PCT Days 100 to 109 - Fire and Hailstones

Day 100

Nervous not to miss our bus, we both woke up pretty early and began slowly packing up. At some point, I headed down to grab breakfast, and it was once again madness at the Surestay’s food area. After breakfast, we cleaned up our bear cans and sent them back to Outside Jay by way of Uber courier, since it was cheaper than shipping. All chores done, we packed up and headed to the Greyhound station early. The place was a zoo and just as dire as I remembered it, with chairs ripped off of benches and half of the bathrooms destroyed… The bus arrived on time, surprisingly, and just after 10am we were back on our way to Mt. Shasta! The next 4 and a half hours were a blur as I read, went in and out of consciousness from sleeping, and occasionally became carsick. I can clearly remember what I was reading and that the kids behind us had their tablet volume on max, but that’s about it.

Thankfully, at 2:30pm, the bus rolled into town, and we headed into the Black Bear Diner for some air conditioning and food. We ended up staying for a while so that Anna could charge her phone and wait out the heat, so I also enjoyed another one of their excellent milkshakes. At 4:30pm we headed to the gas station so that Anna could buy some floss, and then Doc rolled up to whisk us back to the trail. There were fewer people around compared to our last time here, and there was significantly less snow on the mountain. As we drove up to the Gumboot trailhead, it was amazing to see how much different the area looked without feet of snow on top. Back on the trail, we said goodbye to Doc and his dad, and then proceeded to set up the tent exactly where we had had it last time, since it was already after 5pm. I treated my shirt with permethrin, but the bugs honestly don’t seem too bad. I’m hopeful that this section will make us excited to hike again!

Day 101

After a fairly restless sleep due to the heat, I rolled out of bed, turned on the new Thermacell to deal with the flock of mosquitoes that had arrived overnight, and started packing up. Despite the heat, our moods were high, and we were excited to return to this section. We quickly knocked out nearly 9 miles around 9am, stopping only for our breakfast cookie break and to take pictures. While we were resting, we noticed that the trailhead near us was for a trail that cut across the valley that the PCT went around. It was fewer miles but significantly more elevation gain and loss. After we checked CalTopo to make sure the trail was legit, we set off down it, always eager to see side trails. The initial switchbacks were cut nicely, and we saw a few deer, but shortly after that, the trail disappeared into overgrown brush. We found a forest road that paralleled it for a while and followed that until we crossed over the Trinity River. From there, we followed another very steep and exposed trail up 1700ft to Bull Lake. At the top, we were both soaked in sweat but happy to have crushed it by noon! We took a long lunch to cool off in the gentle breeze by the lake before heading out to crush a few more miles. 

From Bull Lake, we cruised a few more miles, finally found some water that wasn’t stagnant, and stopped for a quick water break. We met the only 2 other hikers we had seen all day, AC and Tom, who were also from Seattle. We chatted a bit and motored on, eager to be done soon. A few miles later, we realized that was the last water for a while, unfortunately, forcing us to walk a bit further than we had initially intended. Finally, at mile 1555.6, we found a small stream and grabbed some water. All day storms had been threatening, but they seemed to have dissipated, so when we found a good flat spot at mile 1556, we called it a day at 5pm, having done just under 29 miles. It was pretty hot out, so we sat about for a bit and enjoyed the breeze. A few small clouds rolled in and blocked out the sun, so we were finally able to lie in the tent and relax a bit. Annoyingly, the ground was so hot that the pads were hot, but it was whatever. After lying in the tent for a few, I noticed the clouds had gotten a bit darker to the west of us but that was it. As I started to journal, I heard a few huge splats and rushed to throw the rainfly on. Afterwards I leapt into the tent and apparently not a moment too soon! We were immediately smacked with a wall of rain, followed by quarter-sized then grape-sized hail… Despite not being in the forecast or warned by the National Weather Service, we were absolutely walloped by hail for a good 30 minutes. Fingers crossed the tent holds up and we don’t get struck where we’re at. This marks 18 days of notable precipitation on the PCT for those keeping track.

