Category: PCT

Burney Falls to Beldon 31st August Our next section of the hike took us southward round Hat Creek Rim, one of the hottest, driest parts of the PCT. The 134 miles to Beldon included a 30 mile section without water, so we gratefully accepted park warden Shirley’s offer to drive out to a lookout on Hat Creek Rim and deposit a container of water, splitting the waterless stretch up into more palatable shorter hikes.

On 1st September we set out early from Burney Falls with Sideshow via the park entrance nearby where Shirley worked. She presented us with ‘Campground Host’ baseball caps which I proudly donned for the next part of the hike! The heat increased quickly in the morning and we made it to our first water source for lunch at Rock Creek after 12 miles. We were all so hot that we agreed to have a siesta under a riverside tree until about 4pm when we hoped it would have cooled sufficiently for hiking on uphill onto Hat Creek Rim.

Not surprisingly it was still stiflingly hot at 4pm but we headed off anyway with thoughts of a cool evening ahead. Sideshow hiked on ahead and we eventually made it up onto the rim around 7pm and stopped for an evening meal. A cooked dinner would be too hot so we had our breakfast muesli with dried milk instead. When a bright moon appeared and the temperature dropped, we felt things were going our way at last, following a beautiful moon dappled route along the escarpment rim- although we did have to keep a good look out in case we stepped on rattlesnakes. We met Sideshow around 9pm – coming northwards- in the wrong direction! I think he had lost the trail at some point and was trying to locate it again. We camped soon after by a small cow polluted pond, 2 miles short of our water cache.

We hiked onto our water in the morning and had breakfast with the refreshingly cool water. The rest of the day was hot, but not as bad as yesterday as we descended down to a cluster houses at Old Station. Our route led on into Lassen Volcanic National Park, an active volcanic area with thermal springs, geysers and hot pools.

We managed a swim at Feather Lake in the park and enjoyed the variety of scenery hereabouts. We met a couple on a short trail to hot springs from nearby Drakesbad Lodge and they invited us back for a lunch at the lodge – an offer we couldn’t resist. We dived into a huge buffet salad followed by cheesecake and felt energised for the afternoon- the owner also gave us fresh fruit and cookies- maybe we looked undernourished!

In the afternoon we were entertained by more hot springs, bubbling pools, Sulphur smelling ponds and geysers along the route. Our evening was livened up by a huge thunderstorm. We dived for cover with our tent outer draped over us as a lightning bolt crashed maybe only 100 meters away. As we sat under the tent sheet hearing the rain drumming against our shelter, we both began to regret sending our waterproof jackets away in our resupply box to save weight. After an hour like this we thought it best to get off the broad ridge we were on and we dashed ahead to Stover Campsite in the dark around 9.30pm. An interesting day!

Some uneventful hiking days passed by – except us finding a can of beer by a river that we later found out that Sundog had left behind.

On the 6th September, Labour Day weekend, we heard the sound of gunshots in the woods and were immediately wary.  We had already seen some 4WD vehicles crammed with camouflaged hunters roaming through the forest and had wished the deer good luck. We headed on warily and soon passed by some guys with rifles shooting at a tree with a box of beer bottles beside their vehicle. We scuttled on as fast as we could. It was difficult for us to comprehend the open gun laws in the US that seem to allow anyone to own a gun and shoot up the woods.

Our trail descended into Chips Creek valley system and we failed to notice a sign indicating a diversion due to landslides taking out the trail lower down. By the time we noticed our mistake we decided just to keep going along the original trail and take our chances with the landslides.

We hit two huge landslides into Chips Creek which caused some missed heartbeats as we slithered across steep mud slopes with semi-cemented rocks which mostly came loose when we pulled on them. We heaved a sigh of relief once we made it across and settled down to camp that night at Williams Cabin feeling grubby, dirty and sweaty.

That night I calculated that we had now hiked 2,000 miles– but that still meant 641 miles to go in the fading summer and into autumn. However, closer to hand, we were looking forward to meeting Eric and Gordon from Scotland next day at the small store of Beldon, 6 miles away.

It was an easy downhill stretch to Beldon and we ambled into town around 10.15am to see Eric, Gordon and fellow hiker Sundog. It was great to see them but we had hoped to get a clean up before they saw us – as we were slightly grotty!

