We felt surprisingly good after pushing ourselves yesterday, but we still let ourselves sleep in a little before packing up camp. Today was another pretty uneventful day – not many views from between the trees, lots of winding in and out of forested canyons, and a general repeat of yesterday afternoon.
We faced two long climbs – one before lunch and one after. The last few miles before lunch were a little frustrating. As we descended to the creek where we would stop the brush on either side of the trail became very overgrown. We’d been dodging poison oak all day already and it was hard to avoid it with branches slapping us in the face. Section O, indeed. Thankfully this didn’t last long after we got going again and the rest of the trail for the day was pretty easy going.
Our second climb started after we crossed Squaw Valley Creek – more like a river than many creeks we’ve passed. It was steep at first but leveled off after a few miles and left us repeating the pattern of the day – in and out, following the contours of the ridges. We caught our first views of Shasta for the day, closer than ever before. We began to hear the road noise from I-5 as we got nearer and nearer. We had our eyes on a particular spot on our maps for a goal tonight. There were very few campsites and water sources listed for the last 15 miles before the highway but we thought a sharp switchback just before a creek showed promise as a place to camp.
Sure enough, when we got there just before full dark there was a flat spot between a few trees just large enough for us to set up. This was a good thing – both our headlamps are running out of batteries so night hiking is out for us. Keith went to get water while I set up and did a bit of blister doctoring. I wanted to wait until I’d gotten a shower since my feet are so dirty, but one of my heels had gotten so bad that I was worried about hiking the last 8 miles into town on it.
We can hear traffic and trains from our tent. We’re looking forward to town as always, craving a shower and clean clothes. Keith is looking forward to having a second hiking pole again. Tomorrow we’ll finish our hike in, pick up a resupply box from Castella, and hitch into Mt. Shasta City for some rest.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 1499