Day 102

We woke up at 5am to a mostly dry tent, but we saw signs that it had continued to rain last night. Once we were up and moving, the first 6 miles were very easy going, albeit hot and humid. A few miles in, Anna stopped abruptly and pointed, just in time for me to catch a mama bear lumbering away to hide behind a tree as her two very small cubs scurried up the tree! We stayed for a little while to watch until the babies climbed down and ran off with mom. Almost immediately after that, Anna nearly stepped on a very fat, green-striped rattlesnake. I have no clue what species it was, but it had crazy coloration. From there, we continued until we hit the downhill, where we met Shady, a 2024 hiker who was back to finish up where he had hopped off last year. We chatted about the insane weather the night before, and then parted ways as Anna and I began the climb up from Highway 3. The climb was broken up into two parts, making it nearly 3000ft. The trail wasn’t bad at all, but the heat and high humidity made it pretty rough. Along the way, we passed up what appeared to be a Boy Scout troop, a few amazing views of the Trinity Alps, but not much else of note. We reached the top around 1pm and stopped for lunch in a shady spot. Unfortunately, clouds were already rolling in…

After lunch, we grabbed a few more miles until we started to see lightning nearby. To play it safe, we stopped off to get full water in case we had to stop, and while Anna was filtering, I noticed an unsettling sight: a CalFire spotter plane doing laps around us. With our water full, we hustled over the ridge and through an exposed burn scar to try and find cover as the wind and rain picked up. Around 3pm, we found a nice sheltered tent site in an area of live trees and decided to call it an early day at 1575.3 rather than push our luck in the next 5 miles of burn scar. Once we were set up and in the tent, we were able to get reception and quickly learned that multiple fires had sprung up 25mi north of us along the PCT between Etna and Seiad Valley. Likewise, the national weather service had again put up severe thunderstorm warnings all around us, so overall not a great situation. As of right now, the trail is clear getting to Etna, so we’ll get to town and assess what to do about the closures. As of 6pm, we’ve only had a few sprinkles of rain, but thunder and lightning all around us. Fingers crossed it blows over.

Day 103

It did not blow over. Around 10:30pm, we were both awoken to nearby lightning followed by heavy winds, rain, and pea-sized hail. Thankfully, we remained dry and unscathed, but it was a miserable hour and a half riding it out. In the morning, I was dead tired from not getting enough sleep, so I dragged a bit during packup. Once we started moving, we noticed a faint smoke smell in the air before we quickly descended to the South Fork of the Scott River. Everything was soaked and muddy from the heavy rain. We stopped briefly to grab water and chat with some SOBO section hikers before heading up the humid and sweaty climb past Forest Highway 93. At the highway, we stopped again and chatted with a Forest Service worker who gave us more details on the fires, but also reassured us that we could still walk to Etna. Once we finally reached the top of the exposed 1400ft climb, we stopped for snacks and chatted with another SOBO section hiker named Fenway about a few upcoming snow patches. From there, we continued on up and down several 500+ foot climbs, most in exposed burned scars full of blowdowns. As a result, our pace slowed down considerably, and we kept having to take water breaks. Our last climb, starting at mile 1590.8, was particularly memorable due to all of the blowdowns we had to hurdle. At around mile 1593.4, we ran into a family out day hiking and got the scoop on the 4th of July in Etna and Mt. Shasta. We also noticed multiple firefighting aircraft zoom by overhead. From there, we forced ourselves to sweat out a few more miles so that we could camp next to the gorgeous Paynes Lake at mile 1595.6. I was so gross from sweat and soot that I almost went for a swim, despite the cold water and floating pollen. We thought about pushing further to make it to town today, but since we want to stay for the 4th, we figured we’d save some money and enjoy this gorgeous spot. Hopefully, we don’t have any more crazy weather tonight!

Day 104

Since we only had a few easy miles into town, we slept in an hour and had a slow packup and breakfast next to Paynes Lake. Once we were up, we easily knocked out the couple of miles to the ridge crossover to get down to Taylor Lake. There was a lingering patch of snow on the trail ahead of us that we had been advised to avoid due to multiple people getting injured on it, so we had chosen this side route instead to avoid it. The rough trail down from the ridge on the west side was all loose, steep rock, so we took it nice and slow. At the base, we had to do a bit of bushwhacking, but we easily found the paved Taylor Lake Road and followed it out. Halfway along the road, I shot Dusty, a local trail angel giving rides, a text on my Garmin, and as soon as we turned onto Etna Summit Road, she was there waiting for us! On our quick ride in, we chatted about the crazy storms, the fires, and what the best spots in Etna were. When she dropped us off downtown, she told us a wealth of info on how to get around the fire and then sent us on our way.

Naturally, we stopped by the bakery for snacks and Anna’s coffee before anything else. After we devoured our baked goods, we headed over to the Etna Motel to see about their availability. Derek, their incredibly kind general manager, said that the place was booked, but he had a room for us over at their other property, The Collier Hotel. The Collier was booked out the next day though, and we wanted to stay for the 4th, so he got us a room at the motel for the day after. Despite it only being 11am, he then let us check in early for free and showed us around the gorgeous house. Once he was gone, we each showered and did laundry. The house was a massive Victorian-era mansion where guests rented by the room and shared the bathrooms and other common areas. The only other person there stayed in their room the whole time, so we functionally had the place to ourselves! Chores done, we headed across the street for groceries and snacks and then whipped together dinner. I made steak frites, which we enjoyed while watching Starship Troopers. It is so wonderful to finally have access to a kitchen!

