Category: 2020 Pacific Crest Trail

Last night was the warmest night we had experienced in a long time. I didn’t even get under my quilt until Bunny snortled and woke me up at about 4a. It was pitch dark outside. This is the most familiar camping we have felt so far. We had a full forrest canopy that let no light in. We could hear every stick getting broken or leaf getting crunched by animals wandering around our camp. It was possible to finally let your imagination run wild and imagine a bear was stalking us. I slept like a baby. 

Why in god’s name did we set the alarm for 6:15? Neither of us was ready to even think about getting up after yesterday’s 20. I reset the alarm for 7 and fell back asleep. At 6:55, I woke up and began coffee. When it was cooled to the proper drinking temperature, I gently woke up Bunny at 7:40. This just proves my point that it doesn’t matter what time we wake up. We will always hit the trail between 8:15 and 8:40. We were on the trail at 8:39. 

It was a town day so that means happy hiking. Someone forgot to let the gnats know. The little bastards did their best to ruin my day, and damn near did, but…town day. I was forced to wear my head net for another 7 miles. I tried taking it off a couple of times and made it a tenth or two before I was forced to put it back on. Sassy, I miss you more than ever!

Bunny and I have hiked almost 1000 miles of California after today. In all those miles, the section between Etna and Dunsmuir is absolutely our favorite so far. (Yes, I know. We haven’t hiked the Sierra yet.) Even with the 10 miles of gnats, I still rank it higher than any other 100 mile section of CA. For that matter, I liked it better than most of Oregon, as well. But, Washington is still my favorite of the PCT. We’ll wait and see how that holds of to John Muir’s favorite. 

We had a message waiting for us when we turned on the inReach. Bear told us he had no knew information for us. In fact, the incident wasn’t even on the fire map today. He told us we had 2.5 miles to go until the location that had been indicated yesterday. It was easy downhill hiking for us. We were there in an hour and saw no signs of smoke or fire. We did see a few house below us in the valley. I’m guessing it was probably a small fire that got accidentally started at the Dog Creek trailhead and the local fire department was able to put it out before it got out of control. Bullet dodged this time. 

Castle Crags was still above us. We were walking under its shadow most of the morning. We were really too close to appreciate it today. Most of the dry creek beds we passed were filled with white boulders that had washed all the way down the mountain. There were several flowing streams as well. This is a very fertile and wet area (that fact also kept the fire from spreading). 

There is a state park area closer to I-5 as we kept descending. State parks mean something to PCT hikers. The trail quality improves greatly (not that PCT trail quality is bad to begin with). The trail became very wide and smooth. This was ADA accessible trail. A motorized wheel chair could easily handle the final 3.5 miles down to the interstate. There was lots of evidence of recent trail work and thinning out of undergrowth and downed trees. 

Even with our late start this morning, we were on the interstate thumbing a ride by 1:30. It only took about 10 minutes before a young gal from Florida pulled over and offered us a ride. She didn’t know anything about the PCT or the area where we were. She was just running from bad times in Florida and was feeling a bit lonely. We tried to talk to her, but she was a bit tight lipped. We bought her some gas for her help, then she dropped us off at our hotel. It was 2p, just in time for Bunny to join her weekly family zoom call. 

Dunsmuir was actually a bit disappointing to us. The only place open was a pizza place that only offered carry out. We had hoped to sit down in a place and drink unlimited iced tea while we slowly rehydrated our bodies. Instead, we grabbed a pizza, a couple of salads, and 2 liters of Diet Coke and returned to our room. All we could do was shower because there wasn’t anyplace in the entire town to even do laundry. Dunsmuir is a bust as far as hiker towns go. 

We decided that we’d just head up to Mt Shasta tomorrow on the free bus and do our shopping there. We still have no idea how we’re going to get to Old Station, but we’re hoping the extra day we got by getting to town today, instead of tomorrow, will give us the time to figure it out. We told Charcoal B and Struggles we’d be ready to hike out Wednesday morning. Hopefully, the trail will find a way for us to stay true to our word. 

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Bear and Sassy are still watching over us in their absence. As soon as we turned on our inReach this morning, we had several texts waiting for us. It’s a good thing I’d already taken care of business because the texts pretty much scared the crap out of me. The California fire map showed a fire detection near the trail between us and Dunsmuir. It was reported to be less than 0.1 acres in size, but directly adjacent to the trail. It was just a bit over 20 miles ahead of us. 

As per years of NASA experience, Bear already had an escape route and ride researched, all we had to do was say “pull the plug” and we were out. We decided to push on for now while he continued to monitor the situation. The escape route was still about 6 miles ahead of us, so we had time to see how things progressed. 

We reached the extraction point without incident. It was another beautiful, cloudless day without any trace of smoke in the air. We decided to risk continuing on with the knowledge we might have to turn around in order to get out if we saw smoke or any sign of fire ahead of us. We met a few day hikers prior to the trailhead parking lot that had no knowledge of any fires in the area other than the one at Yreka and the one in the Western Trinity Alps. Unfortunately, they had not passed Dog Creek where the fire was reported to be.

We met our first nobo hiker of the day just after the trailhead parking lot. Heisenberg told us that he had passed through the area early in the morning and hadn’t seen any signs of fire, but he hadn’t been aware of the possibility so he wasn’t watching closely. He asked us about Porcupine Lake because that’s where he wanted to camp for the night. We told him it was beautiful and we had it all to ourselves last night, but he wasn’t going to be that lucky tonight. One of the couples we had met earlier was headed there for the night. There was easily 25 good tent spots around the lake, so as long as the he’s willing to share, he’ll be fine. Heisenberg asked us to pass along where he was planning to stay to Pants who was about 10 miles behind. 

