Day 78 My Tent of Luxury

Day 78

August 6th

28 miles

PCT mile 1506.5/Castella

How do you get a thru-hiker to book high miles into town? Bribe her with a ride at the trailhead and tell her she's got a box of goodies waiting for her.

I had yet another late start today, after a second night of rain and things were wet and a bit muddy in the morning...first I turned my alarm off and completely fell back to sleep for another hour and 15  minutes. Once I was up and moving I let things dry out a bit and cleaned the mud splatters of my rainfly the best I could. By the time I started hiking it was 9:30am. I had 28 miles to the I-5 and another 2 miles into Castella, where my next resupply was waiting for me. Elevation was telling me 7600+ of elevation gain with about equal that in elevation loss as well. No way with my late start was I going to make there tonight. So I set a realistic goal of 23 miles for the day.

I was 12 miles into my day and started to pick up cell service. I got a text from a San Diego TrI Club friend stating that he was camping at Castle Crags State Park in Castella for a few days...talk about perfect timing!

 I started to think maybe I can do 16 more miles, I had a bit of a climb in front of me and would see how the climb treated my legs. As it turned out I had it in me. By 8:30pm I had hiked 28 miles with 7600+ feet of gain and all with my late morning start and breaks too!!!

Not five minutes from being done I was being picked up and shuttled to pizza. Hornsby who got to the trailhead not 10 minutes in front of me lucked out too...he got to tag along for all of it. We were in hiker heaven.

Pizza Place in Dunsmuir...best pizza on the trail yet

If the pizza wasn't enough Ron had set up a tent of luxury for me, complete with a blow up futon, chair, and table. The tent was enormous...you could easily fit a family of eight in there and I had it all to myself. I was humbled but delighted. Oh yeah...and I got a real pillow!!!

My Tent of Luxery

Such an unexpected, cool, and fun end to a hard days work on the trail!

Day 77 Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Day 77

August 5th

26 miles

PCT mile 1478

I'm so happy!!! I saw one on my peeps today!!! It was a strange day as I hadn't seen a single human on the trail all day...I thought I may have my first day without a human encounter. It was 6:30pm and I saw someone coming southbound. "Hey, that kind of looks like Vee." I thought to myself and as he got closer, sure enough, "Happy Feet!" he exclaims.

"Vee! Oh my gosh! I am so happy to see you!"

As it turns out Vee made it to Old Station sometime after myself, then got a ride into Redding, but couldn't get through to Burney Falls due to the fire and road closures. So he got a ride up to Castella. He said he started northbound on the PCT from Castella, but skipping 100+ miles just didn't settle with him. So he decided to southbound from Castella to Burney Falls, then get a ride back to Castella and continue northbound afterwards. Brilliant idea!!! I'm surprised no one else has jumped on that strategy.

I told Vee I hadn't  seen a single person all day. He assured me there are quite a few hikers just ahead of me, he's seen 17 since leaving Castella and heading south, since yesterday.

So cool! I told Vee I hope I see him again at Castella, as I will be resupplying there. I would love to hear about the rest of his southbound trip into Burney Falls. How the fires are and if any other hikers have gotten through behind me. I told him I'm really hoping Guy On A Buffalo is somewhere behind me and if he sees him to tell him to hurry up and catch me.

On another note, the rain was a very welcome change in the weather last night. I slept so well all cozied up in my tent and new sleeping bag. I slept until 7am, I think I got close to 10hrs of much needed sleep. I used the rain as an excuse to have a lazy morning and had a much later start then usual, I just relaxed drinking coffee, blogging and reading in my tent. When I finally started getting ready and packing up, I had a visitor.

This little guy had me cracking up. His behavior reminded me so much of my dog Izzy. He'd come up to me real close and then get real excited and tear around the outside of my tent and then come back and do it all over again. I've never had such an encounter with a wild rabbit like that.

Once I finally got hiking it was 10am. Today's hike was beautiful. It started with magnificent views of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and then eventually descended into to bright green forest enormous trees and lush undergrowth everywhere. 

It did start raining the last mile of my day. I set up camp next to a creek. It will be another great night of sleep listening to the rain drops on my tent and the creek flowing next to me.

Day 76

Day 76

August 4th

23.5 miles

PCT mile 1452

Things seemed much different on the trail today, a bit lonely. Without having anyone behind me that I know or having Pilsbury and Buffalo getting up early and being in front of me until I caught up to then later in the day. Just me and the trail. 

As far as I know I was the last person to make it Burney Falls after the fire closures and evacuations. I'm hoping there's others behind me but I haven't heard...there are a large number of hikers bypassing the rest of Northern California and hitching up to Ashland, Oregon. So perhaps in a few weeks I'll be catching up to old friends again.

