Nothing bothered our food or garbage last night. It was a peaceful night and great sleeping. The alarm went off at 6:30. The good husband got up and made coffee for his bride who didn’t move a muscle while breakfast was being prepared. This is not unusual at all. I placed her hot drink and cold breakfast by her head and cuddled with my hot coffee until she decided she was ready to rise. I fell back asleep in no time, but I knew Bunny wanted to make it to town today (which is over 19 miles) so she wouldn’t let me sleep long.
Two hours later Bunny woke me up to complain about her cold drink. There is no warranty for spousal negligence, take it or leave it. We still managed to get ready and make our new ten before ten trail start. We missed the deer hanging around as we packed up trying to suckle fresh warm urine straight from the source.
Since we’ve gotten out of the snow, the trail has been exactly what we expected the PCT to be—a beautiful, verdant trail winding amongst majestic trees. The Ponderosa Pines are incredible. It actually hurts your neck to try to look up to the tops of the trees you are passing. This was the type of hiking day we have been dreaming of yet the type of day that is just boring to try to describe in a blog.
With our late start, we didn’t pay enough attention to the map before we took off to plan our day. We crossed the Squaw Valley Creek after just 4 miles where we ran into a few locals out for day hikes. If we had checked our maps, we would have seen we didn’t have another water source for over 8 miles. We’ve gotten spoiled with the fresh melt streams popping up everywhere and just expected them to continue. That wasn’t the case for us today. Since we didn’t check, we left the creek without getting water.
We stopped at our high point for the day, in another 4 miles for a water break. Since we only had peanut butter and chia to eat, we forwent eating until we could be by a nice flowing stream to lubricate the PB&J. While hiking on to the next water source, we met a group of 5 sobos. We asked where they had started hoping to get information on the next section of trail after Mount Shasta. Boy, did we get way more information than we wanted.
This group had jumped up to Ashland, OR after hiking about 100 miles of the Sierra. They managed to make it all the way to Etna, CA before they bailed. They actually hiked in the mountains and broke trail. They all had crampons and ice axes along with lots of snow experience. They recommended not entering the trinity alps for at least a month. They showed us their pictures to back up what they were saying and it made our stomachaches sink.
The sky was starting to get dark, so we decided we’d push on into town rather than spend another night out. Bunny, although rodent in nature, did not have a hankering for another two meals of chia and convinced me we could have pizza if we pushed on. I only agreed to go if she let me order the pizza so it would only have proper ingredients like god meant pizza to have—only pig meat and proper veggies and none of this chicken parts and BBQ sauce.
As soon as we hit the road by the interstate, it started drizzling. I was afraid to continue up the ramp to try to hitch because I thought this was illegal. Bunny, reverting to her alter ego of Bonnie, talked me into violating the law once again. I was having flashbacks to her European crime spree and kleptomania. I’m an innocent bystander caught in her web. Fortunately, as soon as we got to the top of the ramp, a nice Swiss skier stopped and offered us a ride. He could clearly see I was terrified of my wife and offered me sanctuary.
Martin drove us to our hotel of choice in Mount Shasta. We checked in, dropped our packs, changed our shoes and socks before heading across the street for pizza and salad. They were kind enough to place us in a dark corner before wheeling cart after cart of food out to us. We managed to scare the waitress to the point that she was unwilling to reach in front of either of us for fear of getting bitten. Our chia famine has ended without major incident.
EFG