Wednesday, June 06, 2018 - 11.40 miles A loud brring sound and underbrush noises woke me up at 5:30 AM today. In retrospect I suspect that the brrr was made by an annoying variety of bird that makes a loud sound when taking off, but at the time I interpreted it as potentially bearish, and …
Tag: California
Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 10: Hurrah for Elevation!
Tuesday, June 05, 2018 - 11.70 miles 1068 metres/3505 feet of climbing today. I missed Umbrella Spring, thinking that the water sign was related to the Castle Creek tributary (there's 0.7 miles between them, so I must have been moving quickly for once), and was careful with my water until I reached the next source. …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 9: Meat-Eating Deer
Monday, June 04, 2018 - 8.70 miles I'm going to skip describing my rest day in Mount Shasta, which involved a lot of glorious lazing about that readers would find extremely dull. Today my nose was less congested and I walked to an interchange to hitch my way back to the PCT. Getting a ride …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 8: Public Nudity = Bad
Sunday, June 03, 2018 Visiting Ammirati's Market this morning, I bought ice cream and a sandwich for breakfast. When I picked up my resupply package at the post office, the employee had just offered a ride to one of the hiker couples, who needed to resupply in town since their package hadn't arrived. There was …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 7: You’re Doing It Wrong
Friday, June 01, 2018 - 14.4 miles The sun returned today, but shade moderated the heat. After more elevation gain, I got my views of Shasta and Shastina and Castle Crags, then the trail began a long descent to Castella. I tweaked a calf muscle and it was pretty painful, so I wrapped it and …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 6: Break From the Heat
Thursday, May 31, 2018 - 13.7 miles The day dawned cool and cloudy, which was nice after the recent heat. Lots of forest walking today, not much to say about the scenery. I met two more thru-hikers heading SOBO from Dunsmuir and warned them to watch out for the poison oak. The guy said 'oh, …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 5: Land of Poison Oak
Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - 13.10 miles Today was a descent to/ascent from the beautiful McCloud River. Of this area, Four-Eyes had told me something along the lines of 'the plants are poison oak, the trees are poison oak, everything is poison oak'. I was imagining a green tunnel and hoping the descriptions were exaggerated. …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 4: Coldpocalypse
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 13.5 miles My nose was congested overnight (I was probably snoring horribly, but the others were too polite to mention it) and my cold finally hit me like a hammer today. I used up the optimistic number of tissues I had brought, then reused them as they dried in the …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 3: Meeting Thru-Hikers
Monday, May 28, 2018 - 12.60 km I was surprised today by a steady stream of southbound thru-hikers, early starters who had hit the Sierra Nevada in wintry conditions and flipped up to Dunsmuir. The first couple I saw told me that they had tried starting SOBO at Seiad Valley (third in my list of …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 2: Coughing up a Lung
Sunday, May 27, 2018 - 11.10 miles Rock Creek was roaring when I passed it this morning. One of the positives about hiking at this time of year is no water worries, and there's also a large variety of wildflowers. Lizards scuttling everywhere and butterflies. https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49485344601/in/dateposted-public/ My goal for the day was a campsite that …
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Pacific Crest Trail (2018) 1: Day 1
Saturday, May 26, 2018 - 12.10 miles I got a ride to the trail today with an older fellow who kindly offered me water and a heavier jacket (he rightly detected that my rain jacket sucks, but I also have my grocery store poncho). The trail started out through forest and I soon spotted a …
BANE OF THE TRAIL 