I wasn't completely alone, when I arrived Burney Falls yesterday there were three hikers that were the last ones to make it through Old Station before the PCT closed (Tin Tin, Hornsby, and I can't remember the 3rds name), but they were heading out just as I was arriving I still needed to get my resupply box and pack so they were several hours ahead. When I got to camp last night Hornsby was there along with another hiker, Trouble.

I was really tired today and didn't have much pep in my step. I don't know if it was emotional exhaustion of the days past activities or because I got up early to beat the heat. It never got as hot as it had been the past few days maybe highs in the 80s today, prior it had been well in the 90s. It was a little more smokey this morning and you could see a scant dusting of ash on the ground but nothing horrible. The sky was gray all day...not sure if it was smoke, overcast or both.

Smokey skies this morning

At lunch time I had caught up to Trouble and we enjoyed lunch together. Trouble is section hiking the parts of the PCT he has not hiked and started from Burney Falls yesterday, this year he will be completing the entirety of the trail.

Shortly after lunch, I ran into Cat and Mike, the first ture PCT thru-southbounders of the season! They thru-hiked the PCT northbound in 2001 and decided to try it southbound this year. They commented on how the backpacking/thru-hiking world has changed since 2001. "No one had cell phones back then." "We only relied on paper maps and we still are only relying on paper maps." It was real fun to talk with them and hear of their experiences.

After that there was no more human encounters, just me and the trail. The wind picked up and it seemed like it may storm. I was ready to stop hiking earlier then usual and get to bed early. I stopped at the next water stop which had a nice small tent spot under the cover of the trees. I was settled in for the night all cozy in my new sleeping bag, just as the a thunderstorm began. The thunder and lightning didn't last too long and I listened to the soothing sound of rain as I was falling asleep for the night.

Day 75 Difficult Decisions

Day 75 

August 3rd

6.5 miles

PCT mile 1429

Sometimes HYOH (hike your own hike) means making difficult decisions. Decisions that may be different then other hikers you are with, decisions that may set you apart from a group, decisions that others may not agree with or have a strong opinion against. All of us thru-hikers that were cutoff by the Eiler Fire had/have or will be faced by the necessity of making some sort of decision as to how to go about the PCT closure.

For me I woke up today feeling the need to get back on the trail ASAP. My plan of action was to get back on the PCT at the nearest reentry point to where I got off. This point was going to be somewhere near Burney Falls State Park. In order to get to Burney Falls from Redding one has to drive through Burney which 10.7 miles southwest of Burney Falls. Burney was under an advisory evacuation soon to be mandatory depending on the fires behavior. I had posted on the PCT Facebook page looking for trail angels in the area that could give me a ride, and found one that could give me a ride today but not tomorrow. Given those two bits of data, I needed to jump on this opportunity to get through Burney in case road closures would expand and one soon would not be able to get through Burney to Burney Falls. I arranged my ride for 2:30pm.

I called the InciWeb number given for the Eiler fire, which directed me to call the local sheriffs office for up-to-date fire evacuation orders. As of 1:30pm Burney was still under advisory evacuation and on standby for mandatory evacuation and Burney Falls State Park had no evacuation orders, so I was good to go. 

This is where the difficult decision lie, I was on my own on this one. Pilsbury was using this fire as a sign that she should flip up to Washington and southbound (she always had been planning to flip she just didn't know when) and Buffalo wanted to take a zero today to fully research options and detours. The others I knew were in Chester, 2 hiking days behind, deciding if they should hike through to Old Station or detour from Chester. It was a sad and emotional decision leaving my group behind and heading out alone, but I knew Buffalo would not be far behind and I'd most likely see him in a couple of days and there'd be other hikers I'd meet, along the way, the trail will provide as it always has.

So I packed up said goodbye to Buffalo and got a ride to Burney Falls from an awesome trail angel, Jan. Jan is in the Redding area and willing to help any hikers in the Redding/Burney/Shasta area, you can find her on the PCT Facebook page for and PCTers looking for help or rides.

Surprisingly we got through Burney smoothly the place looked like a ghost town, but the smoke was not bad and the fire was not as close or did not appear to be as close as I had imagined. We were detoured before the Hwy 89/299 intersection, but the detour took us right up to Burney Falls State Park. When I arrived there were three other hikers that had gotten through before the PCT closed and were heading back out on the trail this evening. I had a resupply box at the general store that I picked up and repacked my pack again. The park was eerie and like a ghost town with no one around, so I didn't stick around for long I decided to get out and hike to the next water and campsite about 6 miles north. Ahead was blue skies and I was leaving the dark smokey skies behind. Once I was back on the trail I was happy with my decision and knew I had made the right decision for myself. When I got to camp there were also 2 other hikers there, so right away I was not alone.

