MP 1959 Elk Lake Resort. Wonderful luxury to resupply after only 2 days. Gloriously beautiful day hiking. Trail is wide and flat with gentle grades. Made 26 total miles in 9 hours hiking.

MP 1934 Stopped at Shelter Cove for resupply. Road walked ten miles along Waldo Lake due to yet another fire closure. Camped N of Charlton Lake.    August 21

Resupply at Shelter Cove:

MP 1907 Rejoined the Pct at Summit Lake. Hiked into the Diamond Peak Wilderness where the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson came into view making me feel at home. Camped below Diamond Peak.

MP 1875 Fire closure necessitated a detour down to Diamond Lake where I stopped for ice cream at the resort. Since leaving Ashland these have been relaxing, low mileage days. About 20 miles of road walking today. Had to camp on FS road W of the PCT.

It was here, Summit Lake, that I first felt like I was back home in the Oregon Cascades.

Hamburger, Pounce and Nugio:

MP 1853 Hiked only 3 hours before running into trail magic. Friends of hiker Jubal parked their RV at the trailhead. Before the end of the day it turned into a big party.   August 18

Skeeter and Rapunzel:

MP 1844 Hiked across the rim of Crater Lake. Smoke from forest fires was so thick that times we could not see the other side of the lake. Have been hiking with Hamburger. He and I apparently look so old and trail worn that we have been frequently stopped by tourists who want to take our picture. Camped at water cache below the rim. About 2 or 3 in the morning it started to rain and I was gratified to learn that I could set up my tarp in the dark. Woke up with the rain drumming on my tarp which provided the perfect excuse to sleep late.

MP 1829 Crater Lake, Mazama Village. Resupply. Lots of hikers here.  August 17

MP 1793 Not feeling well for the third day in a row. Still having trouble hiking in the afternoon heat. Camped at Christy Spring in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. Am now 13 miles behind schedule.

Forest Fire in the Distance:

MP 1800

Tree growing out of a rock:

 Typical:

MP 1770 Only hiked 20 miles this day. Have been feeling sick and nauseous and hardly able to hike in the afternoon heat. Threw out all my salami and cheese because I couldn't stand the thought of eating it. Now concerned about whether will be enough food to get to Crater Lake where I plan to resupply.
Took a break in the afternoon and could hardly force myself to get walking again. Finally reached South Brown Mountain ski shelter at about 8:30 pm having gotten in only 20 miles after about 14 hours on the trail. I slept in the emergency ski shelter and was quite comfortable.

MP 1750 Hyatt Lake Campground. Camped at Hyatt Lake after putting in 23 miles. Weather hot and dry. Not sure how hot it is at this elevation but in the Rogue River Valley I know temperatures have been over 100 degrees. Sleeping Bare was here hosting several other hikers and we were well fed.

MP 1726   Ashland, Oregon
     Hiked out of Seiad Valley at about MP 1662.    Weather was forecast to be 105 degrees in Ashland.   Gained about 5,000 feet in the first six miles.  Don't know the exact temperature but it was plenty hot.   Forest fires made the air so hazy that I could hardly see the ridge on the next mountain.  Camped at MP 1677 with Sunset.   When I awoke the next morning the air was clear and  a thick fog had settled into the mountain valleys below with the mountain tops poking above the clouds.   The sunrise, doubtlessly because of the smoke from the forest fires, was fiery red.     I hiked all day and camped the end of the day at about 1707 which made it a 30 mile day.    It is hard to describe how good it felt to reach the Oregon border at MP 1699.    I felt like I am finally at home after hiking practically forever.   The next 1,000 miles follow as a matter of course.    Next day I made it into Ashland at about 1:30 with a short 19 mile hike.   Next couple of days have been spent at the Best Western Motel here in Ashland taking care of chores and buying food and packaging it for shipment into Oregon.     I will hike out tomorrow and hope to be at Timberline Lodge, at the North end of the State, in another 17 days (about 425 miles).  

Sunset:

MP 1662    Seiad Valley.    Happy Camp.    I started early and was pretty sure that I would get to Seiad before the end of the day which would have meant that I had walked a personal best of 34 miles in the day.   Unfortunately after about 28 miles I was hit by a sudden thunderstorm and wound up setting up my tarp on the trail and waiting until the next morning to walk in to Seiad Valley for resupply.     It was an impressive and sudden thunderstorm which left me soaking wet.    From Seiad Valley I have hitched down the road to Happy Camp, where there is a grocery store, for a  full zero.  Tomorrow I will hike out on what should be my last day in California.    Ashland, Oregon will be the next stop.

