We didn’t sleep as well as we’d hoped last night. It wasn’t quite cold or breezy enough to keep the bugs away and they started bothering us early in the morning. It was chilly when we finally got up – a nice change that we’re hoping will stick around. As we were eating breakfast we met our first full-fledged southbound thru-hiker. Bobcat started at the Canadian border in late June and battled snow in the Cascades for 200 miles before it got easier. Going southbound is harder than northbound for this reason among others, like starting in such rugged terrain right off the bat. For him to make it here – 1200 miles already – he must have been hiking very long days.
We’re back into semi-mountainous terrain with bare scrub ridgetops that give lovely views of all the peaks around us. In this section we’ll hike through lots of little ranges – the Scott, Salmon and Marble mountains and the Trinity Alps, all part of the larger Klamath mountain range. We caught glimpses of Shasta all morning between intervening ridges, clouds, and a smoke haze that obscured everything except the peak. It seemed like it was floating, disembodied, in mid-air. While on a snack break we met another hiker named Krusteaz who updated us on a nearby fire. The road to Etna, our next town stop, is closed to everyone except locals. This will make our hitch harder and we hope it will still be semi-open when we get there in a few days.
We stopped a little short for lunch at Deadfall Creek near two lakes of the same name. Our water sources have been a little unreliable so we decided not to pass up a good one. The creek was on a nice grassy saddle covered with lots of wildflowers. It was a struggle not to fall asleep in the sun but we had many more miles to hike yet. We set off for a roundabout afternoon. The trail would take us north, then west, then south over the next few hours.
We hiked on the side of the ridges through sparse forest and high arid scrub. The trail was very well maintained – no brush slapping us in the face like last section, but we had a lot more rocks underfoot to contend with. At least we’ve left the gnats and poison oak behind for the moment. We seem to have traded them for bees, though, which bug us as soon as we stop for any reason. They are fascinated by us for some reason and will spend long minutes hovering around and scoping us out. I’m a little wary after getting stung in Lassen but so far I haven’t had a repeat.
As we neared the end of the day our feet were really getting sore. This seems to happen earlier than normal on our first day back on the trail, like they’ve instantly gotten out of shape. This, plus rocky terrain and heavy packs (way too much food for three days) meant that we had to really push ourselves to reach the next water source before dark. We passed one fake-out – a barely-moving trickle – before reaching the spring marked on our maps. We pushed on to look for a campsite. The terrain didn’t give us many options but Keith found one just as we were about to give up and go another 2 miles to the next water. He celebrated by backtracking to get water while I set up the tent and dodged all the curious bees. We made great miles today but we’re exhausted and very glad to crawl into bed.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 1560