Northern California Archives - Yeti Hikes

PCT Day 106 – Seiad

Yeti — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 01:03:13 +0000

Days 106

Start: Seiad Valley, CA

Finish: Alex Hole

Daily Mileage: 26.9

PCT Mile: 1684.4

Honeybun and I hit the trail at 5am. We were at 1600 feet, and we immediately had a 4500 foot climb. It was supposed to be another scorcher today, so we wanted to get the miles in we could before it got too hot at the lower elevations. This did mean skipping the traditional pancake challenge in town where if you eat 5 pounds of pancakes you get the order for free. Such a loss.

The trail headed straight up right away and we gained elevation quickly, shooting above the Klamath River valley and quickly leaving it behind. There was a strong haze of smoke in the air, but we couldn’t smell it. Good enough I guess?

Up, up, up until we gained a ridge. It had started heating up, but on the ridge there was a light cross breeze which was a welcome friend. We wove around the mountain on exposed burned terrain until we gained the crest. We took our first break after we had put the first ascent behind us, in the last bit of shade we would see for a while without tree cover.

I’ve been having issues with my new pair of shoes. It was the same model and size, except it was normal instead of wide. There were no wide shoes available anywhere I could find on the internet. I ended up chatting with Brooks and they said that even though they released these shoes last fall, they were already refreshing them and new shoes wouldn’t be available for a month. They said they like to keep their shoes updated. Apparently they would also like to drive people to other brands if they don’t keep shoes on the shelf because they are discontinuing and refreshing them all the time. This is one thing that drives me crazy with shoe companies since most of them do the same thing. I bought these shoes last fall because they just came out at the time and I figured they would be available for the duration of my hike. Apparently Brooks thinks it’s a better idea to have their shoes unavailable in the middle of the summer hiking and running season.

In any case, my regular shoes were pinching my toes and I decided to do some shoe surgery. I cut a big slit in the shoe to allow more room in the toes, and it appeared to be a 90% fix for me. It should be good enough for me to wear them until they are worn out in another 3 weeks. Taking care of your feet is a primary focus on a hike like this, so this was a huge disruption for me.

Hiking on, we followed the ridge for the entire day. It varied in rock type from red to marble and was generally scenic. There were a lot of us and downs to follow the ridge, and we just kept accumulating more elevation for the day.

The trail passed through a lot of burn area today, which was hot and exposed. It was supposed to be another 110F day in the lowlands, though it’s cooler at elevation. We thankfully were able to hit springs every 3-5 miles, but the day was wearing on us.

We passed through some bad blowdown areas that were overgrown and more herd path than actual trail. Tons of blowdowns too. And hot still. And we were climbing as well.

We thankfully escaped the burn and got into forest which gave us some shade, thankfully. There were some great meadows in the forest section which were carpeted in the same brown flowers which provided quite a contrast with the green forest. Just when you thought it was all the same, the trail changed again for us.

I also spotted some madrona and Oregon grape. These are plants from the Pacific northwest, and the first time I’ve seen them on this hike. A sure sign that we are making progress north.

As the day wore on, our energy levels tanked. Not sure if it was the heat, miles, or elevation, but we were more trudging on than breezing down the trail. We decided to stop short of our original goal of 28 miles at only just over a marathon length of 26.9 miles.

We were glad to be done and in camp, and not really sure why we were so tired. I looked at my trail app, and it said we had done 8,400 feet of elevation gain today. Bingo! That is a lot of gain! And it was hot again. Wow, and we still managed a marathon. We deserve to be tired.

We ate dinner as a herd of cows rolled through with plenty of cowbell before retiring to hopefully get some rest. It seems to be cooling down, so it should be a better night for sleep.

The post PCT Day 106 – Seiad appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 105 – Etna

Yeti — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 105

Start: Music Creek

Finish: Seiad Valley, CA

Daily Mileage: 18.9

PCT Mile: 1657.5

We awoke to the smell of smoke in the air. It wasn’t bad, but definitely there. The wind has been going around in circles, and I guess it brought some of the smoke towards us. It wasn’t too thick, and in any case there was nothing to do but start hiking.