Water is not scarce in the Trinity Alps, but you do need to pay attention to its location. We passed up a couple of opportunities to get some from streams that were either too hard to get to, or just too far off trail. We had set our eyes on Heavenly Spring which was an easy 1/3 mile off the trail. It was about 5 miles after where we had met Heisenberg, so we fully expected to meet Pants by the time we got there. Bunny had decided early on that, if she didn’t fall apart, she wanted to get in 20+ miles today to try to get past the fire, if possible. 

Bunny waited at the spring trail junction while I dropped my pack and went to get water. I wanted her to get as much rest as possible, take her shoes off to dry her feet, CBD cream on her hip, take ibuprofen, and take a mid-day dose of CBD oil. I wanted her medicated and rested by the time I got back with water. As we ate lunch and filtered water, I did all the same things Bunny had done—shoes off, CBD, and ibuprofen. If we have to have pain, we might be able to mask it long enough to get our miles in. 

Not a mile after our extended break, we met Pants. I called her by name when we met her and she called Bunny by name. The trail communication network is working well. It turns out, she had camped with Goat Beard last night and was expecting us. We talked for about 20 minutes exchanging info of what’s ahead and possible camping spots. Pants had started at Tehachapi and was accepting that she was not going to get to Canada this year. She will make Cascade Locks and then flip down to get Baden Powell and San Jacinto done as well. We really enjoyed meeting and talking with her. 

Pants assured us there was no fire between us and Dunsmuir. She had passed the area in question this morning and it was clear. In addition, Goat Beard is about 15 miles ahead of us. If it is there burning, he will have to turn around which will give us an early warning. After we left Pants, Bear texted us again saying there had been no updated status. He had found out it was a human set fire and close to a road. No updates might mean the local fire department had been able to handle it. Bear, Sassy, Linda, and Miles were all watching and a bit concerned. It felt comforting that so many people were worried about Bunny’s safety. I get concern through association. 

Not too long after leaving pants, we entered the Castle Crags Wilderness. We hadn’t really heard of it, but, usual wilderness areas are laid out to protect significant geological features. We continued to climb back up to 7500’. We passed the high point and I caught a glimpse ahead of me that literally took my breath away. The mountain across from me looked like some I would expect to see in the Grand Tetons or Southern Utah. I was not expecting such a gorgeous mountain today. If we had gotten off rather than risking it today, we would have missed it. 

Castle Crags is the most aptly named formation. From our vantage point, the white mountain looked like a fortified medieval castle, or at least a Game of Thrones set. The central keep was towering above the rest of the fortifications which surrounded it. The late afternoon sun was showing off every crevice in the mountain. This formation, alone, was worth all the effort we have spent so far hiking the PCT. 

We gawked for quite a while. I got out Guthook to check our trail because I swore I could see trails across Castle Crags. Sure enough, we are going to have to walk across her face. From what I could see, our 20 mile mark would put us in what appeared to be a hidden valley below the keep. We had decided upon Disappearing Creek as a minimum goal with East Fork Sulphur Creek as a stretch goal (24 miles). Pants had tried to scare us away from Disappearing Creek because it was in a dark forest with mosquitoes and gnats. 

My Bunny started going to pieces with 2.5 miles to go to Disappearing Creek. The meds had all worn off. I was going to have to resort to duct tape. I was afraid she might not be able to get enough air through her nose, so I elected to hold off a bit longer. And then the gnats came. Just a few, but then the swarm started. Bunny could ignore them, but I couldn’t. I got out the eucalyptus bug spray that had worked on the mosquitoes in Oregon. That was the ticket for Bunny. The gnats loved it. She was gnat free and I had thousands surrounding me. I missed Sassy more than ever now. I could always count on her to be a bigger bug magnet. 

We stopped by Disappearing Creek and it was bone dry. I could hear a waterfall above so I climbed up to find a nice stream falling into a pool then draining underground. This was a perfectly named creek. I filled up our water bags as quickly as possible. We had given up any hope of proceeding beyond the next camping spot which was less than 0.2 miles. 

It was dark by the time we set up our tent. The gnats completely disappeared at dark. This must be the disappearing center of the universe because the sky also disappeared. I went ahead and cooked supper outside, but we ate in the tent. Both of us were just too tired to stay awake beyond food and pills. We hadn’t stayed up this late on the trail for several weeks. It was nearly 9:15 by the time I fell asleep to the sounds of Bunny snoring. 

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No surprise here, Goat Beard was gone before we woke up. I woke up while it was still dark to go on old man sentry and I think he was already gone then. It couldn’t have been much past 4:30. Goat Beard had said he might get up at 4. If he did a 30 mile day today, he’d only have 10 miles left for tomorrow which would give him enough time to drive home. I got the feeling he missed his wife and kids.

The terrain was wonderful. It was mostly level all day. We spent most of the day above 7000’. Bunny had her eye on Porcupine Lake. The Guthook comments said this was a popular spot and often filled up. Since this was a weekend, Bunny’s mission was to arrive early to make sure we got a spot. 

