Day 104 July 31

Woke up at 0430 and started packing up in the dark. Camping by the lake wasn't the best idea, all of our gear was soaked in the morning from the condensation, soaked like it had rained out. The mosquitos were awful today, snow on the trail, lots of downed trees. We hiked to Shelter Cove Resort and dried out gear, drank some soda, ate some ice cream and then things were better. Amazing how 4 hours of relaxing from swatting bugs can make you feel MUCH better. At one point this day, I wanted to just call it quits on this whole walking thing, but I was feeling better by the days end. Hiked past Rosemary lakes and there was a nice breeze, then we camped by a ski hut and had a good day in the end :)

Day 103 July 30

Hiking by 0540, mosquitos was the word of the day. Took a break around 8am and we had already hiked 6 miles. The break was on a gravel road where there was a breeze and we could actually sit and relax for a minute, not feeling like we had to outrun the bugs. Decided to go for Summit Lake for the night, a nice 25 mile relaxing day! And the guidebook says that there are less mosquitos there! Perfect! Well, that was wrong! We descended and hiked past tons of murky little swampy mosquito breeding grounds and when we got to summit lake......ahhhhh! The bugs were crazy! The only exposed skin on me (hiking in a headnet at this point) was my hands and they were actually biting the PALMS of my hands! It was enough to drive you insane, you are not even watching where you are walking, you are just running and slapping mosquitos! And there have been lots of downed trees, those only slow you down and give the bugs time to catch you! It's insane! Anyway, we camped there. The lake had dead fish and frogs in it, and smelled like fish....but a few of the guys went swimming in it anyway........Pretty sure the picture is Cresent Lake.

Day 102 July 29

Awesome sunrise with Mt. Thielsen in the distance. Said good-bye to Crater Lake and hit the dusty trail. Flat walking, saw what we were later told was ELK! We thought they were big brown deer with antlers, but I guess they were elk, very cool! Mosquitos are still out in full force, took a break by Rte. 138 with "the crew". There have been 10 of us hiking together and camped together last night. Slider, Thrust, JZ, JB, Antfarm, Swiffer, Boomer, Neighbor and I. Had a 25 mile waterless stretch, ate lunch at the bottom of Mt. Thielsen and saw a dayhiker going up there! (it is a crazy steep peak) Wish I could attatch a picture of it! Amazing! Hiked a couple more miles to water which was glacial runoff and we drank right from the stream. Cooked dinner with the headnet on, mosquitos are just awful. 30 miles for the day again, we'll be through Oregon in no time with these miles!!

day 101 July 28

We got to sleep in and it felt great! Went to the "all you can eat" buffet at the Crater Lake restaurant and had a blast! We used money that was mailed to us as a gift from Frodo and ate until we were going to explode! Eggs made to order, bacon, french toast, sausage, fresh fruit, yogurt, it was all just amazing! Thanks for the great breakfast Frodo! It actually powered us through the day and we didn't eat again until dinner! Around 1030 we started the walk up to Crater Lake Rim and WOW! What a beautiful and amazing place. Took tons of pictures (that I would love to attatch, but can't from this library computer) I'll save them and add them later, wow! Hiked the Rim trail about 1/2 way around the lake and took pictures from all angles. A huge group of us camped near the Rim and took great sunset pictures, chilly night. The nights have been getting colder and colder as we make our way north, but we still have our gloves and hat and our 15 degree sleeping bags, so we are warm and toasty! :)

Day 100 July 27

Up with the mosquitos, they never went to sleep! Hiking by 0530, wearing the gloves, the mornings have been chilly lately. Super easy walking through the Oregon desert. Made it 20 miles to the highway that goes to Crater Lake by 1230 and walked down to the campground. Took a shower and did some laundry (after Neighbor, Milky and I split a large Chicken, bacon and onion pizza at the restaraunt) food always comes first! Got a close campsite, picked up our food boxes that we had sent here and sorted the stuff out. Grammy Peg mailed us 2 boxes here and one of them was ALL chocolate! Yeah! I put a dent in that box in a hurry! :)

Day 99 July 26

Hiking by 6am, mosquitos were out in full force, pulled out the 1.1 oz spray can of deet and hoped for the best! Can see some sharp pointed peaks in the far distance, hiked down, down, down to a mosquito infested hole and camped there for the night, after a 30 mile day, once you crawl in the tent and zip it up, it doesn't matter where you are.....you can always sleep like a log! 20 miles to Crater Lake, so we'll be there tomorrow!

Day 98 July 25th

It was still dark out when we got up at 5:15! A little cloudy today, so it wasn't as hot out. Chilly morning and if my gloves were not buried in my pack, I would have put them on my freezing cold hands! Nice pine forest to walk through. I saw a family of 5 out picking huckleberries, so I got to see what a huckleberry looks like. I was picking very small wild strawberries, but by the time they made it to my mouth, they were basically squished, but still tasted sweet. The afternoon hours were spent walking through lava fields. Camped by a small stream on the other side of a highway and listened to cars "peeling out" for about an hour while we tried to sleep! Camped with JZ, Lucky and Milky again. Neighbor and Milky in the picture.

Day 97 July 24th

Up early and caught a ride back to the trail with one of the workers at Callahan's Lodge. Hiked between 24 and 25 miles to Lake Hyatt Resort and camped there for the night with JZ, Milky and Lucky. The campground had a small restaraunt, so we ordered a pizza for dinner! Gotta love the trail in Oregon so far!! Easy walking and pizza!

Callahan's Lodge under construction to the left!

Day 96 July 23, 2008 (no hiking today)

Well, Ashland is great, we decided to take another rest day (because yesterday was anything but rest!!) I really need a new pair of trail runners, and I had to track down a pair (which was trickier than it sounds!!) So, I just ordered a pair through Zappos (their last pair in wide in my size!) And we'll be back on the trail first thing in the morning! Giving the feet a rest never hurts, both of us have had a couple blisters and rubbing spots and small cracks in our feet lately, so we're taking care of the little piggies! :) Grabbed lunch at the great food Co-op here in town yesterday and both of us bought a new pair of socks. (some of our socks have holes in them and you just keep moving the big toe hole to the other foot and rotating through!!) Time for a new pair of socks! I had to get new baskets on my trekking poles back in Shasta City (some gear is starting to wear out) But over 1,000 miles of walking does that to you (and the gear!!) So, resting today and walking tomorrow! We hope to be done with Oregon (432 more miles) in about 20 days and into Washington we go! Homeward bound in no time! Starting to miss the simple things of home (I am anyway!!) But this is a great experience and we are seeing a beautiful part of the country and loving every minute of it! :)

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.

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!!!

Trail with some of us on it

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!!

11 people in a 1 person campspot!