Day 95 July 22, 2008

Happy birthday Grampa Jim!

Up early before the workers at Callahans (the place burnt down a couple years ago and is being re-built) showed up, caught a ride into Ashland, had breakfast at the Wild Goose, booked a room for the night at Knights Inn, went to Albertson's and bought a TON of food for the rest of Oregon (basically) and mailed it ahead (because the next 4 stops are at SMALL resort type places that you can't really buy 4 days worth of food at) It was exhausting, but we did it all before noon! Caught the bus to downtown Ashland, bought an amazing lunch at the Co-op (what a great co-op) and bought a pair of socks (looking for new shoes for me now) and updated the blog! Ahhhh, how busy we are! :)

Day 94 July 21, 2008

Welcome to OREGON! Yeah! Hiked about 8 miles and hit the Oregon border! What a great feeling to have made it through California (minus the 233 miles due to fire closures)

Nearly started a stampede of cattle this morning when we left camp and the cows went running and crapping all over the place, what a smell! And the smell stuck with me beause I stepped in some of it!

The trail is georgeous, you go from fields of wildflowers (full of bees) to big shady pine trees covered in bright green moss, just beautiful walking and easy!! Hot day, quite a few springs along the trail, but one stretch was water-free and we were so thirsty and then....we came to, not 1 but 2 coolers along the trail FULL of soda and beer! Wow! We drank (cherry pepsi) and felt great and revived! Then decided to just motor the remaining miles to Callahan's Lodge! We got there around 8pm and it was 37 miles for the day (and we still felt pretty good!!) I picked up a package from Gram and papa (mints and stamps and bars....and seashells?!) Thanks!!! Then we showered, did laundry, put up the tent in the front yard and called it a night!

Day 93 July 20, 2008

Up around 5am, yogurt and powdered donuts for breakfast, then 8 miles of uphill! Lots of poison oak on the climb, but I steered clear! We can almost see blue sky again and it's great! Hiked 15.1 miles by noon (PB and Jelly on Oregon Trail bread!!) The trail is beautiful as you can see in this picture, flat, meandering, big pine trees, scenic and very "almost to Oregon" like! Camped near a spring and as we were cooking dinner, we heard something like chimes........well, it turned out to be a herd of free-range cattle and they stuck around ALL night! You could hear their bells and they got uncomfortably close once! Eeeeeeeek!

Day 92 July 19, 2008

Didn't hike at all today, it was Saturday and we had to be at the Post Office for when it opened at 12-1:30! We had packages to pick up! (we hoped) And they were there! LOTS of packages! We got our bounce box that we missed last round, homeade cookies from Grammy and papa, A package from Frodo!! A box of food and stuff from Priscilla, a letter from Grammy and Grampa Kingsbury! Wow, goodies galore! And Neighbor got his new pair of shoes, it was like Christmas! Had breakfast at the Cafe (the town of Siead Valley is basically an RV Park, a PO, a small store and a cafe....the last 3 all in the same building!!) The breakfast at the cafe was amazing, huge and cheap!! Gotta love it! We got all our packages, mailed some stuff out, relaxed and hung out with nothing else to do!!!

old fashioned soda fountain and hikers hanging out

Ooooops, NOT Seiad Valley!!

This is Etna!

(thanks Rick!!)

smoke line

Day 91 July 18th, 2008

My cousin Sarah's b-day!! Up around 5am, cheerios for breakfast, climbed up a little saddle and saw the most beautiful full moon setting with the pink/purple sunlight of the sunrise coming up! Wow, I must have taken 10 pictures of this one sight! I hope atleast one comes out decent!! Then the smoke line in the valley, amazing what a distinct line it makes, like undercast in the mountains, in a weird way, it was beautiful! Further up the trail, we had to hike over a huge patch of snow and then we saw a massive volcano in the distance and never did quite figure out what mountain that was. Down to Etna summit (a road) and we could see mounds of kids and backpacks in the parking lot! A group of 130 kids were going out backpacking at 1pm! yeah for them! Atleast 1 girl going uphill asked me..."when do we go downhill?" ha-ha! Little did they know........it wouldn't be for a loooong time for them!! Caught a ride with Sam to town (the driver of the horse trailer that brought all their gear up to the trailhead) Once in town, I picked up a letter at the PO from gram and grampa Kingsbury and a package of Lindt chocolate and some Slim-fast bars from Gram and papa!!! Then we got ourselves into the Old fashion soda fountain store and I got a rootbeer float and Neighbor got some Espresso chip ice cream! Good stuff! Then we found out that some of the same church group that was going hiking were going to be driving right through Seiad Valley in 2 hours!!! We caught a ride with them around the 55.8 miles of trail that we had to miss due to another fire and were in Seiad Valley by 6pm! Grabbed a spot in the RV park, took a shower and did some laundry! What a day!

Day 90 July 17, 2008

2 bowls of cereal for breakfast! Because we've hiked so many miles, we have lots of snacks for the next 2 days! More easy miles! Saw Billygoat today hiking southbound and he says that he's seen 38 thru-hikers heading north and out of all of them, I am the 4th female. Wow, what odds. Hiked over 2 "summits" today which were actually gaps (like in VT) and not summits at all, just highpoints in the road. Still pretty smoky out on the trail. Lots of honey bees too, I had 3 of them ON ME at once today! They are almost like flies! Chilly and breezy campspot in a saddle. Only 20 more miles to Etna (where there is an old fashion soda fountain!!)

Day 89 July 16, 2008

Skipped the cereal this morning until we reached a spring some 5 miles away. Beautiful trailside spring with cold flowing water (there have been lots of springs lately, it's great to just fill'r up right into the bottle!!)

Basically, we all have blisters on our feet now, due to the hot temps, just something else to deal with. After lunch both Neighbor and I were sleepwalking, the trail was so flat and easy and it was so warm out, we nearly fell asleep walking! Ended up hiking 31 miles by the end of the day, made it to a spring and called it quits, 5 of us camped smack on the trail! Good thing not too many people night hike around here!

nice sunset from the Trinity-Shasta divide

Day 88 July 15, 2008

Castle Crags in the picture.

Packed up and caught a bus to Dunsmuir in the morning, the bus driver dropped us off on a lonely road and said, the trail is 1 mile that way and pointed to the right.....okay. So, we start walking....and then we come to the interstate! Yep, we had to walk Southbound on the side of the interstate for 1/2 a mile! He forgot to mention that part of the deal! Anyway, we finally found the trail and headed north! Walking through a beautiful section of the PCT. Castle Crags. I saw a rattlesnake! It startled me and even rattled! Yeah! Finally! Hiked all day and called it quits around 6pm, camped on the Trinity-Shasta Divide with JZ, Thrust, Antfarm and Swiffer. Neighbor has been singing Johnny Cash for weeks now, "This ring of Fire" it's in all of our heads!!!

The rest of our Mt. Shasta City day

Well, what a suprise, after I left the internet cafe and went back to Chad's. M&M and Pootz come walking in! They happened to be driving by Shasta City when my e-mail went through and dropped in for a visit! (and they helped us resupply for the next stretch out of their bear cannister!!) Here is a picture of us with Mt. Shasta in the background (a bit smoky...but there) Then we found out that the trail from Etna to Seiad Valley was closed due to more fires. So, that is another 55.8 miles of trail that we have to skip. Yikes, we are up to 233 miles in California total. No fun. Camped in Chad and Jennifer's backyard a second night, grilled some pizza for dinner and had a great time in Shasta City.