First bear sighting!

Day 107

Hiked 21.5 miles

Camping in Warm Springs reservation

We awoke to a completely soaked tent, wet sleeping bags, and my shirt which was hanging up in the vestibule was damp and cold. The meadow depression we were camped in had collected all the wet moist air which is great for the fragile alpine plants but not great for us. Kevin hates packing a wet tent and was loathe to get up in the cold weather. It isn’t like I liked it either. But we knew we could dry our things out later in the day so we got a move on. So far, we have always been able to dry things out during the day and that has been a massive change and fortunate thing about this trail.

A couple miles into our morning, we both heard some rustling in the bushes across the gully and turned to see a bear headed toward us. Before I could finish my aggressive “hey bear” yell at it, it had turned tail and ran. It probably hasn’t seen people in a long time. This was our first bear sighting on the trail! I was afraid we would go the whole way without seeing one!

Do you think this is a dog or mountain lion?!

Nine miles into our day, we stopped at Lake Olallie. It is a USFS day use area with a great view of Mt Jefferson and a little store. I got some soda, a popsicle, and candy. We spread all our wet things out to dry in the warm sun and hung out for quite some time.

After hanging out for awhile, we made a plan for our miles to Timberline lodge! A giant hotel/restaurant built by the WPA (like the CCC, created by the New Deal during the depression) Their breakfast and lunch buffets are legends on the trail. Since we made our mileage plan a bit shorter, we only went 21 miles today and are going to bed early with the hopes of catching up on sleep!

Hiking through Lionshead

Day 106

Camped over the ridge from Mt Jefferson view

26.1 miles

Today we got to be one of the first thruhikers of this year to legally walk through the recently opened Lionshead fire closure from 2020. On Friday, the PCTA announced the Mt Hood wilderness area had reopened their section of the trail. The first time since the fire in 2020. We are very grateful to the firefighters, trail crews, and advocates who worked hard to get this part of the trail open.

The first part of the day was through a thick shaded fir forest with some ridge top sweeping views of Mount Jefferson. Then the burn area scars became more prevalent. Thankfully, the really exposed and hot sections weren’t too long. We did have one intense river crossing at the Russell Creek. This creek is formed from run off from two glaciers higher up Mount Jefferson. It goes through a narrow canyon so the water is faster and deeper than necessary. After rock stepping across we emerged with semi wet feet.

The last part of the day was a 3000 foot climb. It has been awhile since we have had to do that long of a climb. At the top of the ridge, the view of Mount Jefferson was phenomenal and we could see the crevices on the glacier. It was a big challenging to find a campsite on the other side of the ridge without dead trees or a wind tunnel. But finally I am warm in my sleeping bag and feeling sleep tug at my eyelids.

Lake Odell

Day 98

25? Miles

Second day hiking around the Windigo fire

Camped at Odell Lake Resort Campground

The group decided to hike out at 6:15am this morning. It was quite chilly though maybe not as near freezing point as yesterday. We started hiking pretty fast since we all were chilly. Today we planned to hike all together again to make sure no one got lost and we could all compare maps again. Pretty soon into the morning it became quite hot. The rest of the day it felt very warm and I was very grateful to have my sun umbrella still. Today on the two track roads we saw quite a few cars and ATVs. At lunch by a creek, a couple of gentlemen who were four wheeling stopped to talk with us about the fire and how we are getting around it. They even offered us a ride to the campground we were going to for dinner. In the end we turned them down since we are walking these miles as part of our journey to Canada.

As we walked, I finished listening to “Britt-Marie was here”. Another Fredrick Backman book! It was phenomenal as always. He is such a great author because he draws a reader into the story with real descriptions of emotions and feelings while being so realistic about life.

We finally made it to the resort and campground! About half way through our day we had looked up the menu for the restaurant here. This helped us walk a bit faster and steady through the afternoon. I don’t think this place gets a lot of PCT hikers since it isn’t a common resupply spot and not quite near the trail. But they seemed to know we were hikers and not dirty people just passing through. A few of the other people at the restaurant came over and talked to us about our journey. In the end, someone paid for all seven of our checks after we had a lovely meal there. We were all so grateful and that was so unexpected!

The view from the porch of the restaurant

Our original plan for post-dinner was to get to the highway and hitch hike up to the Willamette trailhead so we would have to road walk in the dark. That is dangerous. But after a happy meal, we decided to inquire about the campsites here and save the hitch for the morning. It ended up only being a few dollars a person to stay near the beautiful Lake Odell. The campsite is on the shore and the waves will sing us to sleep. Then in the morning for Kevin’s birthday we can go get some breakfast and warm coffee! This walk around the fire closure has been an adventure of a different kind and has really been a good change of pace for a bit.