It was another slim traffic day. We only saw a solo nobo not too long after we left camp. He had in earphones so we didn’t catch his story. It wasn’t until we passed a parking lot that we saw a couple of older, mature women heading towards Deadfall Lake. We leapfrogged them a couple of times in the 3 miles to the lake. Deadfall was our original designated stop for tonight, but we changed those plans yesterday. It was a beautiful little lake and it was very tempting to stay, especially after I took my shoes and socks off to soak my feet. Bunny was on a mission and it was only 1:30 when we were finished with lunch. 

Blue skies over the Trinity Alps all day with great visibility. We could see a little smoke haze way to the West, but it didn’t impede our views in the least. We crossed several side trails. There seems to be an extensive hiking trail network here with very few people taking advantage of the network. We could definitely see ourselves returning to this area in the future to explore it more in depth.

As we neared the final couple miles for the day, we turned East and got a full view of Mt Shasta. Earlier this year when heading south through Oregon and all of last year when we were heading north from Old Station, Mt Shasta was completely covered in snow. Today, she was almost bald. There are a few small snow fields at higher elevations, but they aren’t numerous. 

Bunny mistook Toad Lake for Porcupine Lake. It’s easy to do from a ridge looking down. She was hopeful Toad was a Porcupine because she was tired of hiking. We made it to the right place at 4. This popular Lake didn’t have anyone here yet. We had first choice of campsites. We headed down to the lake to be close to the water, but we like to be surrounded by trees. We picked the best spot, set up camp, and then went for a swim. 

We wanted to get cleaned up before the hoardes arrived…this is Friday night. I went back to our site to filter water and cook supper while Bunny dried off in the sun. It wouldn’t be long before people would start arriving and she’d have to put shorts back on. We ate then explored around the lake a bit more. No one ever came. We have a little spot of heaven all to ourselves. We contemplated building a house here, but Bunny insisted upon a road all the way up. I guess we’ll just have to keep looking for someplace else to live.

EFG

We had a very efficient and productive nero. We worked out plans for meeting up with Charcoal B and Struggles in Old Station, or most of the plans. We still have a gaping hole in how we’re going to get there from Dunsmuir. We also set a hiking goal for the year. We’re going to try to make it to South Lake Tahoe by the end of September. From there, we will hike the Tahoe Rim Trail saving the entire Sierra for a time when all the National Parks will be open. We even made plane reservations for flying back to St Louis on October 21. But that’s not all, we confirmed our new shoes are waiting for us in Dunsmuir as well as new socks to test for Backpacker. 

As with all plans we set, there is a fair amount of wiggle room. Even the ride back to the trailhead today waffled a bit. We were set for a 10:30 departure time, but it would up closer to 11. There were a couple of sobo hikers that had a ride fall through on them and they tried to steal our shuttle and delay our departure by an hour. I said no, because we want to get in more miles than Bear had originally pencilled in for us. 

While we were looking at the map, we noticed Porcupine Lake. With Bears plan, we would either have to put in a 19 mile day tomorrow or skip it entirely. When we stayed with Georgi in a Old Station last year, she said we really should go there. She had lots of good memories of there and thought we’d enjoy it. We set a “stretch goal” (Bear would be proud of us for adopting his terminology) of 14 miles today to make tomorrow a reasonable 15 mile day and still have time to enjoy the lake. 

Getting back at the trailhead held another surprise for us. Someone had kicked our names aside from yesterday and placed some magic in the heart for any passing hikers. If we hadn’t already been overloaded, we might have taken something, but we’re carrying too much as it is. I was very tempted to take the red vines. Bunny never lets me get them at the movies because she doesn’t like them. That doesn’t stop her from ordering mushrooms on pizza because I don’t like them. Such is life. The beer also looked tempting, but I was too full from breakfast to consider it. 

Bunny and I had split the breakfast that Bear ordered on their last morning in Etna. Bear finished his and ate Sassy’s English muffin (and possibly a bite or two of her omelette). In fairness, Bear and Sassy hiked around 350 miles of the Mountain to Sea Trail in NC before joining us on the PCT for 550 miles. Their hiker appetites are in full swing. Bunny and I couldn’t finish our breakfast. 

The climb out of the Pass wasn’t that bad, but I had a defective Bunny this morning. For the last 3 days, her hip has been bothering her more than usual. Today, she could barely walk. She had ingested some anti-inflammatories and CBD oil before leaving town, but they weren’t working for her today. I was worried we might have to turn back. After a mile of hobbling, her hips warmed up enough that she was agile again. 

It was a perfect day for hiking. We crossed out of Scott Valley and the smoke haze disappeared. Derek had told us that the valley is completely encircled by mountains so the smoke from forest fires south of here, gets trapped in the valley. It’s a constant inversion that only clears off at night with cooling temperatures. All the schools in town were supposed to start yesterday, but it got postponed until next week because of the smoke. 

After the initial climb, we had a good 6.5 miles of level hiking at a bit over 6000’. I can’t say it enough, but the Trinity Alps are a big surprise to us. We actually like this area (now that we are out of Seiad Valley) better than Oregon. It’s not as dusty, there’s more water, and the area hasn’t been decimated by fires. I just don’t understand why more people don’t mention this area of trail favorably. 

We rounded a point in the valley and decided we should stop and eat some lunch. It was already 3 and we had gone almost the entire distance the plan called for. If we stopped now to eat, we’d still make it to camp by 7. I was mesmerized by the views up and down the valley. It wasn’t the most fertile area. Maybe it was just the absence of smoke haze which made everything seem so nice. 