Catching the ridge again, it became quickly apparent that the west side of the ridge was filled with smoke to the point you couldn’t even see through it, while the east was clear. Not a good sign from the growing fire. Thankfully, we were headed towards the east side.

The rest of the ridge was good, with marble mixed in with the rock and we passed a couple nice lakes, but really the focus was just getting off trail and to town to resupply and finalize our route around the fire.

We arrived at Etna Summit, the trailhead and the start of the official trail closure. Since we planned to detour around the closure, we walked the 10 miles of road into Etna to kick it off.

My GPS app showed some forest roads that paralleled the paved road, and they looked used and cleared so we decided to give them a shot to avoid the pavement as long as we could. The forest roads worked perfectly and were mostly cleared, or at least clear enough to walk down. As always, it was fun to find the route and make it work out for us, and I really enjoyed it.

We met up with the road with 6.75 miles of pavement to town. The road was a bit eerie. We were on the east side of the ridge which was free of smoke, but the road was deserted other than forest service and firefighters driving up it towards the fire. All professionals. And then 1 UPS truck. Hardcore.

Only two vehicles passed us the whole way down, so it must have been deserted already on the other side of the pass.

We arrived on the edge of town and turned off airplane mode on our phones, and they started to light up with updates from the fire. The road we had just walked down was in a stage 2 evacuation (be ready to go), and all of the roads and trails we had planned to take to detour around the fire were now under evacuation orders from the Sheriff. Well, I wanted my continuous hike, but I was not going to hike into that. I looked for alternates, but there really wasn’t anything without walking days of highway. Not really interested in that either.

As we were pondering what to do, a bus pulled up to us and said she was going to Yreka and did we want a ride. We decided on the spot to abandon our continuous hike ambitions and take this olive branch that was given to us and get on the bus. We didn’t even get to the center of town where we were going to resupply, we were just straight away on our way to Yreka.

We did what research we could on the bus, and it increasingly looked like there had been no other options. Then the PCTA officially closed the entire stretch of trail from Etna Summit to Seiad Valley which was where we were headed. Everything kept lining up that we were doing the right thing.

We got to Yreka, and the bus driver dropped us at the edge of town where we could start a hitch to Seiad Valley. She dropped us right next to a Dollar General so we decided to resupply while we had the opportunity. Everything was happening so fast that we needed to do what we could to get our town chores out of the way.

Then we went to the road for a hitch. We were baking on the pavement, reflecting light and heat back up at us, but after about 15 minutes a jeep picked us up and agreed to take us to the road junction for the road into Seiad Valley.

They had their windows down and it felt like we were in a blast furnace from the heat. I had no idea how hot it was other than too hot. The jeep let us off and we set up for our second hitch. We were on the side of a paved road in front of a rock cliff with the sun just destroying our souls. But we had to stand there to try to get a hitch.

After about 15 minutes, a car pulled up and it was a trail angel shuttling some other hikers to Seiad Valley. She was full, but called her boyfriend to pick us up. He was 40 minutes away however, so we had to sit there baking on the pavement and absolutely dripping sweat. Drencher arrived with 3 other hikers and we managed to cram 5 hikers and packs into his Tesla Model 3. The first thing I noticed was the outside temperature readout on the car. It was 110F! No wonder we were dripping sweat. It was about the same when we walked into Etna. Way too hot.

It was a nice cool ride into Seiad Valley where we set up camp at an RV park where we could charge and buy some burgers. A bit run down, but it worked.

Today was the most dynamic day on trail yet. We started with one idea of how the day would go, and we ended up in a town 57 miles down the trail, baking in the sun. It looks like we made the right decision, but both Honeybun and I were disappointed to abandon our continuous hikes. There was nothing realistic we could do though.

Another night of sticking to my sleeping pad. I took a shower, but put on the same nasty clothes. Hopefully tomorrow is more sane.

