Month: September 2018

September 5th, 2018 Butt Mountain mm 1321 to Belden mm 1286.5 Distance: 34.5 miles 0620-1930 Today’s goal was to get to the town of Belden, or at least to within a few miles. I hoped to either resupply there or just get some snacks to carry me through another 20 miles to the road to Quincy. There were some nice views as I traversed ridges. Mt Lassen was the prominent feature but I couldn’t recognize anything else. There were lots of rocks that still looked volcanic. I caught up to Flowers, who had camped just below us. Then at Cold Springs (really original name), I also caught up to Twist. She had skipped ahead at the fire closure. We all[…]

September 4th, 2018 Warner Valley Campground/Drakesbad mm 1350 to Butt Mountain mm 1321 Distance: 29 miles 0630-1830 Today was a pretty relaxed walk and a grand accomplishment. I made it to the halfway point on the PCT! It was again a very chilly morning. I have camped near creeks the past 2 nights and that usually makes for colder conditions. I took a short alternate trail to check out the boiling mud lake. It was interesting, with steam rising and the occasional gurgle from a mud bubble. I didn’t find any interpretive signs explaining the feature, so I didn’t get a full appreciation for it. The rest of the day was just lots of ups and downs, with the occasional[…]

September 3rd, 2018 HWY 44 mm 1377.5 to Warner Valley Campground/Drakesbad mm 1350 Distance: 27.5 miles 0630-1700 It was a hard day, even if the miles weren’t as big. My body was very tired from the previous big days, probably the most tired I’ve felt on trail this entire time. Plus, I was dealing with a painful blister on my left Achilles. I had run out of duct tape so Flowers gave me some gorilla tape, which I put over the blister. Then I put leukotape over that…it is so sticky that it can rip sore skin off, hence the double layering. I also had to sacrifice my sleeping socks to serve as my hiking socks. I will use the[…]

September 2nd, 2018 Burney Mountain Guest Ranch mm 1410 to HWY 44, Old Station mm 1377.5 Distance: 32.5 miles plus several miles hiking to and around town and to the lava tube 0600-1900 What a day! I set my alarm for 0330 am and was on the trail by 0430 am. This plan was hatched by Flowers but we all thought it was a good idea. We had to hike the notoriously hot and waterless Hat Creek Rim. Two hours of walking in the dark was 2 hours we wouldn’t have to do in the heat of the day. And we wanted to go 32 miles to Old Station, where water, beer, and food awaited us. I enjoyed hiking in[…]

September 1st, 2018 Peavine Creek mm 1432.5 to Burney Falls and then Burney Mountain Guest Ranch mm 1410 Distance: 22.5 miles 0615-1530 Today was a great day. I got some good hiking in, got to be a tourist, and ended the day at a relaxing oasis in the dry hills. It was a quick 13.5 mile hike into the falls. I descended quite a bit, crossed roaring Rock creek and then a big dam across the Pit river. I passed another SOBO, Dorothy (a guy from Kansas), who I think I last met just before Cascade Locks. He caught up to me again at the falls. The state park was humming with activity…a Saturday on Labor Day weekend, of course.[…]

August 31st, 2018 Butcherknife Creek mm 1467 to Peavine Creek mm 1432.5 Distance: 34.5 miles 0600-1900 It was a long day, my longest distance in a day yet, I think. I walked the trail by moonlight for the first 15 minutes. It isn’t getting fully light until about 0630 now. And it was a tough climb out of the valley. Especially since near the top, the smoke was kind of thick and I didn’t enjoy breathing it. Once over the ridge, it cleared up some and the sun was shining. The trail was very dry and dusty, so I could see many animal prints. In one area, the vegetation was overgrown and I saw fresh mountain lion prints that made[…]

August 30th, 2018 Mm 1496.5 to Butcherknife Creek mm 1467 Distance: 29.5 miles 0620-1700 I slept surprisingly well but for obvious reasons, I was anxious to get moving in the morning. The smoke was pretty bad and the forest really quiet. I walked fast and by 8 am was past the closest point to the fire. I couldn’t see any flames or even a glow at night. It really wasn’t that close. The smoke shortly began to lift and I breathed a big sigh of relief. At 0930, I came to a gap at Squaw Valley where a bunch of fire fighters were staged on a road. I half expected one of them to yell at me or demand to[…]

August 29th, 2018 Mm 1521 to mm 1496.5 Distance: 24.5 miles 0620-2100 Today was another weird mix of trail and town. The town stops really throw off my normal schedule but make for interesting events. Plus, the extra food is a good thing. The morning was beautiful and put me in a very good mood. I could just see Mt Shasta as the sun rose, then awesome vistas of the Castle Crags rock formations. The trail wound down and underneath them. It was fairly clear as I started out but then a smoke bank rolled in and the crags suddenly became mystically obscured. The air smelled very strongly of smoke, much of which appears to be coming from the nearby[…]