We knew we’d have to get water before the campsite we had chosen. The comments make water sound “iffy” at best. The seasonal streams are beginning to dry up, but water can usually be found in pools. I don’t mind getting water from those pools as long as there aren’t cows around. There was one stream ahead that was supposed to be flowing still. When we got there, we found another surprise. Someone had left a Corona Lime Hard Seltzer there. 

While we were filtering water, we got another surprise. A hiker walked up to us. Goat Beard is section hiking the PCT about a week at a time. He has a full time job and 2 kids (7 and 11) so time is more critical too him. We ended walking together to a camp 4 miles after the water. Goat Beard started hiking at the California border and is hiking to Dunsmuir (actually a few miles past so he can get in 200 miles). We were impressed with ourselves a few weeks ago for getting over 100 miles in a week. Goat Beard is getting 200 miles in this week. He’s walking between 25-29 miles/day. 

It was nice to have someone to share some of our old stories with. Bear and Sassy were getting tired of our few recycled stories, but Goat Beard is fresh meat. Not only that, he hasn’t camped with anyone for the last 5 nights, so he was actually happy to spend time talking to us. He’ll be up and hiking by 6 tomorrow. With his daily average, we’ll never see him again. 

If I could remember them well enough, I could probably even tell a few “Bear stories.” We haven’t gotten through all of them yet and we just struck a new vein (road rallies) before they pulled off trail. It may take them a couple of years to forget they’re tired of me, but it’ll happen. They’re old and their memories are starting to fail. They’ll hike with us again at some point. 

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I’ve had it with pee munching deer and yellow jackets. I can only pray for a hard frost to take care of the yellow jackets, and I can smell it in the air. It’s coming. As for the deer, I found an even better approach. There are lots of livestock wandering around this section of trail. Cows are disgusting animals (that are delicious when grilled properly, so I’ll cut them a little slack), but cows poop anywhere and everywhere (very similar to Bunny which explains her soft spot for them). I decided, if the deer want my pee, let’s see how bad they want it. I peed on cow pies every time I went last night. Even deer have a lower limit. None of my pee was disturbed this morning. 

We had an easy path to follow down to Highway 3 where we were to be picked up and whisked to town for a night of rest. The sky overhead was blue, but the sun barely pierced the haze of smoke on the horizon. It was, by all accounts, an easy walk. We passed out of the Trinity Alps wilderness without incident. We didn’t run into any bears or rattlesnakes as had been reported. We did find the carnivorous plants in the area and Bunny confirmed they do not eat poop. Why were we so uneasy? 

Town days are usually much anticipated, but today we looked towards with dread and regret. We are in the process of enacting the final plans Bear made before he prematurely exited the trail and our lives—may he Rest In Peace (on a beach in Oregon). Perhaps foul play was involved. Perhaps there was deception at the highest level. Perhaps Sassy was removed from our lives against her will. Perhaps I should not have watched “Platoon” on our last day off. 

I did watch platoon, though, and I can’t help but draw parallels. Bear and Sassy were our trail parents much like Barnes and Elias were the parents to the young Chris Taylor just landed in Nam. Sassy was to us, as the gentle, caring Elias was to Taylor. Bear can only be described as Barnes, but instead of a scar on his face, he had scars all over his legs from his experiences on the trail. We were returning to the scene where Barnes had killed Elias and we both knew what Bear had done. It’s a good thing we won’t run into him this trip into Etna, because Bunny would surely frag him. 

We were returned to the scene of the crime. I can picture Sassy running across the parking lot and falling to her knees throwing her arms into the air begging us to take her with us when we got back on trail. I turned to look into Bear’s eyes to see the cold look of hatred of fires staring back at me. He had stopped her from returning. I knew it. And he knew I knew it. 

Other than that, nothing else of Etna has changed. We returned to Denny Bar so I could fill up on unlimited refills of iced tea, but this trip felt empty. Not because Barnes and Elias (oops, my bad, Bear and Sassy) weren’t there. But because we didn’t have to wait an hour and a half in the blazing sun to get a ride into town. We waited a mere 10 minutes in the shade this time. We weren’t parched and near starvation. We were a little hungry and thirsty. It’s hard to hold good planning against Barnes when our return trip was so smooth. 

The rest of the day was routine. We know the town and the procedure. We had already done our shopping previously. We just picked up a few more items that we needed. The hotel did our laundry while we showered and rested. Supper at Dotty’s followed by a night of sleep in a bed. I just wish Elias didn’t have to die for us to have such a nice day. 

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Wouldn’t you know. As soon as I said we hadn’t seen any sobo thru-hikers and probably wouldn’t for another 2-3 weeks, a sobo thru-hiker came to our camp. In all fairness, it was quite late. It was past 7 and we had already gone to bed. Crafty yelled “hello” from the trail to let us know he was there. He had intended to meet a few other hikers at this site, but, rather than disturb us, he would hike 1/2 mile to the next site. If we could let them know the change of plans when they arrived, he’d appreciate it. 

I invited them all to stay, but Crafty insisted on pushing on. They’ve been on the trail since June 26 and had started at the border. They’ve only been hiking 4 days more than we have yet they’ve covered almost 1100 miles to our 570 miles. Those must have been 4 very productive days of hiking in Washington. Or, possibly, we are slow as shit (not the artesian dumps that Bear produced in Maine). I tried to stay awake to let his companions know the change of plans, but I couldn’t do it. Luckily, they were a little loud and woke me up. It was kind of nice they moved on once I heard how loud they were. I could hear them almost all the way to their new camp. 