The post PCT Day 105 – Etna appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 104 – Trinity Alps

Yeti — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 104

Start: Scott Mountain

Finish: Music Creek

Daily Mileage: 29.3

PCT Mile: 1591.9

The night stayed hot enough for me to stick to my sleeping pad, wet with sweat despite being in only my underwear. Needless to say, I did not get enough sleep for the second night in a row.

On trail, Honeybun and I quickly entered the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area, which I had been looking forward to. I had heard it was beautiful and rugged.

As is the style lately, we climbed a ridge and followed it around for a couple hours. The Alps were quite varied in their appearance. We traversed on a red rock mountain with old lava features and bright green Meadows in bowls, but the next ridge over was almost white granite; so white it almost looked covered in snow.

Unfortunately, we only crossed a small corner of the wilderness area, and we were soon exiting with hardly a grasp of what the region was about. Definitely a place worth exploring further some day.

As has been the pattern of the last few days, it was heating up pretty well afternoon. Actually, it never got cool overnight, and was already hotter than I normally prefer even when we started hiking. In the afternoon, we passed through patches of burn area, which made the sun all the hotter. Not as bad as the past couple days though, but perhaps I’m just getting used to it.

In the afternoon we had some dry climbing to do which went better than expected, and we soon entered the Russian Wilderness Area. This is one I had never heard of before, but it blew me away moreso than the Trinity Alps. The mountains were bigger, the bowls deeper, and the rock more rugged. It was a fantastic place.

The mountains appeared half made up by gigantic granite boulders littering their sides which gave it an otherworldly look. I had to stop more frequently to take pictures, but they were of vast landscapes that never really come out.

We soon arrived where we had planned to camp for the night 25.5 miles in at a lake. It was still early though, and we decided to press on to set ourselves up better to get into town tomorrow. We were both tired and a little sore, and I think feeling the cumulative effects of the heat and lack of sleep. But we still wanted more.

The trail followed a great high ridge above the most amazing deep bowl with glowing green meadows. It must be astounding to be in the bottom looking up.

The ridge itself was slabby rock with spires that almost looked carved by an ancient race. All in all, it was a great traverse.

All good things must come to an end though, and obviously there had to be another climb at the end. We had been climbing a lot today which is probably another reason that we were getting worn out. A total of 6,000 feet, which is pretty healthy.

I set a pace and we made it up, and were happy to hit the top. At the top we saw the smoke from the Shelly Fire closer, and managed some cell signal for an update. The fire is getting significantly worse, and was spreading a lot with some higher winds today. We will probably have to change our plan to get around it, but we won’t have to finalize that until we get into town tomorrow.

Then it was just a short jog to our campsite, which after 29 hard miles we were glad to see even though it meant the end of the fantastic terrain of the day. A lot of hikers are skipping around this area because of the upcoming fire, but that would be a huge loss, and I’m glad we pushed through.

The post PCT Day 104 – Trinity Alps appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 103 – Scott Mountain

Yeti — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 103

Start: White Ridge

Finish: Scott Mountain

Daily Mileage: 32.3

PCT Mile: 1562.6

The thru-hiker crowd got going around the same time, but we only saw a couple of the other hikers throughout the day. There was a great sunrise right over Mt. Shasta to illuminate us as we were packing up and setting out.

Most of the day today was following a ridge. First it climbed up which was hard to even notice, and then it endlessly wound in and out of valleys, keeping about the same level. There were many lakes just far enough below to avoid a quick side trip. It heated up quickly, and it would have been nice to jump in a lake.

The landscape varied throughout the day. First it was forested and then it wound around some red rock mountains with volcanic features.

One nice addition compared to yesterday was water sources at least every 4-5 miles. I filled up at each, and drank a ton of water today, probably a couple gallons. The day got pretty warm, especially on some exposed stretches of trail, and I had to keep guzzling water to keep up with my sweat. It definitely didn’t get to the 110 forecast in the valleys since we were at elevation, but it was definitely at least 90.

After lunch, it was that much hotter. A couple other hikers we had been leapfrogging with were looking at taking a siesta, but I hadn’t done that yet this trip. The temperature didn’t seem hot enough to stop all hiking. Plus we wanted to get around the Shelly Fire ahead as quickly as possible before it or the closed area got any larger.

