~Interstate Highway 5 to ~Etna.
Miles 1,500 to 1,609.
Days 75 – 79.
The Pacific Crest Trail climbs up dramatically from the interstate 5 corridor, gaining thousands of feet in elevation. This section includes some of the most scenic mountains of NorCal including the Trinity Alps and Russian Wilderness.
Day 75
I camped just a few short miles before the I-5 highway crossing. Hot weather is in the forecast and I am at a low elevation – the highway itself is located at less than 3,000 feet with high mountains on each side. It’ll be hot in the valley today! I felt eager to get down to the highway, resupply, and start the climb back up into the mountains before the midday heat struck.
I arrived at the highway and was greeted by two trail angels doing trail magic out of the back of a pick up truck. Suddenly, I realized that I recognized one of them – it was the same angel that gave me a ride to and from Independence, CA in the Sierras. Turns out that this guy is following the bubble of hikers along the length of the PCT in his car, and doing trail magic along the way.
I sat and chatted with the trail angels for a bit, then grabbed a paper cup of coffee to drink on the go. I faced a 2.5-mile road walk on the frontage road. This walk took me around a short trail closure and also conveniently brought me closer to a convenience store where I’d sent myself two packages.
Soon, I arrived at the store and picked up my two packages. The first contained my resupply – about 6 days of food for the upcoming stretch between here and Seiad Valley. The second box was my new sleeping pad.
It felt wrong throwing my old pad into the dumpster at the convenience store. True, it is so worn out that it is not worth the cost of mailing it home. But my Z-lite pad is the only item in my pack that I also used on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, back in 2014. I pushed aside any sentimental attachment to the worn pad and tossed it.
I got in and out of the convenience store with my resupply and new pad quickly. It grew hot and muggy as I started the climb up from the highway. Before long I was sweating and exhausted. Around 2 pm, I stopped at one of the crossings of the aptly named “disappearing creek” – an intermittent stream that is fed by groundwater in some places and disappears back into the ground in others. Very interesting to a former hydrogeology student like me.
Disappearing creek included one of the best swimming holes of the trail so far. I took a dip in the lovely jacuzzi-sized swimming hole located under a small waterfall. It was surprisingly deep too, and I fully submerged over my head. Then I settled in for a much-needed siesta on a hot day.
I sat at the water source, chatting with the other thru-hikers stopping there. Mostly, they were folks that I didn’t know. It appeared that by rushing through town, I’d caught up with a new group of people I hadn’t met before. Later, Swish caught up with me. Today, he hitched into the town of Shasta to resupply and buy new shoes. The two of us left the waterhole in the evening and continued slowly uphill for several more miles.
Around sunset, we reached a beautiful campsite on an open ridge with views of Mt Shasta and the other surrounding mountains. Several other thru-hikers were already camped there and we decided to join them, unable to pass up such a lovely spot. Though the climb was hard, the scenery was outstanding. Today set a high bar for the upcoming section.
Day 76
Today was a day that I’ve looked forward to for quite a while. Today, myself and 9 of my friends were headed to the lakeside cabin of trail angel Hank, aka “the Owl”. The Owl’s cabin is located two miles from the PCT. Myself and my friends were looking forward to heading there for a day of rest and relaxation.
I got in contact with the Owl before I even began my thru-hike. The Owl is the father-in-law of Kristi, a friend of mine from my local woman’s trail running group back home. The Owl generously extended an invitation to me and my trail family to come spend an evening at the cabin and enjoy a day at the lake.
The Owl is a longtime trail angel and trail maintainer in Northern California. That’s how he ended up owning trailside property on Picayune Lake. Some years ago, the parcel of land that now houses the Owl’s cabin belonged to a logging company. When the land went up for auction, the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) wanted to buy it – as the land includes 2 miles of the PCT. However, the PCTA couldn’t afford the land, so they reached out to the Owl and asked if he’d have interest in buying it. The Owl and his wife purchased the land then sold the part of the property with the trail back to the forest service; protecting the corridor continuing the trail for future hikers to use. Owl is a trail angel and trail steward through and through – not only supporting us hikers, but also helping to protect our public trails and lands.