Today is actually Bunny’s and my 11th anniversary of meeting. When we were first together, we used to keep anniversaries on a variety of events: first meeting, first date, first kiss, etc. Once we got married, we thinned the playing field down to first meeting and actual marriage date. Since we chose my mom’s birthday to get married on, I only have one extra date to keep track of. 

I had a box of 8 crayons when I was little. My dad wasn’t a doctor, so no box of 64 crayons for me. I’m only mentioning this so people will understand how I’ve had to struggle to stretch my knowledge. Pink and purple don’t appear until a box of 16. My color processing is limited. Bunny wears a pink hat, a purple top, and a teal (I’m way outside my comfort zone with teal) pack. We live in a plum tent. Suffice to say, we attract a lot of hummingbirds on a daily basis on the trail. One buzzed our tent, yet again, this morning. Bunny was happy. When one buzzed her yesterday while we were getting water, Bunny screamed “bear!” She is one tightly strung rodent. 

We did decide to throw caution to the wind, today, and modify our NASA flight plan. The master operating procedure we were bequeathed only had us going 10.7 miles today with a 1.4 mile water carry. Although it would be a short, easy day, it would leave us over 6 miles tomorrow to get to our pickup and town day. I don’t like to go over 5 miles on town days. It usually takes us at least 5 miles to loosen up. If we stay under 5 miles, it’s like we didn’t even hike—a virtual zero day. By just going an extra 1.7 miles, we avoid a water carry and get tomorrow’s mileage down to 4.7. 

Camping on a ridge has an unexpected benefit…poop with a view. We were able to drop over the edge for total privacy, yet have an entire valley spread before us for our viewing pleasure. It wasn’t until after I was done that I noticed the trail about 200’ below me. No worries, there aren’t many people at all out. Even if there were, I know it’s a blow to my ego to say this, but at 200’ no one is seeing much. 

Bunny was struggling a bit today. We didn’t have much climbing, but when we did, she was sweating up a storm. I tried to take the lead a couple of times. Each time I did, she let out a painful yell and said her hip was giving out. It’s funny that her hip never gave out when she was in the lead. It seemed to hold up so well that she could keep a tenth of a mile out front almost all day. I do like to have her out front so I can see if anything goes wrong, but there have been black bear and rattlesnake sightings on the 20 mile section of trail we are on. I guess her fear is gone. 

Water was plentiful today. The longest we had between water sources was only 5 miles. Out of habit, I still carried a liter and a half of water, but with water so close, we could get by with a liter or less like we used to do on the AT. At the first water stop, Bunny found gold flakes in the sand. Since this was gold rush area in the late 19th century and we are in a wilderness area, we will not mention the stream’s exact location. 

Once again, no hikers on the trail. As we neared our revised hiking spot for the day, we heard some voices in the woods above us. We were also crossing a stream, and Bear told us that your mind will interpret water sounds as voices, so we ignored them. As we were looking around the stream, we noticed a huge field of carnivorous plants—Cobra Lily, a rare pitcher plant.  What if someone was out here dicing up an old foe and feeding them to the plants? I noticed all of the plants’ mouths were closed. 

Yellow jackets are assholes. They don’t collect pollen and make honey. They are just bullies. I saw 3 of them attacking a bumblebee and take him down. It’s near the end of their lives (I can’t wait for a hard frost to kill the little bastards). They just want to wreck havoc in their dying days. Every time we sat down for a break, they had to swarm in and investigate. They haven’t been stinging, but I hate the sound of them. Bunny thinks I’m overreacting to them, but unlike Bunny who has an irrational fear of lightening even though she’s never been struck, I have been stung by these little bastards dozens of times; thrice on this hike alone. I think I have history and a right to my irrational fear. 

It was barely 4 when we arrived at our designated spot. We could have gone all the way to the road and camped. There is a campground with pit latrines there—a major selling point for me, but it’s a dry camp and we’d have to carry water almost 5 miles. We stayed with our modified plan and set up our tent on the edge of a meadow. I didn’t walk out to see what all the verdant vegetation is in the middle of the field, but I’m hoping for berries. This could be our best shot at seeing a Bear so far. 

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The pee munching deer did make their appearance again last night. Bunny was worried about bear being in the area, but the deer calmed her nerves on that one. Earlier in the day, when we saw cows grazing below us, Bunny startled a calf above us. The calf scared it’s mother and nearly started a stampede. Bunny was convinced a Bear was coming after her and almost plowed me down until I convinced her the cows were more scared of her screaming than she was of a bear. At any rate, Bunny is seeing bears everywhere. At least it keeps her from focusing on all the fires. 

The Trinity Alps continue to amaze us. These are some of the most beautiful mountains we have ever seen. It’s hard to imagine that we had never even heard of this range until last year. What views we had today were pretty magnificent. In a time of fewer forest fires, I’m sure we’d had even greater views. Unfortunately, a lot of the day we couldn’t even see the ridge opposite of us as we walked and I’m sure it was less than two miles away. 

We did not see a single hiker today. Yesterday, we only saw one hiker and he was just out for the weekend. If there are any thru-hikers this far south, there is almost zero chance of them completing the trail this year. We saw many people on FB mention that they were going to have to flip north. We’re still a bit ahead of the sobo bubble, but we have no idea how many hikers even started sobo this year. Anyone that did start at the northern terminus around July 1 should still be a couple weeks north of us. We may not run into any more hikers this year. 