Next Central California and The Sierra mountains, our last section ……..

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Etna to Castella 23rd August After a lovely breakfast and a refreshing stay in Etna we hopped into our pre arranged lift in a pick up truck  back to the trail.

At the pass we met two north bounders with their hiking dog and exchanged tales of the hike. We all enjoyed listening to other hikers experiences and we could also glean information from north bound hikers on the conditions ahead for us. We joined up with Svein and Ron for the day and the four of us continued our chat as we hiked along sub alpine terrain to camp at twilight after 21 miles.

On the next day we split up again as Ron headed off early from camp and we followed on meandering through trees and meadows with distant views out to the volcanic cone of Mt Shasta.

It was here that we met Dave and Gretchen who were spending the whole summer up in the mountains with their horses and had done so for the previous 5 years. Although they were ‘roughing it’ in the wilds, Dave was keen on electronics and enthusiastically showed us his gadgets including  TV, radio, laptop and even a fan to cool his chickens – all powered by batteries charged by solar panels! A local trail maintenance crew joined us as we chatted in the trees next to the grazing horses in a meadow. Dave and Gretchen were a wonderful example of how people can live away from the dependence of a ‘9 to 5’ job out here in the US and we took our hats off to them.

We reluctantly dragged ourselves away to hike on south past Scott Mountain road pass and up to camp beside a natural spring. The PCT took us through the Trinity Alps here, however we managed a wee short cut on the Trinity River Trail as the PCT swept in a huge arc round the river valley whist we dropped straight down and climbed back up on trail-less terrain to rejoin the PCT. Some pitcher plants were growing on a marshy meadow next to a spring here- this is a carnivorous plant that feeds on insects by trapping them in a sticky nectar.

Our camp that evening on the 25th August was at beautiful Porcupine Lake high up at 7,200 feet in the Trinity alps and nestled under steep hills. The water was cold so we managed only a short but worthwhile dip before cooking dinner by the lakeshore. That evening as it was getting dark, two people came rowing across the lake to us – on a log! They brought kind offerings of popcorn and it turned out they lived nearby in Shasta City and visited the lake frequently. I marveled at their ability to steer and row the log without falling-in in the dark!

We dropped down past scenic Castle Crags to tiny Castella- a garage, store and post office with a nearby campsite. To our delight it had a section marked ‘Reserved for PCT hikers’ .

Next from Castella to Burney Falls through the dreaded Section ‘O’.

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Oregon border to Etna Our way led south from the Oregon border sign post on 17th August along broad ridges through vibrant flower meadows with our main obstacle being limited water sources. We saw very few other walkers in this area but met a fellow European PCT hiker called Svein at ‘Cook and Green Pass’. Svein was from Norway and we kind-of hit off as our sense of humour matched as we all had a bit of rant about how weird but also wonderful the people are here compared to Europe.

From a ridge top past hot Kangaroo Mountain at near 6,000 feet we looked down at a long, long descent into the Klamath river valley at 1,400 feet where we knew there was a cafe, grocery store and a post office, hopefully holding our resupply box. My feet hurt horribly on this descent, I think from the heat and building humidity but mostly from the general continual pounding of going downhill.

We stumbled into Seiad on the evening of 19th August and found the staff friendly in the small store where we had a huge evening meal with Svein and also Sideshow who turned up. The milk shakes and pancakes at the store were something else and Seiad store holds a pancake challenge where I think six of their HUGE pancakes have to be eaten in one go. Of course this gauntlet must have been taken up by most long distance hikers passing through but I am afraid to say that Martina and I only made it through one and a half pancakes each. Quite a feeble effort really. We later heard that Josh, a northbound PCT hiker, had completed the challenge, but only after semi starving himself on the days before arriving at Seiad!

Our start the next morning was a bit slow after another large breakfast at the café and sorting food to do us to our next stop at Etna. The post office held a ‘hiker box’ which contained food and bits of equipment that hikers had left behind. Since our resupply parcel hadn’t arrived we were able to scrounge our way through the ‘hiker box’ and, after swapping a pancake for some dehydrated meals with Ron, were able to make up our supplies. The ‘hiker boxes’ became a major source of supply for some as food was often left by hikers who had dropped away from the trail or their tastes had changed and they couldn’t stand the food they had faithfully packaged in the spring before setting out.