We were able to see the smoke plume from the fire later in the day, reaching high into the sky. It looked plenty manageable for us to continue on our path. We will take out a few miles from the fire.

Towards the end of the day, both Honeybun and I were getting tired. Neither of us had slept well, and the hot weather and miles were starting to get to us. However, since the trail was mainly flat and downhill, it was manageable.

There was no realistic campsite with water, so we carried for the last 4 miles, including a climb at the very end of the day. Despite the late hour and miles already done, we were still able to fly up the climb.

We ended up doing 32 miles today. We hike 11-12 hours daily, including breaks, and today 32 miles fit into that. The going was relatively easy, and we probably only stopped for an hour total which works out to a constant 3mph for the entire day. Not bad for one of the hottest days of the year. Once again, we should get to town a day sooner than planned, but it will be good to do that and get the first fire behind us.

The post PCT Day 103 – Scott Mountain appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 102 – Castle Crags

Yeti — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 102

Start: Mount Shasta, CA

Finish: White Ridge

Daily Mileage: 28

PCT Mile: 1530.3

Honeybun and I grabbed some breakfast burritos and the first ride out of town we could arrange. Temperatures were supposed to soar today into the high 100s and we were starting at low elevation where it would be hottest. We wanted to get the 10 miles of low elevation out of the way and hit the big climb of the day before it got unbearable and dangerous.

Doc dropped us back at the trail and we set off through Castle Crags State Park. The trail was just forest with plentiful streams coming down from the peaks high above us, and we could see little else besides a bear dashing uphill away from us. Castle Crags is famous for its high rocky spires popular with climbers, but it was well into the day before we were first able to see them from below. However, when we finally caught sight, it was well worth it and they were quite striking.

We traversed below the crags and had to refill on water a couple times due to the building heat and humidity. And we weren’t even to the real climbing yet.

We tanked up at the bottom of the climb, and I grabbed the temperature from my inreach which was already at 96F. We started up the climb, and the tree cover we had went away leaving us under full sun exposure for most of it. In addition, we were climbing next to rock, which was reflecting the heat back at us. It was pretty oppressive, but all we could do was keep climbing to get it over with before it got even hotter.

After a long, slow uphill drinking much water, we got back into partial shade and were able to take a lunch break at a flowing stream to recuperate. The temperatures were definitely lower at elevation, and there was a periodic breeze. We still had some more elevation to gain but the worst of it was over, so we could cruise it out much easier. All told we had 4,500 feet of gain from the start to peak, plus undulations in between, so it was pretty demanding on the hottest day of the trip so far.

We had 13 miles to the next water source that was on trail, though there were more off-trail sources. Who wants the bonus miles though, so we planned on the 13 mile carry. I grabbed 3 liters, not sure if that would be enough. We cruised on at much better speed now that the temperatures were perhaps only 90 or so.

The trail was pretty nice at elevation, following a high ridge with views of the surrounding landscape and lakes below us that were unfortunately inaccessible to jump into. It was a great traverse, but the heat was definitely a factor for the entire day.

I was rationing my water throughout the traverse, and I definitely wanted to drink more. Nothing I could do about that though, and I was doing good enough that I wouldn’t get dehydrated. I tried to just stay distracted with the views.

I did find a bottle of water near a road crossing that I took a little from to help out, though I could have made it the couple more miles to the spring. It was fantastic to finally reach the spring which was flowing coldly and abundantly. A great source. We dropped the beers we had packed out in the flowing water for a quick chill while we treated our water before arriving shortly at our campsite.

A crowd turned up since this was the obvious place to camp near water, but the campsite is also on a high ridge with perfect views of Mt. Shasta. A beautiful spot.

We didn’t really have a plan going into today, but despite getting started late at 8am, we made good miles considering the heat and ended up with a very scenic day and a respectable 28 miles.