What was out on the trail today? We saw lots of deer tracks and a few deer. There were a lot of birds flying around—many more than we have seen in a single day so far. We saw a peregrine falcon fly over and the other bird activity drastically cut down after that. Most annoyingly of all, we have been harassed by yellow jackets every time we stop moving. They aren’t in a stinging mood, but they buzz up and inspect everything we do. I was afraid one might fly in my mouth while we were eating lunch. 

We did see 3 National Forest vehicles parked at a road crossing. We talked to one of the firefighters and she told us they were just on call. They were parked between 2 large fires. One over by Yreka and the other further west in the a Trinity Alps. There is a chance for an electrical storm today so I think they might be keeping an eye on the area. She did tell us we had clear sailing in front of us and that we should be safe all the way to Dunsmuir. 

Our itinerary planner only had 13.5 miles for us today. We decided to stick with the plan, but we seriously considered shortening it by 1.7 miles so we wouldn’t have to carry water. We both prefer to camp relatively close to water now that mosquito season has passed. In the end, we decided to stick to the plans that the NASA mainframes verified. 

Even with taking our time hiking and taking lots of breaks, we still made it into camp by 5. While we were putting up our tent, it rained on us for the third time today. This time, it rained so much, Bunny’s pack actually got wet. The two previous rains were so short that the ground didn’t even get wet. We were hoping for a nice light rain to settle some of the trail dust down. 

Bunny did the homemaking while I made us supper. It’s actually been an ideal day for hiking…not too warm and overcast. We’re just not certain if the overcast was from smoke or clouds. As we were eating supper, the skies cleared up and the sun shined on us while we ate. We were serenaded by a mini-bear sitting on a rock above our campsite. I went over to try to calm him down thinking he might run away. He was having none of that. This was his rock and he wasn’t moving. At least not until Bunny dropped a frito. 

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It’s easier to accept a shower than argue it won’t make any difference within 30 minutes of hiking. The real prize of heading into the bathroom to shower is that I get 20 minutes alone and there’s a toilet there. Porcelain is the real prize and the most missed item upon leaving town. Even more missed than non-dehydrated food. 

Miles was coming to rescue Brave Sir Robin and his Minstrel (Bear and Sassy) this morning at 9. We had offered to take Miles to breakfast in return for all Miles and Linda have done to help us get through Oregon and now extract Bear and Sassy from the hazy skies of Northern California. When Miles arrived, we all walked down to Bob’s Restaurant (owned and operated by Kyle). Bear and Miles entertained us with NASA and USAF stories. Miles was part of the team that developed laser guided bombs. He’s also a big history buff so we found out some more history of Astoria which we visited last year while hiking the Oregon Coast Trail. 

We tried to drag the morning out, but Miles has to work tomorrow so we had to give him time to get back to Portland, OR after he dropped us off at Etna Summit PCT Trailhead. To our surprise, Bear and Sassy were willing to take one more ride up to the trail to see us off. This was not how we pictured our hike ending with our tramily. I figured it would end with me “accidentally” getting pushed off a cliff then watching the other 3 members walk away while I bleed out. Alas, it’s not to be. 🎶  I’m still standing, feeling like a little kid. 🎶

I waited anxiously, watching Miles, Bear, and Sassy drive away and abandon us on the side of the road, miles from any form of civilization. I had too pee so bad, I didn’t think they’d ever get out of sight. I guess the six cups of coffee at breakfast may have been a bit much. We will probably miss them given time. We had planned on hiking over 1000 miles together this year, but they bailed after just 550 miles. I guess I do have some regrets. 

Probably the biggest regret I have was when we were all getting ready to leave Ashland. Bear was not in any hurry to get back on the trail. I had gone out that morning to get all my hairs cut and I had hurried back to the hotel. I regret not taking the time to get my nose hairs waxed. If I had known no one was in a hurry, I wouldn’t have braidable length hair hanging from my nostrils today. 

The first 3 miles of hiking today were all uphill. We gained almost 1400’ right out of the box. We were too exhausted from the climb to think about anyone or anything other than our climb. By the time we reached the top, we had completely forgotten we had ever been hiking with anyone else. I found it very unnerving that this is how people feel about me when we’re hiking with someone. Existence is a completely in the moment phenomenon. 

At least we have a few things to remember whoever the hell it was we have been hiking with. We have extra food and body wipes, so we can be fuller and cleaner than normal. Most amazing to me, though, is that we have an itinerary laid out for us for the next 8 days. Bunny and I haven’t hiked by ourselves for almost 800 miles—550 miles with the Southern couple, (Beer and Sissy, was it?) and before that, we hiked about 250 miles with Charcoal B and Struggles (who we are now trying to catch up to). Prior to this 800 miles, we’d just wake up in the morning and walk until we started getting a bit tired, and then find a spot to camp. Now we have an itinerary that Camino Pete would be happy with. 

Bier is going to keep an eye on the California fire map for the next several days and text us updates over our inReach. The volatility of the fire season played a big part in their decision to flee California. Currently, over 97% of California’s fire fighters are deployed and working longer hours than desirable. There are thunderstorms that might occur today and tomorrow in the Southern portion of Northern California (around Lassen National Park). The thunderstorms last week produced over 11,000 lightening strikes that started a large percentage of the current 372 fires in California. If the storms tonight and tomorrow have the same outcomes, California will not have enough resources to handle the additional fires. 

