Thursday, August 18, 2011
8/18 ~ Ashland, Oregon
Saturday, August 13, 2011
8/13 Etna ~ Land of the Small Town
This Hut is next to a small Bed & Breakfast run by a lovely woman named Vicki. She greeted us this morning and gave us the lowdown on the space and the local eateries. After tiding ourselves up and adorning some fun loner clothing, we rode bikes down to breakfast with HappyMeal and Overload. It was so wonderful to finally get to talk to other hikers again as we have been in a lull since the Hat Creek Rim. This place had other magic in store for us this evening when we went out to the Etna Brewing Co. for dinner.. We met Holden there and he had his girlfriend along with three other friends coming in from the east. It turns out that Holden and his gal, Loni, lived one town over in NJ from my hometown and he took his SATs years ago at my High School! I love the small world occurrences! It was wonderful to talk of all the places we knew in common, the roads and 'secret' routes to get somewhere, the small reverse theater, and the best spots for seasonal pumpkin ice cream. These unexpected visitors were a wonderful breath and amazing people with which to spend the evening. I hope to see them out in civilization again sometime.
The last few days of trail have been nothing short of wonderful. It has helped that the trail conditions have moderated and that things have become smoother. Last night we hiked until 10PM to reach the trailhead for a true zero day today. This allowed us to be atop a saddle at a time of night we would otherwise already be in camp. In one direction was the rising of the nearly full moon and on the other, the fluorescent sherbert sunset. Words will not aid me here, so please use your imaginations as you await post-hike photographs. :)
We have secured a ride back to the trailhead tomorrow morning at 9AM and will be further celebrating DAY 100!!!! Yes, that's right, Day 100. Only 1,000 miles and a day to go. Our next real stop is Ashland, Oregon which means also that ALL of California will be walked in about 5 days time. Love it! It is our hope that our Cardinals will catch us there as we got a message from Pod revealing that they should be within a day of us! It is wonderful always whether on this trail or across the world to miss and be missed. Now please, what are YOU up to? Only two states left to write letters! ;)
8/9 Castella and cell service!
Listening to the roar of trucks on I-5 as we pack in calories and deal with our resupply packages. The last few days were brushy with lots of poison oak hanging out over the trail waiting to catch the unwary hiker. It is annoying because you can't go on autopilot whenever it is around, much like snow travel.
We have been traversing high ridges south of Mt Shasta. Gorgeous views of the volcano persist into the next section. In fact it will be in view for the next two weeks of walking as we do a big half circle around it.
Our bodies are strong. The midday heat slows us down, but we make up for it by vigorous travel in the evening. Yesterday we did a 2000 foot climb from 6-8 PM. We did a similar climb around midday and it took an extra hour.
In a few days we will be at Etna and will take our first zero day since we left Tahoe weeks ago. Hopefully we will have service there. I would advise all potential thru-hikers to not go with T-Mobile as their service providers!
~ Goodness
8/6 Big Miles Have Begun
We are 1440 miles in, 3 months out, with about 1200 miles to go. As of now we have less than two months to finish the trail before the hypothetical snow kicks in. What does that mean? Big miles!
Every day we try to do a 30+ mile day. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Usually it depends on the terrain and our general well being. The terrain has moderated in Northern California, making big miles much easier.
We are about 12 miles past Burney Falls State Park where we grabbed our resupply package today. Anytime we hit a town, the mileage for the day goes down. We still managed to do 25, which I consider a success.
Tidbits:
--- I was sick as Zm said. It was a fever lasting two days. Hiking with a fever is no fun. You still have to make forward progress lest you run out of food.
--- The trail has been quiet recently. There is a big pack about a day ahead. We have been hiking on and off with Dain and Skipper whom we had hiked with often in the Sierra. Gnar and Pod are somewhere behind, hopefully not too far.
--- Places we have passed recently: Belden, Lassen Natl Park, the dreaded Hat Creek Rim.