The post PCT Day 102 – Castle Crags appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 101 – Mount Shasta

Yeti — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 01:49:38 +0000

Days 101

Start: Dunsmuir, CA

Finish: Mount Shasta, CA

Daily Mileage: 0

PCT Mile: 1502.3

Zero day today since we got into town early yesterday. Doc drove us to Mount Shasta where we finished our town chores.

It’s the 4th of July and town was crowded with people coming out for the annual parade down main street. We stowed our packs at the outfitter and grabbed beers for the parade. Hikers gathered at the burger place which is pretty typical.

The parade was nice and had that hometown feel to it with many random people just driving down the street. No floats but the real show of force was by Cal Fire with their trucks and even a tractor trailer pulling a massive bulldozer. Our real heroes with a big fire growing right ahead on trail.

Fittingly, we grabbed Indian food for dinner and headed to our hotel for the night to relax and prepare for the next stretch of trail.

My main focus is the Shelly Fire 100 miles ahead. The trail is closed and the fire is growing. We want to get as far as we can, hopefully to Etna Summit where the closure starts at mile 1600.8. 19 miles of trail is closed, and I’ve looked at multiple alternate ways to hike around it. I’ve hiked a continuous footpath to this point, and don’t see reason to stop yet. We have been hiking hard to try to stay ahead of the fires, but alas they are here, especially with the heat wave not helping anything.

We are heading back to the mountains tomorrow to see what happens.

Got a new pair of kicks today 600 miles on the old ones which turned out to be a bit much since I was really feeling the rocky trail with the foam soles in the trail runners breaking down. I had to get the normal width instead of wide since wide was not available anywhere on the internet. Hopefully they will work well enough. Used them for one month and they are completely shot which is normal out here.

The post PCT Day 101 – Mount Shasta appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 100 – Dunsmuir

Yeti — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 100

Start: West Trough Creek

Finish: Dunsmuir, CA

Daily Mileage: 19.3

PCT Mile: 1502.3

Today was town day which always makes the trail go faster, with the promise of food. We got up as normal and continued through the great old growth forest. Easy mostly flat trail for a couple miles before we got to a nice stream crossing where we tanked up.

There would be a 2,000 foot climb and no water until the very end of the day. With the hot weather I’m going conservative on water and keep ending up carrying too much, which isn’t a bad thing. My food bag is light anyways since I’m near town.

The climb was good with a nice aggressive grade at first. We were hitting it early enough that heat wasn’t an issue, though it was mostly shaded and not in direct sun for the climb. As good of conditions as we could get.

On top, the trail traversed and then did an extremely long switchback that didn’t actually drop the trail much. Honeybun had noticed that there were comments about a nice easy ridge walk to cut the switchback on trail and a forest road, so we decided to do that.

The route was pretty well trodden at first, then hooked up with a disused forest road that was an easy cruise. Better yet, the route gave us panoramic views of Mt. Shasta and Castle Crags ahead of us. It was really a great alternate. Best yet, we found a black raspberry bush fully laden on the way with some ripe berries. Berries are still few so far since it is early in the season, so it has just been a few thimbleberries and now these black raspberries for me. That should soon change with much more coming into season.

Hooking back up with the trail, it was an easy hike down the rest of the mountain, and we soon arrived at I-5. We had considered walking the railroad tracks into town since there were no roads besides the interstate, but decided to try hitching for a few minutes. There was very little traffic, so we called Doc to give us a ride into Dunsmuir, and we were soon deposited at a church that lets hikers stay in the basement for free.

We had the place to ourselves and had burgers for both lunch and dinner since those were the restaurants available nearby. Also did most of our resupply at a Dollar General.

We had planned to get into Mount Shasta tomorrow, but we hiked fast and got into town a day quicker than planned. We have a motel booked for tomorrow night, so we unintentionally got ourselves a zero day tomorrow. It works out though since it sounds like there will be a bunch of hikers in town and it will be the 4th of July with festivities in town, so no need to rush back to the trail.