Hat Creek Rim

Day 85

Hat Creek Motel to Cache 22

16.2 miles

Third day of rain on the trail

The morning was slow as the post office didn’t open until 11am. So I slept in, drank some coffee and packed up. I had scrubbed my backpack in the bathtub yesterday and it had dried by this morning so I could pack everything up just fine. My hip belt had gotten stiff from sweat and had a hard time tightening so I had to scrub it out. It felt so relaxing to have a slow morning. I had been dreading waiting around for our box but it was really nice to stay here.

Once we resupplied, we got a quick and easy hitch down the road to the trailhead. We took a quick side trip over to “the subway”. It is a lava tube cave where lava exited the earth. A few days ago we entered the Cascade range of mountains and left the Sierra Nevada. The Sierras were metamorphic rock and the Cascades are volcanic. Many of the mountains we are hiking past are old volcanoes. The rocks here are more like pumice or volcanic rocks that have cooled from exposed lava. The last time Lassen erupted was early 1900s and Shasta was in the 1700s. So it was neat to see evidence of those volcanic eruptions today.

The trail after Old Station is a section called Hat Creek Rim. It follows a ridge cliff along a green valley. We are out of the main burn area now so the trees were still standing in the couple of small stands of trees. Hat Creek Rim is known for being hot and exposed parts of the trail. Friends who were here a couple days ago waited out the heat in the Subway cave since it is a balmy 46ish degrees year around. However, we seemed to have luck on our side as it was about 70 degrees all day and cloudy. So we could hike out early afternoon and not overheat in the hot summer sun. It even decided to rain on us about three miles from camp. It was a light rain but still cooled everything down. I am so so so grateful for the clouds today through this section. It could have been so much more exhausting from the heat.

We also got our first glimpse of Mount Shasta! We could barely make out the outline through the smoky horizon but it was definitely there!

Old Station Nero

Day 84

10 miles

Brunch at JJs diner

Stayed the night at Hat Rim Creek Resort and Motel

I pretended to be asleep for as long as possible after our alarm went off this morning. We just had to make it to JJs diner in time for breakfast so I wasn’t in a rush. After a quick breakfast, we set out to do the mostly downhill or flat miles to town.

At one point, there was a rattlesnake in the trail and we had to go around it. We hadn’t seen one since the desert.

By the time we reached the diner we were both famished. After eating a breakfast platter, I felt like I could eat a whole other plate of food.

While we were eating there, in walked the trail angel who had given us a ride from Chester to the trail. She had come up to do some hiking in this area and was kind enough to give Kevin and I a ride to our motel! It was neat to see someone we knew again!

We are staying in Old Station overnight and into the morning so we can get out package with our new tent in it! We are super excited to get our new tent!

It was also really nice to do laundry and wash the grit, ash, and dirt out of everything. I even scrubbed my pack in the bathtub. I feel like a whole new person. It was also nice to have some wifi and be able to get more info about the fires and think through what we would want to do. It would probably be possible to take other trails through the Shasta area north to Oregon or we could take a bus/train to Ashland, OR. All in all, we can’t really make the final decision until we get to Dunsmuir in about six days because literally anything can happen with a wildfire in six days.

Chester

Day 82

10 miles

Camped at mile 1340.6, North Fork of the Feather River

Resupplied in Chester, CA

Today we hiked a mile to the road and then hitched into Chester. Apparently Chester, CA is where Chuck Norris’ wife is from and they still have a house here. (According to Kevin’s dad!)

The hitch into town took a longer time but we managed to get a ride with a person who was coming up to their lake house for the weekend! Once we got into town we saw our group at the grocery store then met up at the town park after showers at the local laundry mat. We could hang out at the park all afternoon as the temperature rose higher and higher. There have been a lot of excessive heat warnings in the towns north of us and around us. It has been reminiscent of the desert heat which wasn’t my favorite but we make it through.

A local trail angel took us back to the trail after some of the heat died down. Her name is Drive Thru and she has been giving rides for about eight years. Her son hiked the PCT and since then she has been helping hikers. This is often many trail angels’ story of how they got involved with the trail.

We hiked about nine miles in to get closer to the Lassen NP border. We will have to hike all the way through it tomorrow because of the bear can requirements. I ended the day with a sandwich I packed out from the grocery store (they had gluten free bread!) and a new blister on my heel.

