Burney Falls, catching a hitch to Mt. Shasta, bugs, bugs, bugs!

To parody a commercial we all know...
Days on the Trail = 88
Miles Hiked = over 1,500
Experience = Priceless!

The crew split up in the town of Burney so that Nightrider and Pancakes could meet up with family and friends further up the trail. Since we had already lost a couple in our group to injury, we were getting smaller by the mile. The Burney Falls State park area was so beautiful and the waterfalls were awesome. Burney Falls is pictured above.  

Liam trying to escape the bugs!

Before coming on the PCT, I had read about the bugs.  I honestly have to say that they are NOT exaggerating when they speak of how many mosquitoes and bugs eat you up out on the trail.  The over abundance of flying insects, however, didn't diminish the beauty of the Hidden waterfall at Camp Rock Creek.  We go to great lengths to keep away from the bugs. Liam is modeling his favorite headgear.  DEET doesn't stop them. 

We keep having close encounters with deer. I am not sure if it is because we all smell a little bit stronger or they are more plentiful, but they seem to be everywhere.  They want to get our gear for the salt left behind from our sweat.  They ate everything they could get their hands on.  Also we have seen herds of them as well.  Here is a short video I took: video of Deer

LIchen on the trail

This part of the trail we began to see a lot of lichen. There was so much you couldn't ignore it. The lichen provide food, habitat, and nesting material for a lot of the animals in the Pacific Northwest. They absorb moisture very quickly and hold onto it for a long period of time. They come in all sorts of colors and textures. They are present nearly everywhere on tree trunks, shrubs, the ground, and rocks. In large numbers they form kind of like scum on wet areas of the ground. They are both a fungus and alga but they give the appearance of a single plant. They make their own food so they don't injure what they grow on.

We started hitting 35 mile days and it has been feeling really good. As a runner, I ran a "long run" every week. Those of you that are runners will know what I am talking about. Sometimes I ran 17-20 miles at one time.  It feels really good.  On long runs you get in a rhythm and aren't really as concerned about your speed, you are just ticking off miles.  The 35 mile days are like my long runs, I am getting in the zone and checking out.  Letting my mind wander.  The longest distance I have ever covered foot running or walking has been 35 miles. The 35 miles we are going through now has a lot of up and down movements. It has been really hot and humid. At the end of each day, I have felt sore and gotten really dirty. It reminds me of my long runs on the dirt roads in Stillwater, OK.  The soreness feels good.  I know I am accomplishing a lot of hiking.  The elevation changes are severe some days we go up 7,277 feet and then go down 9,400 feet.  35 mile days are coming easy to Alex as well.  In order to make it through the mountains of Washington before the snow comes, we will have to put in a lot of 35+ mile days so getting into a rhythm is what we both needed to do.  

We had been seeing Mt. Shasta for over week as we headed toward the Oregon border.  After seeing it for so long, we just decided to climb it.  It was really a random stop and so glad that we decided to go for it.  There was a 7.5K vertical climb in 3 miles which is a crazy incline.  After we made the decision to climb up Shasta, we had to find a way to the trailhead. We started out trying to get a hitch.  

That is where a guy named Joe comes in.  We had asked for directions to the local grocery store and met up with Joe.  He is a very creative guy.  He took us to the fish hatchery, Heart Lake,  and then Mt. Shasta trailhead. The Mt. Shasta Fish Hatchery has open ponds of rainbow and brown trout that are used to stock the mountain fishing streams, rivers, and lakes in the area.  I can't thank Joe enough for taking time out of his day to help us make the distance.  Joe was one of the people we have met along the trail that I won't forget.  In a short period of time with him we exchanged memories, stories, and he inspired us to continue our nomadic journey up the top of Mt. Shasta.

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Atop Mt. Shasta

After summiting Shasta, we could see some angry skies in the distance and had to come down a little sooner than we would have liked. Instead of hiking all the way down, we glissaded as much as we could.  It took us over 7 hours to climb up and only 2 hours to come down thanks to the snow.  Liam got some good footage of us coming down the mountain.  Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead.  We slid down over 3 miles on the snow.  Here is a picture I took earlier to give you an idea of the incline.  It was so much fun.  

The terrain continues to be amazing. You can see if you have been through my journals that I am going through very different ecosystems along the way. All of them have their own beauty. I know that the peace of this nomadic lifestyle will beckon me to get out on another adventure from time to time in the future.  For now I am enjoying each day's challenges and getting into a rhythm of steady hiking.

Heart Lake on the way up to Mt. Shasta.

Liam, Bassboat, has to go to a wedding next month so he is going to have to make changes in his itinerary to work around his commitments. When Liam leaves, the group will dwindle down to 2 hikers - Alex, and me.  We are starting to see fewer and fewer northbound hikers.  That is a sign that many have given up the trail.  I am finding that it takes a long time to get your trail legs under you, but once you have accomplished that the miles come much easier and the distance you go each day is more significant. The "herd" is the biggest bulk of the thru hikers.  They should still be about a week or two ahead of us.  

As we are hiking, we are not seeing any more day hikers.  We have finally started meeting up with those doing the PCT from a southbound hike.  A large majority of the hikers start in April and finish at the end of September hiking northbound.  The southbound hikers normally start much later and they finish the desert part closer in the winter when it isn't as hot. I don't know the exact proportion but I do know that there are significantly more northbound than southbound hikers. 

The epic picture of Liam on Mt. Shasta

Fish

Zach relayed the above post via text and phone conversation.  He was having trouble with cell service. I apologize if I have made an error in transcription. Kayla