The post PCT Day 100 – Dunsmuir appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 99 – McCloud

Yeti — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 99

Start: Tate Creek headwaters

Finish: West Trough Creek

Daily Mileage: 28.8

PCT Mile: 1483

A deer greeted us this morning, cautiously working its way around our camp looking for hiker sweat or pee residue to eat. Almost every other deer we saw today was in or around a hiker camp. They are vultures for hiker bodily fluids here.

Honeybun and I continued down the ridge we were traveling. It was purported to be filled with blowdowns and overgrowth, but it was easy traveling with only occasional obstacles. So much fear mongering out here, you can’t believe most of it, and just hike your own hike.

The ridge did offer great mountain views which were enjoyable until we reached the end and the trail turned down through forest.

The forest was great though. The trail was a nice easy shaded downhill, and the forest was either old growth or close to it. There were many massive trees that were a couple hundred feet tall. We saw these throughout the entire day today which was great and reminded me of Washington where we are headed.

We flew through the downhill and had lunch at a trailhead, already covering over 17 miles. However, we had a challenge coming up.

So far the heat wave we are in hasn’t turned out as hot as originally forecast, but it was supposed to be 90 in the mountains today, and we had a climb after lunch. We first traversed and crossed the McCloud River which was a great milky blue, and stopped to fill our water bottles at the last creek before the climb. Even the flat trail before the climb had me dripping sweat, so I was unsure how ascending 2,000 feet would go in the hot weather.

I grabbed 3 liters to cover the elevation and started up. It was a nice gentle climb, PCT style, and the miles and elevation ticked right away. We made quick progress up the mountain, and the climb went well. I did drink a lot of water, but it was completely manageable. That made me more confident that I could handle the coming days where it will be even hotter, well into the 100s for days after my next town stop.

Descending through more amazing old growth forest with towering trees, we crossed a couple creeks. We decided to camp at the second one since camping was questionable ahead and the campsites looked decent.

It was our buggiest night yet on the trail. We were able to eat dinner outside, but were chased into our tents soon afterwards.

Even though the temperatures are climbing, the hiking was still not too challenging today, even doing 29 miles. I easily could have gone further if there had been better camping onward. The old growth lifted my spirits, seeing trees like home.

The post PCT Day 99 – McCloud appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 98 – Shasta Forest

Yeti — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 98

Start: Rock Creek

Finish: Tate Creek headwaters

Daily Mileage: 28.4

PCT Mile: 1454.2

Honeybun and I were camped at the base of a climb. With the forecast for the next few days reaching into the 90s and 100s, we have to be more conscious of how we go about our day. Hitting a big climb or dry stretch of trail late in the day may be dangerous or at least unpleasant, so there is some extra planning for now. However, the morning was nice and cool, and great weather for climbing.

The climb was shallow and forested which made it fly right by almost without noticing. Then much of the morning was buried in forest without views which made for fast hiking. I struggled to even take pictures since there wasn’t much of interest besides some occasionally overgrown trail.

Around noon, Mt. Shasta started bearing its presence through the trees. It has become massive in our viewscape, growing quickly in the past week since I first spotted it as a dot in the haze. Amazing how quickly you can walk across the terrain and approach something on the far horizon.

The promised high temperatures never seemed to arrive today. There was a nice breeze when we were high enough on the ridge, and the temperatures were perfectly fine and good for hiking. Not sure what happened, but I will take it for sure.

We had debated how far to go for the day, and ended up pressing further than our original plan since the temperatures held. We didn’t know what the next couple days would bring, so we wanted to do the miles now when we could, in case it got hot.

We grabbed water at the last source before camp, which was before a climb and about 5 miles of ridge walk. There was a curious deer that seemed incensed in getting at hiker salts, wandering around and eating things like a rotting log that apparently hikers had peed on. Suit yourself.

The climb up was not bad even with water for camp. I didn’t notice the extra weight too much which was great since I was carrying over a gallon. With the bigger miles, I must also be pretty used to bigger pack weights now, thanks to the Sierra.

Thankfully, the last ridge we followed broke us out of the forest we were in for much of the day and gave us great views of the layers of surrounding mountains, and especially Mt. Shasta. It was nice to be able to appreciate our surrounds.