We looked ahead and didn’t see any fires of immediate threat to us. In fact, the only fire that is a threat is named “the Bear Fire” around Quincy, CA. The PCT is closed, but there are alternative trails around the area. At present, the closure is 250 acres and the fire is only 30 acres of that closure. Bunny and I talked to Charcoal B and Struggles and they said they’re 2 weeks away from the closure so many things could change by then. One of the changes will hopefully be that we catch up to them before they reach it. 

Bunny and I made our scheduled stop by 4:30. After the first moderate climb, the trail was actually quite enjoyable. The temperature is much cooler than it has been for the last couple of weeks (but we are up around 7000’ above sea level). The spring that was purported to be here wasn’t actually flowing, but we found a deep enough cold pool to get enough water for us to make it through the night and get us going tomorrow. 

Because we were so early getting into camp, I did look into going on a few more miles. I didn’t see anything that looked decent for another 5 miles. I should have known better than to question Bear’s judgement. He has had 3 days to look through the options and develop this itinerary. I’m sure he’s fed all the data into one of NASA’s mainframe computers and done all the computational analysis. Bear has spoken! Just because he’s run away doesn’t make it any less viable. 

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On the way into town, we decided that we would take a double zero at a minimum to allow Bear the time he needed to decide if he could get his head around the new plan. We talked to Derek, the manager of the hotel, as soon as we got done eating to confirm this was possible. 

Bear used the time to start running through possible itineraries to get us to Dunsmuir which is about 100 trail miles from Etna. This big carry has also been bothering him for quite some time. When I presented my “big picture” change of plans, he said he liked it, but that he might get off trail for a week until we made it to Dunsmuir and then get back on trail with us when we jumped down to Old Station. 

In my opinion, Bear is suffering from the “Virginia Blues.” This is an AT phenomenon. When you start out on the AT, you only have 80ish miles and you leave GA. Then you’re in NC for about 50ish miles until you join up with TN. By the time you make it to 400 trail miles and enter VA, you’ve already been in 4 states and you feel like you’re beginning to make progress. But Virginia drags on and on and on. VA is nearly 1/4 of the AT and people don’t get the endorphin high of changing states that they had already gotten used to. It just feels like you’re walking and walking but not making any progress…the Virginia Blues. 

Bear doesn’t see anything other than CA ahead (California is almost 1700 trail miles long!). He’s not tied to the trail like we are with almost 1850 miles complete. All he sees is drudgery of a hundred mile carry, followed by an area nobos have been describing as the “Post Sierra Blues” section of the trail. Most people consider the Sierra the highlight of the PCT (we couldn’t tell you since we haven’t been there yet). People have been telling us CA sucks once they get out of the Sierra. Bear has only heard negativity about the next 300 miles we’ll be hiking. I’ll admit, from his perspective, it doesn’t sound fun. 

To summarize, Bear sees a terrible 100 mile carry which is the first part of 300 miles of a boring section of trail. Now we have the coup de gras, smoke in the air. Bear started looking at the California fire map. Bear and Sassy are from the South where wildfires are nonexistent. In fact, East of the Rockies, wildfires are pretty rare at all. He became a bit obsessed with the fire map and tracking fires anywhere near the trail. He managed to whip himself into a fire frenzy (and bring Bunny along). I damn near got psyched out, myself. 

As a reminder of Bear’s background, he’s a NASA career man. 42 years of looking for every possible problem that could go wrong and then coming up with working scenarios for each of those problems. Then, practicing every scenario so that IF an error occurs, people will stay calm and work from muscle memory. NASA people are some of the most risk averse people on the earth. You will never hear of a NASA engineer dying in some unforeseen circumstance. Bear cannot get his head around everything that could go wrong in CA nor does he have the time to make himself comfortable enough to proceed. Hell, I’ve seen him spend 30 minutes trying to pick the correct flavor of instant potatoes, and he eats those 3x a week on the trail. 

It didn’t help matters when Bunny and I got into a big fight after 2 days in town. We had drank an entire bottle of wine between us (we generally don’t drink when hiking and become lightweights). We both felt the other was ignoring the other. It created another layer of drama when Bear and Sassy had to step in for an additional role as marriage counselors. They did their job and calmed us back down, but they started demanding $100/day contingency counseling fee which was well out of our price range. We offered an M&M each/day. Bear doesn’t like peanuts so the whole house came tumbling down. 

On the morning of the 3rd day, after Bear had worked out a scenario in which we could avoid the 100 mile carry (coincidentally, Bunny and I had a 120 mile carry last year, it was a bitch, but we managed with just a little extra whining), Bear and Sassy, by marriage pact, decided the risks were too great to continue on. Keep in mind, they are from Alabama. They don’t have earthquakes, volcanoes, forest fires, or tsunamis there. The biggest risks they face are severe thunderstorms, an occasional tornado, and desegregation (lets be honest, Alabama is not a progressive state). 

Bunny and I decided to take an extra day, rob them of all the extra food, fuel, and supplies we could use, and then stock up everything else we’d need. We did decide to follow Bear’s “Etna/Dunsmuir 100 breakup beta 4 alpha 6” procedure to reduce our pack weights and get another town night in 4 days. He might be a bit afraid, but he can draw up pretty solid plans. 