We dragged ourselves away around noon with Buzz, a local teenager in tow, who managed to show us a shortcut across the valley saving half a mile of road walking. The next stretch involved a long gradual climb of nearly 6,000 feet up into the Marble Mountains and the promise of some more dramatic glaciated scenery to look forward to.

At our second camp at Cold Springs we noticed a slight mistake with our food. What we thought was a pasta sauce packet which we duly cooked  with our pasta, turned out to be orange drink mix. It was a tribute to our hunger that we still managed to eat the results! So much for our scavenged food from the ‘hiker box’.

The scenery was splendid, bright and open without being overly dramatic and reminded me of the Pyrenees in France/Spain. Sixty miles south of Seiad Valley we hit the Etna road on 22nd August travelling over a high pass and we decided to hitch down into town for the night as we had heard good stories about Etna.

We waited for a while at the pass with very few cars passing until one eventually stopped for us. It was only once we were in that we both realised that the Native American driver and his white pal were both high on a mix of beer and drugs. The journey downhill via steep hairpin bends was a nightmare as we swayed across the road and hurtled around each bend. We finally staggered out the car feeling happy to be alive into Etna and vowing to check the driver next time before we excepted a lift. I suppose we had been extremely fortunate up until then and had always had helpful people offering us lifts who usually went out of their way to help us out. Maybe this, added to the fact that we were tired and just wanted to get into town had made us a bit complacent on this occasion.

We liked Etna, it was small, old fashioned with big white-painted wooden houses and none of the usual chain stores like McDonalds and Taco-Bell to be seen. The Alderbrook B&B was delightful and we had a clean up then headed into town for a big supper. Martina had two large fruit pies – so her appetite had now officially returned! On departing the diner we met Ron and Svein and we all agreed to pay $5 each for a lift back up to the road pass the next morning.

Next up in Northern California ……..from Etna to Castella

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Northern California Oregon border to Belden 410 miles

“I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars

I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight on a bed of California stars”

Woody Guthrie

Introduction From the Oregon border in the north, the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California follows a wide sweep eastwards to connect with the Sierra Nevada mountain mass to the south. There is a great deal of variety in this region; from live volcanic activity in the shape of steam vents and hot pools around Mt Lassen and the dominating snow covered cone Mt Shasta to the more rugged Trinity Alps with the metamorphic Marble Mountain. Forest covers much of the lower terrain but the trail takes in some extremely arid semi desert areas as well such as Hat Creek Rim near the resort of Burney Falls.

Towns passed through tend to be small country stores and lodges as the trail avoids any larger urban areas. Seiad Valley, the first stop south of the border lies deep in the trench of the Klamath river, 5,000 feet below the ridge crest of the PCT.

We would be hiking this area in mid to late August and the hot daytime temperatures would be our biggest danger even higher up in the mountains. Despite having various aches and pains, our condition was fairly good by now – having already hiked around 1,500 miles in all kinds of terrain and Martina thankfully seemed to have recovered from her prolonged bout of Giardia. Our slight concern at the back of our minds as we left the Oregon border on the 17th August was that our summer was beginning to draw to a close and we still had around 1,000 miles to go, with the final section over the Sierra Nevada, the highest mountains on the Pacific Crest Trail and the ones most likely to attract autumnal snow. Anyway, we just kept on hiking and waited to see what weather we would encounter.

Our guidebook split the PCT into alphabetical sections and it was the name ‘Section O’ between Castella and Burney Falls that was much talked about amongst hikers as being the worst section of path on the whole trail. Indeed we first heard about the infamous ‘Section O’ back in northern Oregon. This area was still being actively logged and the trail disappears for miles on end under a tangled mesh of fallen trees and bulldozed dirt tracks.

(Note: I understand that the trail has been upgraded substantially in this area since we were there in 1998).

We had not heard much other information about the area so we were to hike into fairly unknown country for us…….

Keep hiking in northern California from the Oregon border to Seiad Valley………

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