I did start flagging at the end of the day. We’ve done 28 miles the last 3 days in a row, so perhaps that is it. My energy level dropped quickly, but the last bit of the day was mostly flat and downhill, so I pushed through. I also was getting very hungry towards the end of the day. Same thing happened yesterday. My hiker hunger seems to be increasing, perhaps due to the increased mileage over the past couple weeks. I may need to increase my rations again at the next town stop. I want to eat all of my food right now.

We crossed our first snow in over a week as the day wound down, with one minor patch, and one snow bank we had to climb over. Not bad, but I thought we were done with that stuff. Oh well.

Then we shortly arrived at our campsite on a nice breezy ridge. I tore into my food bag and ate the little that I could spare. In the end I got enough to barely sate my hunger for now, but will see what tomorrow brings.

The post PCT Day 98 – Shasta Forest appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 97 – Burney

Yeti — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 97

Start: Hat Creek Rim

Finish: Rock Creek

Daily Mileage: 27.5

PCT Mile: 1425.8

I didn’t need an alarm clock today. A heard of cows ambled to camp mooing to high heaven around the time I planned to get up.

On the trail, it was an easy stroll to finish the Hat Creek Rim before Honeybun and I dropped down off the rim to cross flat plains. The walking was pretty easy apart from the pieces of lava periodically sticking up from the trail. The trail went through some dry grasses and it really had the look of African Savannah. It was a unique look I was not expecting.

It was very cruisy and we made great time. I’ve been hiking faster through my conditioning on the trail so far, and can now hold a better than 3mph pace for hours on end without stopping. It’s making for some quick trail.

We dropped down and crossed below a dam and powerhouse, next to a fish hatchery, and near several lakes filled with birds and wildlife. It was a nice area for some different sights, and there were even some pelicans fishing on the lake.

Leaving the lakes, after a short climb we reached the turnoff for Burney Guest Ranch. This is a newer campground that offers resupply. We wanted to try it out to avoid needing to hitch into Burney. We were welcomed in with sodas and charging. The store was not perfect but had everything needed to resupply, and they made Honeybun and I 2 burritos, salads, and fruit cups when they normally serve only breakfast and dinner. It was a good score and a great choice to pay them a visit.

We hung out for an hour or two, but then continued down the trail because we still had miles to put behind us.

The trail continued with flat forested terrain that was fast but rather plain. I will take the great progress though.

After grabbing water from a backpacker campsite complete with water spigots, we shortly arrived at Burney Falls. Unfortunately, most of the trails around the falls are closed this year for maintenance, but we did manage an oblique view of the falls which were pretty unique and spectacular. Water was not only going over the falls, but coming out of the volcanic rock in the middle of the rock face. It was a pretty interesting sight, highlighting how water doesn’t only move on the surface.

Continuing down the trail, we had a few more miles to kill. The day was heating up, and we are at the beginning of a heat wave. I keep not eating my Snickers early enough before it melts, and today I decided to tear off a corner of the wrapper and squeeze it out like an energy gel. It worked quite well and wasn’t messy as all. The Snickers just flowed right out of the wrapper when I squeezed it out.

We crossed over a dam with interesting construction with the spillway right on top and the turbine piped through the dam to a building off to the side. We have not gotten to cross many dams on this hike, so it was nice to walk high above the outlet river on this one.

It was only a few more miles to camp, but the day was getting pretty warm. Not enough to stop us, but I was losing energy the further I went. It took some willpower to keep on rolling, but the promise of camp drove me on.

We reached a nice stream just before camp and filled up and washed our disgusting legs and feet. It takes no time at all to be covered in dust and dirt on this trail, even above my knees with pants on. I don’t know how that happens.

We set up camp and made plans for the next 3 days to make sure the miles are manageable even with the upcoming heat wave which is supposed to clear 100. It could make for some nasty hiking but we will see. It was supposed to be 90 today, but it didn’t quite feel it.

The post PCT Day 97 – Burney appeared first on Yeti Hikes.