 I have now swapped my ULA backpack for the lighter weight Mariposa.   My heavy quilt is being replaced by my17 ounce, 30 degree, Jacks R Better quilt and my hexamid tarp will be replaced by a plain rectangular cuben fiber tarp which weighs 5 ounces.   My total base weight should now be somewhere in the vicinity of 10 to 12 pounds.     August 6 to 8

MP 1630    We still are encountering some snow fields on the Northern slopes of the mountains.   Birds, butterflies and wildflowers abound.    I have never seen so many hummingbirds.   The butterflies swirl up from the trail in great swarms.    The weather forecast for Ashland, which is only about 100 miles north,  was for a high of 105 degrees.    We have not encountered such high temperatures at these higher elevations but it has been getting quite warm in the afternoons.   In the past two days I have encountered only one group of section hikers.   No one else has been on the trail.    The trail has been a roller coaster with steep ups and downs.   In the afternoon it became quite hot and I struggled to maintain my momentum.   Finally I stopped to read me book for about an hour.    Later in the afternoon the sky became overcast, dark and brooding and it began to cool.    I came to a wooded area that was full of deer.    One came quite close to me and when I spoke to it, it seemed curious.    Thereupon it hiked with me for about a mile down the trail, about 20 to 30 feet to my side.   Occasionally it disappeared, only to reappear a little bit later.   A doe with her fawn in tow crossed the trail in front of me.    August 4

MP 1540   Put in 25 miles and camped in a beautiful high meadow, next to a spring  looking out on Mt. Shasta.   Woke up with a dew soaked sleeping quilt.    This is the Trinity Alps Wilderness.   Far below from the valleys we can hear the melodious sound of cow bells.    This has been with us for several days.   Hamburger says that the sound is much the same as that from the Austrian Alps.

My camp in the meadow:

Hat Creek Rim.   Camped on the edge of this cliff:

Burney Falls:

The Trinity Alps:

 

 Atlas:

 Hamburger:

MP1515 Resupplied in Burney and then walked on for several days until reaching Castella where I resupplied again. This day was remarkable for seeing four bears. The first three were a mother and 2 cubs which I stumbled upon. The sow stood up on her hind feet and looked me straight in the eyes. I started backing up at which point one of the cubs tumbled out of a tree and all three of them ran up the trail.   I waited about 15 minutes before I followed them.
     Further up the trail I ran into a lone bear who was in a clearing only about 20 or 30 feet off trail.   He didn't notice me until I stepped from behind a tree with my camera.   The moment he saw me he was off like a rocket.  I didn't even have time to raise my camera and take a photo.    He was amazingly fast, running downhill and over downed trees and boulders.   He ran about 100 yards to the foot of the clearing and then disappeared.
     After that encounter I started asking other hikers if they had seen any bears recently and several told me that they had.   The postmaster in Castella told me that the bears had been peeking in the windows at him in his post office.
     Hiked back up to the PCT by an alternate route and camped with Hamburger (so named because he comes from Hamburg, Germany)  after walking about 12 miles.   About July 31

MP 1418 After leaving Drakesbad I continued hiking through Mt Lassen National Park. I hadn't been aware that, like Yellowstone, Lassen features geysers, boiling mud pots, etc.
 Later I hiked through a rain shower, one of the few we've had. Resupplied in Old Station and then went on to the Hat Creek Rim trail. This is reputedly one of the hottest, driest sections on the trail, but I really loved it. It involves walking on the rim of a canyon. High above the savanna-like valley hundreds of feet below. 31 miles without a source of water. Mt Shasta came into view in the distance. Seeing the Cascades makes me feel like I am nearing home.   When night came I found a spot on a point jutting out from the canyon wall and protected by a gnarled old juniper.   About 270 degrees around me was straight down.   I fell asleep watching the sun set over Mt. Shasta.    July 25

Mt. Lassen:

Hat Creek Rim:

x

MP 1355 23 miles this day to arrive at Drakesbad Resort. This is a high end resort that oddly enough also caters to hikers. Free showers and laundry. Dinner costs 10 dollars, breakfast five. The trail on the way in has a sign directing hikers in one direction and horses in the other direction. I took the trail labeled for hikers. Wrong. Apparently I was to intuitively understand that thru-hikers fall into the same category as horses. Anyway I finally got here. My clothes were whisked away by the maid and I was given a loaner set of clothes and was bid to swim in their hot springs pool before dinner. Very luxurious.
The hikers get fed the leftovers after the resort guests have been fed. But what leftovers! I was seated at a picnic table with five other hikers: Groler bear, Shaggy, Hamburger, Skeeter and Paws. Then out came huge, heaping platters of food, served family style. Roast pork with prune sauce, stuffed potatoes, eggplant parmesan fresh vegetables, fresh bread.   Desert was cheesecake.
Back again for breakfast which was equally elaborate. Too bad I couldn't stay longer.
July 22

Groler Bear and Shaggy:

I have now lost four, maybe five, pairs of glasses. Cant even remember how many. That is all.