Bear texted Linda that they were thinking of getting off trail here in Etna. Bear met both Miles and Linda through NASA. When Linda heard “might get off” she began her own “Extract Bear and Sassy alpha 547” procedure. Not saying she’s as organized as Bear, I’m saying she’s more so. She already had plans drawn up for every possible extraction point and we just happen to be 547 miles in. Miles was at our hotel in the morning in a hazmat suit. Bear and Sassy are off trail and in a decontamination quarantine for two weeks (Miles and Linda are old hands at NASA and are used to isolating returning astronauts…not a bad decision in retrieving hikers from the State of Jefferson in the time of Covid). 

Bunny and I will return to the trail, 🎶 alone again, naturally. 🎶 It has been nearly 800 miles since we have been hiking by ourselves. We’ve hiked 550 miles with Bear and Sassy this year. At the end of last year, we hiked 250 miles with Charcoal B and Struggles. It just so happens, Charcoal B and Struggles will be arriving in Old Station in a little over a week, just the time we will hike from Etna to Dunsmuir before jumping to Old Station. Charcoal B and Struggles live on the side of a volcano, a few hundred fires doesn’t scare them. 

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After yesterday’s excitement, I just wanted an easy day into town. I don’t ask for much. I’m a simple man with basic needs, way less than the average person. I’ve often said the secret to happiness is lower expectations. I’ve lowered them to the point where my only goal is that I don’t soil myself. Yesterday, and long distance hiking in general, has shown me that I’m still aiming too high. 

Bear was not at all comfortable walking along exposed cliff edges, today. He and I are both afraid of heights, but he’s still shook up thinking that Sassy was falling yesterday. I’ve noticed he doesn’t like walking behind Sassy. I’ve walked behind Sassy and I understand…she tilts. Sassy tends to wear her back to her left, and it’s not straight up. Every couple of days, Bear adjusts her pack so that it’s almost straight and she gradually tightens her straps to pull the pack to her left. When she gets to the point that she starts having backaches, Bear will adjust the pack again. 

I’m the opposite. I don’t like to have Bunny behind me when I’m walking. I like to have her in front so I can keep an eye on her if anything happens. Generally speaking, she’s sure footed as a mountain goat, but I’ve also watched her trip over a leaf when we come to a town. I’m afraid she might have a stumble while on the trail (very rare—she’s only fallen maybe 5 times in the 6000+ miles we’ve hiked together since we got married), but if she does fall, I want to be able to see it. If it’s in a dangerous position, I want to be able to help. If it’s into water, I want to get a picture. 

We crossed a few high passes crossing into adjacent valleys. After about 7 miles, we made it to the highest point of the day where we had a little bit of cell signal; just enough signal to send a text to the hotel. We let them know we were 3 miles from the trailhead. We waited for a response, but never got one. We finally just accepted the fact that they must have been too busy at the moment and they would meet us in about an hour and a half. 

In another mile+, we came to a trail register. Charcoal B and Struggles had left us a note saying “Hurry up, Easy.” We had hoped to catch up with them in Oregon, but they are pushing the miles this year. When they get done this year, they’ll only have the desert section up to Forrester Pass to be done with the PCT. 

We made it to the trailhead a few minutes later than I thought we would, so I fully expected the ride to be waiting. The only person there was a tow truck driver padding a pickup truck onto a flatbed. We waited about 20 minutes and the ride never showed up. In fact, no vehicles even passed. This is a lonely stretch of highway. I tried texting the hotel again from the inReach and still didn’t get a response. We decided to ask the tow truck driver if he’d call the hotel when he got signal. He took our info and said he’d call. 

I started scrolling through comments on Guthook and found a different number for the hotel that could accept texts. We had been texting to a land line. Just as I discovered this, a car stopped and offered us a ride, but they only had room for 1. We decided to send Bear to town for him to arrange a ride for us. Next we texted Sarah, Bunny’s daughter, from the inReach and had her try to contact the hotel. In the end, the hotel got a call from the tow driver, Bunny’s daughter, our inReach, and Bear in person. We finally got word that a ride was on the way. 

Our ride was finally secure, but only after we had spent over an hour waiting in the sun on the side of the road. Now that we had a ride, other vehicles started showing up and offering us rides. A pickup truck brought a pair of nobos up and we could have gotten a ride from him. Another pickup truck with a woman driver pulled up and told us “stupid flatlanders, get out of the sun and get on the road to get a ride.” She said if we were still around when she came back by in an hour, she’d take us down. She even gave us a frozen gallon of water. At least we had options. 

A few minutes later, an SUV pulled up and Shanno for out. She apologized right away for the confusion. They have been having with the land line and forgot to give us the cell # for texting. She had her daughter in the backseat and her dog up front with her. Bunny took the front seat, Sassy took the backseat, and I took the hatch and sat with the packs. This turned out to be one of the smartest things I’ve done recently. The road varied from two lane down to one and was very curvy. Shannon was comfortable enough to drive full speed downhill. I was so thankfully I couldn’t arch the road. 

We had hoped to get to town around 2. Instead, it was now 4. We decided to skip showers and laundry and head straight to food. As soon as we sat down, I drank 2 glasses of water then ordered iced tea. In just this one meal, we split a large appetizer of baked cauliflower, a large order of truffle fries, a large salad each, and we each had our own 14” pizza. I drank at least 4 glasses of iced tea. 

After our food orgy, we stopped by the grocery store to get some snacks for later. We finally headed back to our rooms and gave our laundry to Dereck who washed our clothes while we showered. The hotel did have loaner clothes, but the only thing that fit me was a pair of women’s shorts (nice bright pink) and a girls tank top. The stripes clashed with my shorts, so Bunny refused to let me go out. I honestly don’t know how women stand the open back tanks. 

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