After a lovely morning walk on the ridge, myself, Swish, AC, Stag, Hush, SnakeEyes, and 100Grand arrived at the dirt road near Picayune Spring. The Owl picked us up and soon we were enjoying his wonderful cabin. Later, the rest of our party who had fallen slightly behind rolled in. We all enjoyed a day of swimming, boating, fishing, and just lounging around on the fantastic porch at the Owl’s cabin, enjoying the stellar views.
We also all enjoyed the opportunity to do laundry, using the bucket laundry system at the Owl’s off-grid cabin. We were all thankful for the opportunity to wash our clothes – especially our socks. The recent trail has been dusty and ashy which makes our socks get dirty fast and causes all sorts of foot issues from chaffing to blisters. I’ve been washing my socks at every opportunity. Even so, the rinse water for my socks never runs clear. It looks like tea at best, and chocolate milk or even ink at worst.
For dinner, the Owl cooked up a big batch of chili, corn on the cob, and salad. We all enjoyed eating together on the back patio. It was a wonderful rest day with friends.
Day 77
I think the Owl was surprised by how late our group slept in. We all hike hard. But we all know how to rest hard too. But once we all got up, the Owl served up French toast and coffee and shuttled our large group back up to the trail in his truck.
We started hiking before 11 am, and it was already pretty warm. We followed along an open ridge – which was beautiful, but my body started cooking in the hot sun. Fortunately, I reached a lovely little lake right at lunch time and took a quick dip. I’ve gone swimming every day at mid-day for the last 4 days.
The afternoon and evening miles flew by. Today, there was very little climbing or descent. The trail basically follows the same contour line around the sides of the mountains. But starting tomorrow, there will be lots more climbing.
Around sunset, I came across a pretty little campsite on a ridge. I’d planned to walk another mile. But it was just too pretty to pass up.
Day 78
Today, I decided to hike 34 miles. It would actually be my second longest day of my trip, though only by a little bit – I’ve done a handful of days in the low 30s, and only one day in the 40s. Most days, I hiked 20-something miles. Sometimes fewer miles on days going into/out of town.
I woke up early for me and started hiking at 6:30 am. Many miles later, I stopped at a water source to have lunch with a group of several thru hikers. It was a pretty uneventful day overall. No swimming or other adventures. Mostly I just hiked. There was a good bit of climbing, which was challenging, and lovely views off the ridge, which is typical in this recent section.
I crossed through a few small patches of burned forest. I don’t know what fire these are from. But there are already beautiful wildflowers growing beneath the burnt trees. So I’m guessing it’s not a very recent fire.
I camped and ate dinner at a lovely forested saddle, with a big group of other thru-hikers. The sunset was lovely. I was quite tired from my big day, and fell asleep around dusk.
Day 79
I woke up and it was actually chilly! I’ve been hot all day and pretty much all night recently, so any time I’m a little cold it’s pretty exciting. Even so, I removed all my extra layers before I started hiking. I knew I’d be sweating soon enough.
This morning, we hiked into the Russian Wilderness, which so far is stunning. I was surprised to see snow this morning! I haven’t seen any for a while. Since it is July and the trail stays below 8,000 feet for the rest of the way, I really wasn’t expecting any. I also hit the 1,600-mile mark today – which means there’s just over 1,000 miles to go!
Around lunch time, we arrived at the road to the resupply town of Etna. Almost everyone I’ve been hiking with planned to head into Etna to resupply. However, I had carried enough food from I5 to make it to Seiad Valley. I sat down to eat lunch and watched my friends struggle to hitch on the low-traffic road.
However, as I finished lunch, a car pulled over and had room for additional hikers. I made an impromptu decision to head into Etna for a quick restaurant meal, then head straight back to trail.
Once in Etna, I got a burger and grabbed some extra candy at the dollar general. Swish, Stag, and I also found some blackberry bushes hanging over a fence and snacked on free fruit as we walked around town. Finally I stopped by the public library to charge up my devices.
While hitching into town was easy, hitching back out was a struggle. When I started trying to hitch, after 4 pm, almost no one was heading back up the mountain towards the trail. It took me until almost 6 pm to get picked up. A new low for me.
I enjoyed hiking back up into the stunning mountains of the Russian Wilderness as the sunset. For the first time in a while, I hiked until I needed to turn my headlamp on – around 9 pm this time of year!
Adventures with Val 
Leave a comment