Next stop is Castella. We have less than two weeks of California left. It has almost more trail than twice Oregon and Washington combined.
7/29 Refreshed and Resupplied in Sierra "City"
On our way in on Wednesday morning we ran into the last Portlander we hadn't seen yet from the pretrail meetup. He was on his way back to the trail and if running into him wasn't cool enough, he informed us that the restaurant we were headed to for breakfast was additionally trail angel's residence! We chatted awhile and returned his watch which Goodness had picked up in the snow(!) and hopefully we will catch him down the way when he stops for a zero.
We walk into town, greeted by a giant Pacific Crest Trail emblem outside of the Red Moose Inn. Inside were Margaret and Bill Price, some of the loveliest humans ever and joining them to hold down the fort was a thru-hiker from a year prior, Coach K. We were greeted by Margaret who gave us a tour of the place before cooking us up a scrumptious hot breakfast. There was a shower for us there, laundry facilities complete with extra clothes to put on while it all goes round, a telephone, and the internet on a laptop upstairs. Not to mention space out in the back yard for anyone who wanted to camp and of course there was home cooking. Amazing. I was able to contact my Dad from there and learn that he was on his way into the wake for my Uncle Jimmy who had passed away on Saturday of a heart attack. My thoughts are with his wife and especially my cousins tonight.
The Prices had only just started Angeling last year so they still had the ability to catch a few of us unaware of their offerings. Our original plan was to just be in town for a few hours but with the company and comforts, we soon were signed up for dinner! Yum. Goodness and I were afraid of getting swooped into breakfast the next morning and wanted also to have an early start on what can be a very hot and dry climb. So we said our farewells and walked back to the trail by the light of the gloaming.
It was good to be up early and complete the climb of Sierra Butte in the shade, I was glad that we hadn't attempted it in the midday sun. There were fantastic views and we ran into a few southbound PCT hikers as well as swarms of day hikers. The day hikers were all on their way to the fire lookout to get an even broader and farther view of the surrounding area. We stayed on the PCT opting to come back and visit the Prices one day and see the fire lookout as day hikers ourselves. At this juncture, Goodness had already begun to fall ill and his fever was on the rise.
We crossed a dirt road and a young boy called out to us asking if we were hikers and wondering where we were going. When I called out that we had started in Mexico, he was so excited! He announced us to the group of parents and the gaggle of children behind him. We soon had them all gathered round as we answered questions and talked about the fun of swimming in lakes in the summertime. The kids were all super sweet and they gave us their extra picnic foods for later. (OK OK I did eat some rice krispy treat on the spot) I could see Goodness fading further out though so we pressed on.
We ate the grilled cheese sandwiches they had given us for dinner that night and I am excited to make them with hamburger buns in the future because that is genius! Both of us too wiped to cook, those were perfect... I think we each slept 10 hours or so that night!
This morning brought more southbounders our way and with that boy still under the weather, we thankfully accepted their extra foods should it take longer than expected to reach Belden. They additionally had an Alkaseltzer packet that Goodness is sleeping under now and he woke to say that the fever has broken. Phew. Today was FINALLY for real the last day with snow. Hooray! With all the snow and broken pine everywhere, it has looked and smelled like christmas threw-up in the forest. This became more apparent as well with Goodness singing carols today... good thing the heat came back today too. Gnar said that once you get carols stuck in your head, you might as well just get off the trail. In other news, the lizards are back. :-)
Today we saw four people right off the bat and then not a soul until the end of the day when we heard a young voice calling out, "Marco!" We came around a bend on Mt. Etna and called back out to a pair of 13 year-olds who said they had gotten scared by a bear growling, dropped their packs and ran, and now were unsure of how to find their group. We had passed the two backpacks about a mile back and we waited at the top on the trail as they climbed up from their bushwhacking. Brandon and Kiersten. Super cool kids. We are 34 miles out from Sierra City tonight.