One word of advice I learned from this experience, is make sure you get your information from primary sources. Don't depend on other hikers and Facebook for up-to-date info, stories change from person to person, details are exaggerated or left out. If you don't hear it firsthand it may not be exactly right. And go with what feels right for your hike, in the end you are the sole person with the two feet that will get you where you want to be.

My awesome trail angel...Jan

Eerie skies at Burney Falls State Park

The divide in the sky

Looking south towards the fires at mile 1427

Blue skies ahead.

Day 74 Fire! Fire! Eiler Fire!

Day 74 

August 2nd

16.5 miles

Redding via Old Station via PCT mile 1378

  

Are you bored with the of the monotony of your life? Are you tired of the same old routine day in and day out? Are you ready for some excitement in your life? If so...then perhaps you should consider becoming a PCT hiker. I guarantee you no day will ever be the same and 90% of the time no day will ever go as planned or predicted.

I told Guy on a Buffalo last night I wanted to be hiking by 7am (early for me) so I could get to Old Station by 1pm...to mail out my extra weight (my old sleeping bag and some other things I needed to send home) that I was hauling around for the past 24 miles. Today is Saturday and the post office hours are from only 1pm to 3pm. Buffalo assured me he could help make that happen and if I wasn't out of my tent by 6:40 by his time. I would get a bucket of water over my tent and new down sleeping bag.

At 6:34 this morning I was given a 6 minute warning. I believe Buffalo is a man of his word and didn't want to test him otherwise, so I was up and out packing it up by my deadline. The extra encouragement got me hiking by 7:26, which I was grateful for, one because I was going to get a whole lot of miles in with this early start and two it was getting hot fast today.

As I was getting closer to Old Station you could see a huge puffy white cloud of smoke from a fire in the distance, but in the direction I was heading. I got to Old Station at 1:20pm. Not bad 16.5 miles shortly after 1pm. Pilsbury, Buffalo and 2 other hikers were there to give me some news. Old Station had no power, the fire had hit the power lines. Further more the fire had jumped Highway 89 and the PCT was officially closed going North as of noon today. Due to road closures one could not easily get through going North. Luckily the post office was still open, they would send out flat rate priority boxes only since they did not have power to weigh anything, I smushed it all in a large priority box and sent it on its way.

Our plan of action was to go to Redding, the closest large town/city, to get cell service and internet and research our options of where to get back onto the trail. By then Bee-line and Billy Jack and gotten in from the trail. We split into two groups and got a ride into Redding, I was with Buffalo, Bee-line and Billy Jack. Buffalo and I decided stay in Redding and Bee-line and Billy Jack were going to continue to get a ride further north as Bee-line had friends in a neighboring town. Before we went our separate ways we made the all important stop:

Buffalo and I found a place to stay and turned on the news and got reports on the fire. The Eiler Fire which had developed over the night was 7000 acres and 0% contained, it had jumped Highway 89. I started researching the closest point of entry  back onto the PCT, which appeared to be Highway 299 or Highway 89 north of the fire. There are other fires further north also affecting the PCT in another 200 miles or so, near the Oregon-California border. This has many hikers in a quandary about what to do, skip ahead a couple hundred miles pass both fires to Ashland? Flip up to Washington and hike southbound? Neither one if these were desirable options for me...I wanted to get back on at the closest reentry point to where I got off. I wasn't going to figure exactly where that would be until tomorrow. So until then I enjoyed the luxury of being in town: shower, cell service, internet and Mexican food for dinner!

Fire in the distance...taken on the way to Redding

Day 73 Face Off on the PCT

Day 73

August 1st

17 miles (2 off trail miles)

PCT mile 1362

I had a quick 6 miles into Drakesbad Guest Ranch this morning for my resupply. Drakesbad is right on the PCT and was one of my chosen resupply points. I got in shortly before 10am and Pilsbury and Guy On A Buffulo were there when I arrived. 

Guy On A Buffalo

My resupply box was sent by my brother Adam and his fiancé, Ashley. They had included some nice surprises in there...my favorite was a giant roll of Smarties candy. I wish I had taken a picture but I ate it tonight after dinner and had neglected to remember to do so.

I also got my new sleeping bag, so excited to try it out tonight!

After repacking, showering, and having lunch, I was back on the trail at 4pm. Buffalo and I left together, Pilsbury was an hour ahead of us. Buffalo was stopping at Lower Twin Lakes, 8 miles ahead, for the evening. He went ahead of me and I told him I'd see him there.

