PCT

June 27, 2011

Met MIKE at bus stop: 360-903-2462. Also HEADING NORTH (one of party of four from England). Altogether 7 hikers on bus to Reno.
Heard that GREY GHOST (69 years old) has quit. Am I now the oldest on the trail?

NADIR and SKEETER on bus. He had dislocated his little finger, had to hike out to a medical facility.
NO AMP got on bus at Mammoth (= "no amputation"). Lost her pack crossing stream, but another hiker found and returned her papers!
Went to Post Office on 6/28/11, had pkg at Independence and 2 pkgs at Mammoth forwarded to John and Nana's.
REI will ship small compression sack to my home.
21 zero days (so far). Time to get back on the road.

July 16, 2011

Oh my Goodnessucks Lake yesterday, to pick up a package at Belden for SILENT JOE on Monday (7/18/11).
But getting to Belden is difficult (no buses), and still fairly south. Instead, my brand-new plan is to begin at Burney, 127 m. to the north. Here's how:

Drive S.B. to Bay Area, leave car at John's, spend night at John's, have him drive me to Palo Alto train station, train to S.F., Amtrak to Sacramento. Spend night in Sacramento. Take Bus next morning to Redding, and afternoon Burney Express bus to Burney. Hitch to Burney Falls.

Miles to Canada from Burney Falls: 1,247, @ 18 m/day, would be 69 days, arrive Canada Sept 26: doable!

July 20, 2011

Finally, heading back to the trail. Now eating breakfast in Burney. Day before yesterday drove SB -> Bay Area with Caren, night w/ John & Nana. Yesterday John drove me to Palo Alto train station; train to SFO; bus to Emeryville (taking the longest, most tortuous route through San Francisco possible); train to Sacramento (nice and cheap, too); bus to Redding; "Burney Express" to Burney; night in motel. Today will see if angel at Davis Copy Center can give me a 7 m ride to the trailhead. Hot days ahead...
Learned yesterday that we have to be out of our house by Sept 15.
Started my hitchhike (which the guidebook says is the toughest on the entire PCT) after discovering that the Davis Copy Center is under new management (i.e., no more angel). The other angel I tried I had arranged yesterday by phone to meet at her business this morning, but she never showed. To add to the good news, as soon as I put my pack down to begin hitch hiking, it squished all the 2 liters of water out of my Platypus bladder, wetting the bag and its contents.
However, got a ride after about 1/2 hour. This, by the way, was the longest I have ever had to wait - either I am just lucky, or people are more familiar with hikers than before.
Checked out the falls (Theodore Roosevelt called them "The 8th Wonder of the World"). Started hiking around 11 AM. Very hot, no shade, but climbed after awhile from 3,000 to over 5,000 and gone nice and cool.
Camping 1.7 m before Peavine Creek. Loaded up on water at spring a short ways back, because next on-trail water (not counting Peavine Creek, whose description in my trail guide is not encouraging) is 17 m: ouch.
5 PM: HONEY BADGER came limping by, heading south and somewhere to fix her hurting leg. Asked me to tell TROY and SWEEP (ahead of me) that she has arranged to hitch a ride with JERRY to Burney Falls.
8 PM: Mosquitoes in morning and evening, but not bad right now. Will try out my new Tarp Tent Moment for the first time tonight - it sure went up easily.

Began today: 1423.6

1436, 13, 5200 ft

July 21, 2011

7:13 1437.7
8:30: 1st snow patch at 5600 ft
2:30: 1453
Met ZAC, who was trying a road, but I decided to forge ahead alone on the trail. Lots of snow at 6,000 ft. Turned back, encountered ZAC (the road was no good), so we decided to try the trail together. Really tough going, lots of snow, fell down often, skidding without micro spikes, finally camping around 7 PM. Took a long time trying to figure out where the trail was, and my iPhone's GPS wasn't a lot of help at times. More difficult than in the High Sierras, and not having an ice ax really hurt. Steepest snow slopes yet encountered. And I chose this section (Burney Falls -> Dunsmuir) because it had the lowest maximum elevation; i.e., it will only get worse.
In another 2 miles or so ZAC will race on to meet his wife. I will continue alone to Dunsmuir, hopefully with less or no snow (no more passes or high elevations); I am very tempted to call it quits for the year because of the snow and the house move.

1456.5, 20.5, 6,200 ft