Monday, July 14, 2008
Day 87 July 14, 2008
Slept great in the backyard, up early and went to the laudrymat. I only had my long johns to wear (everything else is dirty and has to be washed!!) So, luckily it was cool out! Then to Rite Aid where I bought some more Technu because I don't think we are out of the poison oak section quite yet! And then here to this internet cafe, where I've been for the past 1.5 hours updating this blog!!! I'll be heading back to Chad's soon and package up some stuff that I haven't been using and I'll be mailing it home! Still lightening up the pack! We'll stay in town tonight and head back out on the trail in the morning. 99 miles to Etna, so that will take us 4 days. So, we should be there by Friday evening or Sat morning! If anyone mails us any packages, can you e-mail one of us as to where you mailed it to. We have a few packages floating around in the post office world right now that we can't seem to locate! One of them has a bunch of our good dehydrated meals in it too! Ok, computer time running out, must save and log off! Less than 200 miles left in California! We can almost taste Oregon and it feels great!!!
Day 86 July 13, 2008
Happy birthday to Aunt Azelle! Had a nice little campspot down at the Ay-din-ah campground. Someone's car alarm went off in the middle of the night, we were thinking it might have been to scare a bear away. I was up and walking the .6 back to the trail by 0540 and I saw a small bear cross the road! Lots of uphill today, but I felt great! The miles came easy and we were walking over 3mph for most of the day! Saw another bear digging away at a tree for food, tried to take a picture, but it's pretty dark (I might attatch it here) Tons of poison oak again. Had lunch on a dirt road called Girard Ridge and then only had 10 miles to the road to town! We were not really planning on getting to town until tomorrow, but with only 10 miles........real food calls us! Supposedly the remainder of the hike was downhill to the road, but there were lots of little uphills thrown in the meandering route to the road. Sometimes I just want to go straight down the hill instead of wandering all over the place like this trail does! Ahhhhh! Super close to Mt. Shasta now, but it's so hazy out, my pictures look awful. We can see another volcanic mountain off in the distance, Black Butte if I remember correctly is the name of it. Passed by a trail crew (ha ha- they should go about 60 miles south!!) Got to the road and the crew was there too. 8 of us! Luckily Slider met a mlan named Chad on the trail and Chad offered to give us a ride to town! Not sure if he knew there would be 8 of us! But Chad showed up with his van and all 8 of us and packs and poles piled in! On the way to town, Chad offered us his backyard to camp in! Nice and the best part (besides a free place to stay and shower) is that he lives right in town! We don't have to walk far at all! We all went to the Billygoat Tavern for dinner (delicious pub food) and then to the store Ray's for some ice cream for desert, then back to Chad's to crash for the night!!
Day 85 July 12, 2008
Up and hiking by 0547, the sunrise was a beauty as we climbed uphill. Had to cross over some snow right on the trail at 6,000 feet today, that was a surprise! Tons of prickily bushes on the trail today, our shins are taking a beating, all scraped up from the bushes on the trail. Ate lunch at what we thought was Deer Creek, but it was actually the next creek we came to. Hiking with a LARGE group of people. Lucky, Milky, JB and Gadget all jumped around the fires and now there are a ton of us together. Started seeing tons of poison oak on the trail today. I'm carrying Technu (the poison oak wash) so I wash my arms and legs down every night with that stuff and it sets my mind at ease. Also saw some Lilies on the trail today....July 12th lillies! Both Neighbor and I have started hiking in short and t-shirt. It's just too darn hot for pants and long sleeves out here. Hiked down to Ash camp and met Dave who was kind enough to give us a soda and cold yogurt! Yummmmm, thanks Dave, that tasted great! 94 degrees and we were by a river, so we rinsed our feet, legs and shirts off. Decided to hike on a couple miles and then walked .6 down to a real campground (where we had a water spigot and picnic table for the night) So, Neighbor, Thrust and I camped there while the others either stayed at the river or pushed on a bit. We are too big of a group to camp all together.
Day 84 July 11, 2008
Hiking by 0620, ate grapes for breakfast, feeling pretty good today, must have been the food from town! Came apon a baby bird that must have fallen from it's nest today, it was a HUGE baby bird, not quite sure what kind of bird, but it wasn't looking too good......I guess that's nature for you though. Trail today was 100% overgrown with bushes and trees and we felt like we were bushwacking for part of the day, crazy! The book says this section is "crawling with poison oak" but I really haven't seen any yet....Impressive views of Mt. Shasta but it is smoky or hazy in the distance. Camped by a water source and the book mentioned a campsite.....well, maybe for 1 person! We managed to fit 11 people (9 tents) in this small area. Some were camped directly on the trail!
Day 83 July 10, 2008
Up and hiking by 0530, saw Mt. Shasta in the sunrise light in the distance, how beautiful! Came to a water pipe with a hole in it and washed up a bit in the water spurting out of the thing! Got to the road to Burney around 0830 and hitched into town. Cars were flying by, but we got a ride after about 30 min. Went to Safeway and bought a sandwich, some strawberries and we split a half gallon of Newman's lemonade! Yummm! Bought some more food for the next stretch and then caught a ride out of town. Hiked the remaining 7 miles to Burney Falls State Park and man was it HOT. Wow, this heat just zaps all the energy out of you. Went over to the State park and got an ice cream at the store and decided to camp there for the night with a bunch of other hikers. Showers were $1 for 10 minutes! Yeah did that feel GREAT! We washed our shirts in the sink with some soap and were feeling as good as new again!
Day 82 July 9, 2008
This is how DUSTY it is! We were covered in this dust!!
Up early at the Heitman's, then they started cooking breakfast! Scrambled eggs, sausage, cinnamon raisin pancakes, OJ! Yummmm! Then we got a ride to the trail and started hiking at 0830. I was carrying 2.5 Liters of water because the section up ahead was going to be HOT and DRY. We hiked 7 miles by 1030 or so and came to a family with a spread of food on a picnic table! Jessie said "dig in"! We had cold grapes, steak and chips, what a great suprise! Thanks guys! Hope you had a great rest of your vacation! Continued up to Hat Creek Rim and wow was it HOT. I felt like a slug this day, a dirty smelly slug! No shade anywhere, just kept moving. There was supposedly a water cache at road 22 and by the time I got there, I was soo low on water I was sipping and saving the remaining water that I did have........thank goodness there was water there for us! What a saviour that was. We had another 12.6 miles before the next water and I would have been miserable without that cache. The whole crew drank some water and then moved on the ridge. Neighbor and I decided that we should get as far off that ridge and as close to the next water as possible because it was just soo hot, so we (and Thrust) hiked until 9:40pm (past dark) and then gave up. We tried to wash down as much as possible before getting in the tent, but we were filthy. What a day. We were dirtier and hotter than many places in the desert today, who would have known??!
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