About 4 miles into the evening, I thought I was doing more climbing then I had remembered in the elevation profile. I checked my route with Halfmiles app, to discover I has hiked a mile off the PCT onto some other trail. Crap...just what I wanted to do hike 2 extra miles. I was not happy because my pack was really heavy tonight. Drakesbad didn't have a mail out, so I'm carrying about 5 extra pounds (my old sleeping bag and some other extra things I needed to send home) for 24 miles to the next post office in Old Station.

At mile 1359ish, I'm cruising down the trail, only 2 miles from the Lower Twin Lakes camp where I'm hoping to find Guy On A Buffalo, and directly in front of me on the trail I see this:

"Bear" I say outloud. He stops and I stop and we're both just looking at each other. "Picture...get a picture before he runs off." I grab my camera and snap this shot. Ok now that I've established that there's a bear in my path and I have a picture, and my presence still has not frightened him off, it's time to have a little talk with Mr. Bear.

"Mr. Bear?" I yell, in my deepest voice, nothing, "Mr. Bear? Don't you want to move off the trail, Mr. Bear?" He's looking at me like I'm a complete idiot. So I start clapping my hands, "Come on Mr. Bear don't you want to move. Move Mr. Bear get off the trail. Run away." Nothing...at this point I'm half expecting him to stand on his hind legs and start roaring at me.

So now that Mr. Bear and I have come to the very one-sided agreement that the PCT is very much his trail and not mine. I side step off the trail keeping myself facing him. I step on a large branch that makes a cracking noise and this does it. He runs off, making his dominence and territory well known to me.

As he is a safe distance away I continue on, looking over my shoulder every so often, just to make sure. I finally reach Lower Twin Lakes camp and find Buffalo where he's set up camp with 2 other thru-hikers Bee-Line and Billy Jack.

"You guys are not going to believe the evening I've had," stumbling happily into camp.

"We were wondering when you were going to get here" Bee-Line says. "What took you so long?"

I go on to tell them my events of the evening. "No way!!!" And "Sweet" were the responses I got from my story of the face off with the bear. The boys were very much jealous. 

About an hour later, it's probably around 9pm at this point, we're all sitting around camp in the dark talking and we hear a voice behind us, "Forest Ranger." We all turn around to greet him, " you all thru-hikers?" We tell him yes, he stays and talks with us for a while as he himself was an AT thru-hiker years ago. I tell him about my bear encounter earlier this evening and show him the picture. "Actually," he says, "that's why I'm out here, see my shotgun on the back of my pack? This fellow had gotten a little too friendly with human encounters and has gotten into some camps and torn some tents up. The shotgun shoots beanbags. It won't harm him but will hopefully scare him and stun him a bit. If I find him I give him a chance to run away by waving my arms and yelling at him, if he's not deterred by normal scare tactics then he gets beanbag shot at him."

"These tents? Were people in them at the time?" I ask.

"I haven't heard of him having direct human encounters while tearing up the camps."

"And the beanbag trick works?"

"We hope to deter the behavior and stop it early on. If not effective then we have to take bigger measures to relocate the bear."

So that's my bear story...I encountered a wanted bear. The ranger did not see the bear that evening, but I did! The ranger said he's covering about a 5 mile area...so all you thru-hikers beware of the bear around 1359/Lower Twin Lakes area. 

Day 72 Halfway Any Way You Look At It

Day 72

July 31st

28 miles

PCT mile 1347

Pretty special day...one not to be forgotten. Today I crossed all 3 halfway marks. The first was the PCT Midpoint Post at 1326.3

Mile 1326.3...PCT midpoint post

Changes in the trail no longer make this the exact midpoint. According to Halfmiles Maps which I am using the current PCT trail is 2660 miles to Canada, which makes the halfway point at 1330.

My homemade midpoint marker

We're halfway to Canada!!!

As I was taking pictures and constructing my halfway point 1330...look who came out to celebrate with me.

He literally popped out right above the 1330 marker I had made.

I had cell service at the halfway point and had some fun celebrating via text with my family.

From my brother Adam in Madison, WI

From my sister-in-law, Jane, also in Madison, WI

And the 3rd halfway marker comes at mile 1334. The PCT actually extends 8 miles across the US-Canada border and ends in Manning Park, BC.

Shortly after crossing the last halfway marker, I crossed Highway 36 and came across some trail magic!

Kit-Kats, Oatmeal Pies, and Root Beer

Trail Log at Highway 36

Besides all the fun I had soaking up this monumental day, taking photos, and texting my family to share the day with them, I also managed to pull my highest trail mileage to date: 28 miles!

The day ended with a gorgeous view on the ridge where I camped.