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.
EFG