Day 62-July 9

21.6 miles

We woke up this morning to a smoky view. The sights of the mountains we could see while eating dinner last night were gone. The near hills I could just barely see the outline of. As we started hiking through a meadow, the smoke looked like heavy fog over the trees and it burned our throats and noses. We knew the fire was a long ways away. A friend had contacted her mom who said the fire was on the opposite side of the park in the Mariposa grove of sequoia trees. I was very sad to hear about these thousand year old trees going up in flames. This is why we want to thru hike things now before lands are destroyed by natural disasters or it becomes too dangerous to hike.

Soon we met two rangers coming down the trail. I thought they were there to tell us we had to leave the trail. They were just checking permits and if we had bear cans or not.

Recently, Kevin listened to a podcast by thru hikers that describes how the future of thru hiking will begin to include fire closures, road walks, and perhaps not being able to walk every mile between the southern and northern terminuses of long trails. This is disheartening as we have already seen evidence of this happening in the last few years. Understanding our earth and how to care for it is so important.

Since there was so much smoke, we tried our best to push more miles today to get away from it. The passes were so steep and coming down Benson pass was rocky and difficult to go fast over the uneven trail. We ended up camping at Benson lake which had a nice breeze to keep away the mosquitoes and a mostly blue sky since the wind had changed to keep the smoke away from us.

Long water carry-Day 28

Day 28

19.9 miles plus about four more

Trail register to Green Valley Fire Station to campsite on top of hill

The first four miles of our day included a roughly 2,000 foot climb. We began on the east side of the slope but it wound around to the western slope overlooking LA and the marine layer of clouds coming in from the ocean. It was nice to be in the shadow of the mountain to finish off the climb before it got too hot and sunny.

On the way down the mountain, Kevin and I had a long discussion regarding the various superior and inferior forms of potatoes. Rating each type as a vehicle for something else ie: gravy or ketchup versus stand alone flavors and shapes. Topping our charts were chick fil a waffle fries and hash browns. Sweet Potatoes received an honorable mention, specifically the sweet potato fries at Pawleys Front Porch in Columbia, SC.

At the end of this discussion, we came upon our friends at a water cache. Unfortunately, the cache was empty and they needed some water. I gave them some of my water but still had 12 miles to go before the water at the fire station. One hiker began trying to get water from passing cars. Just holding a water bottle and pointing to it as the cars rushed by. Honestly, I was surprised when one car slowed and rolled down their window. Our friend asked for some water and the woman immediately handed three water bottles and two cans of Coke out the window. Then they drove off. Their whole interaction was probably 45 seconds. I was shocked! First, that someone slowed to see what a person needed on the side of the road and second, at how prepared this woman was! Why should I be shocked at that, women are usually prepared for anything!

The afternoon proved to be scorching. There was no shade for miles so we didn’t take breaks and just plugged on. We arrived at the water at 2pm and were pretty proud of ourselves for making it there that early. The fire station had a little gazebo as a memorial to a firefighter that died in the line of duty in the 80s. There was a group of six of us who hung out here for a few hours while waiting out the heat. I am super grateful to the fire fighters at that station for their work on a fire that was within a mile and a half of the trail but it was gotten under control so quickly that the trail never shut down. I was watching the development very closely on my Fire Finder app.

Our plan for the day was to hike 19.9 miles but we were talked into doing 4 more miles after our siesta by the group of people we were hiking with. It ended up being a simple climb then two miles of chill sidelining! It has been great hanging out with other people in camp too, definitely a moral booster after a long day!

Desert heat – Day 26

23.4 miles

Mill Creek area to the LA RV campground

Clouds and humidity! My skin didn’t even know how to feel. Okay well yes it did because it was so sweaty in the humid morning. The cloud cover was fantiastic as we made it through our longest climb of the day. Then the sun came out, my blisters started hurting, and it got really hot. We have been hiking through a lot of burn areas and are super grateful to the firefighters who work so hard and all the trail crews who maintain the trails up in these rugged places.

The afternoon highlight was a water cache at a ranger station. The guide book had said to not rely on this water source but the frequently updated comments said there was enough water. So we carried enough to get there from last night and then had to carry enough water from the ranger station to the campground.

The last mile was a tease since we could see the campground from the ridge but had to go one mile around the next hill and down the slope to reach the road.

The shade and cold drinks at the campground store never felt to good! We had decided to stay at the campground to have a relaxing morning after resupplying from our box. I took a shower here and watched the seeming pounds of desert dust flow off my skin and down the drain.