I had encountered variations of these a few times before on backpacking trips and puzzled on their purpose. They are usually a toilet seat on a wood frame about 12 to 18 inches high. Being a man who cannot rest unless I am able to unravel the mysteries of the universe, I had found that hunters make these and keep them near their hunting camps. In season, they dig a good size hole, place the fixture on top, and then have a functional, open air toilet for several days. At first, I wondered why they left them in the woods. However, when I considered the alternative of explaining to your spouse why you brought it home and your plan to keep it in the garage, the wisdom of just leaving it in the woods made tremendous sense. Sadly, I was dumb enough to go lift the lid. Even more sadly, some people had actually used the fixture and left their product just sitting there.

Leave no trace….

As the sun set, I had some sub-optimal tent-site choices. I ended up setting my tent within five feet of the trail. I always think this looks like a rookie move and didn’t like doing it. However, it was getting late and I knew I wanted to get up early and get going so I could drop down to my next resupply town, the Seiad Valley. My tent barely fit into the spot. I was surprised the temperature was falling so quickly and put on my down puffy and hat. I ended up sleeping in them, too, after setting my alarm for 4:00 am. With no wind, I was certain that if any animal walked along the trail at night that close to my tent, I would have some form of a coronary event.

Shasta sometimes seemed to just float in the distance.

Shasta Sighting

Day 40. August 5.

It was going to be a hot day. I had some elevation gain. And, I was once again leaving town with too much food in my backpack.

The day started off with a good climb, heading up to Mount Ashland. I passed a young couple that planned to hike from Ashland to Lake Tahoe. It sounded like a pretty good hike.

I came across a strange snake. It looked like a worm and disappeared into the ground.

Later, I caught a glimpse of Mount Shasta, a huge mountain in California. The trail was pretty. It went through a few meadows near Mount Ashland with some cold spring-fed streams and plenty of flowers, including an orange variety that was new to me.

First time seeing this flower

It was nice to see honey bees in large numbers; back home, I live in a suburb and rarely see honey bees. Also, there was a large white structure that looked like a golf ball on top of the mountain. This made it easy to identify the mountain to gauge distance traveled as the day wore on.

Odd white structure on top of Mt. Ashland

Approaching sunset, as thunderheads slowly built up, I put in my ear buds and listened to an audio book. I was a little startled when a black, furry VW Beetle ran down the hill 50 feet in front of me. I quickly realized it was actually a large black bear I had scared. It was amazing how fast it could run. There are often warnings to not run from a bear. I can see why.

Understandably, I stopped the audio book and became much more focused on my surroundings. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later I heard some wood crunching up hill from the trail. I looked up to see a furry black head. I tried to get a video of the bear as it methodically tore apart a downed log, eating the grubs or ants inside.

Before finding a campsite, I gathered some water. I met a north bounder, warned him about the bear, and shared the usual trail gossip (when did you start? favorite section? best town stop?) I sent a satellite text to Helen asking about forecast lightning activity in my area. I could hear the thunder from what seemed like cloud-to-cloud lightning. She replied that it looked like I would just miss it.

I camped at a sharp bend in the trail. Having seen the two bears, I was very diligent about hanging my food high and 200 feet away. Also, I hung my backpack high and away as well.

There were a few ominous wind gusts, but they only brought cool temperatures. The storms missed me and the night was quiet and uneventful. Just what I needed.