Transcribed: September 14, 2013
From the Journal: August 23, 2013
Ben took off early this morning. Mom and I got on trail after outfitting me
with new clothes and shoes. I feel
pretty snazzy and maybe almost clean.
Mike headed to the ocean, he will meet Mom and I in Burney in eight
days. Today we walked through the
Trinity Alps, which was absolutely gorgeous.
Craggy peaks, beautiful clouds in the sky, Mount Shasta in the distance,
picturesque lakes in the basins below.
Most of the walking today is between 6,000 and 7,000 feet and the
expansive views are stunning. There seems
to be much less smoke and I have my mama here and we get to chatter away and
catch up about everything under the sun.
We walked about 20 miles by 5:30 and called it a day. This is a lovely time to be done hiking for
the day. We are cowboy camped near the
Scott Mountain Trailhead. Hopefully I
will get a good night of sleep and we will have an amazing day of walking
tomorrow. I didn’t expect to catch Ben,
but I’m still sad that I didn’t. I am
also overwhelmingly glad to have my Mom around to share a part of this journey.
August 24, 2013
What an awesome day of hiking with Mom. It was awesome to sleep 9+ hours, I needed
the rest. We were walking at 6:00 and
were able to greet the beautiful day. We
were chasing some cows up the trail for a while, but they did not try to charge
us, which was good. The views continue
to be expansive. I’m pretty impressed
with Northern California so far. There
were awesome views of Shasta and great cloud formations. When we were getting water from a spring, we
came across a patch of pitcher plants, which is a carnivorous plant, perhaps
similar to a Venus Fly Trap. They were
very strange looking. Mom and I have fun
with the flora and fauna identification.
We saw a good handful of North bounders today (maybe five) but definitely
less than we have been seeing. We are
camped at this lava surrounded lake called Lower Deadfall Lake. It is a lovely place to call home for the
night. Mom did her longest day at 24
miles and we made it to camp by 6:30 pm, which is super early for thru-hiking
standards. We had tortellini with pesto
and I am about to eat some chocolate and go to bed.
Darlingtonia californica - Cobra Lily
August 25, 2013
Mom and I woke up by the lake and were walking by 6. Before very long, it was pouring rain. This was somewhat discouraging. We made a short detour to Porcupine Lake for
water and had a short break from the rain.
I guess the silver lining of rain is that it’s good for miles – it is
less desirable to take breaks when you are cold on top of wet as soon as you
stop walking. The rain stopped around
midday and we had an awesome lunch up on this ridge with blue sky ahead and
very grey sky behind. In the afternoon
we entered the Castle Crag Wilderness.
The rock formations are unbelievable.
From a distance the silver-grey spires and towers really looked like an
enchanted castle. We stood in awe and
took a pretty ridiculous amount of pictures as we drew closer. I want to climb these mystery peaks so badly. Very ominous thunder and lightning was
chasing us, but luckily stayed a good distance away on the other side of the
ridge. I will say the crazy weather made
for some magnificent clouds. This
evening we dropped down into the forest and are about 10 miles from
Castella. Mom rocked out 26 miles
today. We are falling asleep to a symphony
of crickets.
August 28, 2013
I have been a much better hiker than journalist for the last
few days so I will have to play catch up.
The 26th was a very important day with Mom. It is the anniversary of the day BJ died and
I could not have asked for a better way to spend it then a day walking with my
Mom. We got into town and had coffee and
good food and later beer and ice cream.
We ran into Ben waiting for a package until the Post Office opened the
next morning. We camped at the State
Park, had awesome sandwiches and homemade guacamole and a campfire. It was most relaxing.
The next day we got back on trail and walked about 20
miles. It was very hot; luckily the
trail was mostly forested. There were
very nice views of Mount Shasta (finally out of the clouds) and the other side
of Castle Crags. There are very evil
gnats that constantly try to fly into my eyes when we are below 4,000 feet. I instantly regret sending home my bug net to
save one ounce. Perhaps the most
exciting part of the day is that I finally saw a bear! He was just ambling around in the woods when
I was scouting for a campsite. Neither
of us seemed particularly upset about the encounter and he did not eat Mom or I
while we slept. Today was also an excellent day. We were walking by 7 (I was in complete snooze mode this morning). We took breaks by a couple of nice creeks and walked along the raging McCloud River. We climbed high enough to escape the bugs and broke out of the trees to walk along the flanks of Grinley Peak. I believe we walked 24 miles today; Mom and I are ready for bed, but otherwise feeling good!
Mt. Shasta and Shastina (far left)
August 29, 2013
I am so tired this evening.
Mom and I did another 24 mile day, which is awesome! The morning was beautiful and cool, with
expansive views of green hillsides that look like they are moss-covered and
would be awesome to roll down but in reality are shrub covered and would
probably be quite painful to roll down.
Mount Shasta was rising out of the clouds this morning; we are quite
close to her still. A lot of the day was
hot, water sources were sparse and off-trail and much of the trail wound
through active logging sites. This part
was honestly pretty depressing and not at all what you would want or expect
from a wilderness experience. We also
found a rattlesnake, which moved away but then coiled up very
aggressively. We gave him a very wide
berth. Then we found this awesome
campsite with a gorgeous view of Shasta and the sunset. The stillness that set in as the sun sunk
below the clouds seems to fill up the whole world. We released some of BJ’s ashes to the wind at
sunset. It was a perfect way to end my
last night with Mom on the trail. The
time has been wonderful and rich, and went way too fast!
Our last night together - Rachel journaling before bed, Shasta in the background
August 30, 2013
Mom and I were up before sunrise in our beautiful
campsite. The silhouette of Shasta was
barely visible on the still dark horizon.
Actually, I think Mom was up most of the night watching shooting stars. We made good time into Burney, taking one
relaxing break to soak our feet in ice cold Rock Creek. We ran into Smooth at the camp store, he had
not yet been successful hitching out. We
had hot dogs, and a root beer float, and then the three of us pretty quickly
got a hitch into town. Soon after, Mike,
(Road Warrior), Huff and Puff and Cherry Bomb showed up. Ben left to hang out with visiting friends
and I had an awesome steak dinner with my parents. Mom and I were up late talking, wishing she
could continue on and that we were sleeping under the stars.
Soaking feet in icy cold water
Only 1418 miles to Mexico!
Burney Falls State Park
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