Day 105

Anna and I slept in late, completely comfortable in our beautiful room in the Collier Hotel. Eventually, we did start to stir around 7am, so I headed downstairs to make Anna some coffee and to whip together a massive helping of biscuits and gravy. After breakfast, we packed up our things and then read in the lounge room until around noon, when the general manager Derek, told us that our room at the Etna Motel was ready. Begrudgingly, we said goodbye to the beautiful old house and moved down the block into a cozy room at the motel. We dropped our bags and headed out to knock out our resupply. At Dollar General, I grabbed some snacks and drinks for the day as well, and we returned to our room and took it easy. After watching the Taskmaster season finale, Anna napped the afternoon away while I snacked and read. Around 6pm, we headed over to the Denny Bar Company distillery for dinner, and ended up joining up with AC, Tom, and Drew, the first two we had met a few days ago, but Drew was new. I had an amazing loaded buffalo chicken mac and cheese, and enjoyed the company. Afterwards, we considered going to the park to watch the local kids play with sparklers, but Anna and I were tired, so we instead opted to return to our room and fall asleep watching Sandlot. To cap the day off, the Astros even blew out the Dodgers, 18 to 1!

Day 106

Despite going to bed late last night, we were both up by 6am to be ready for our ride up to Seiad Valley to get around the Summit Fire. I grabbed a quick last-minute shower to savor the feeling of being clean, and then we headed over to the bakery to meet up with AC, Tom, and Molly (the local who offered to drive us). The bakery was slammed, so Anna and I grabbed drinks and donuts from the Ray’s grocery store, and then we headed out. It became apparent very quickly that Molly was a wild driver. Despite being a sweet old grandmother, she whipped her little Subaru Crosstrek through the narrow S-turns and switchbacks like a world rallycross driver. At one point, she even caused a man in a car to hastily pull over to let her by! On the long-ish drive up, she told us a little history about the area and a bit about her experiences having lived there for decades. Along the drive, we noticed massive patches of burned areas, a burned-out van abandoned on a side road, and State of Jefferson signs everywhere. We made it to the general store in one piece, and we made excellent time! After we said bye to Molly, I sat down to get over my carsickness a bit, and then we started to hike.

Based on the recommendations of friends and locals, we opted to hike out on Seiad Creek Road and Forest Route 48N20 up to where it joins the trail at 1672.3 instead of the trail because the roads actually have some shade and water, whereas the trail for that section is completely exposed. Regardless, the alternate route was still tough as we climbed up 3400ft over about 13ish miles. The last few miles (which were the steepest of course) were completely exposed to the early afternoon sun and mid-80s heat. We were good and tired by the time we reached the trail, so we took a long water break to rest and peek at the trail ahead. Between there and Ashland we had 3 remaining 1000ft+ climbs, and we’re expecting very hot weather the next two days, so we made the painful decision to knock out the immediate 1400ft climb in the late afternoon, where we could have slightly cooler temperatures and some shade. The climb turned out to be unexpectedly rough, unfortunately, due to blow-downs, miles of burn scar, cat’s claw (and other thorny post-fire plants), and just being constantly exposed to the sun. As we climbed higher, we could clearly see the plume of smoke from the Summit Fire a little way south of us. Finally, at the top, we found our intended tent site just a bit before 5pm near mile 1675.3. This might be one of our biggest days of climbing, but I’m glad we were able to knock so much out before the heatwave. What’s also exciting is that we should be in Oregon tomorrow!

Day 107

Worried about the potential to hit 98°F today, we were up and packed earlier than usual. The first few miles were terrible with blowdowns, so we were happy to have gotten an earlier start. After 6 or so miles of that, we found a forest road that paralleled the trail and hopped onto it. We saw and heard loads of cowbells nearby, but only ever managed to see one cow. We could still clearly see the smoke plume from the Summit Fire in the distance, and a hazy Mt. Shasta emerged. Because of the nice weather and gentle grade, we ended up hopping back and forth between the fire road and the trail, depending on shade and blowdowns. At mile 1690.6, we hopped on a different road to take a more direct route and found our first patch of snow in several days. After we skirted around it, we made it to Donomore Cabin around 1pm and stopped for lunch and shade. It was nice to have a shady comfortable seat for lunch, so we ended up hanging out for half an hour. In the meadow out in front, we saw a few deer but no other wildlife. Once we were rested and had some water, we headed up our big 1800ft climb of the day. Despite it being the heat of the day, the weather never became nearly as hot as it was forecast to be. We also had thick shade for most of it, which helped considerably. We made it to the top around 3pm, and then hopped on an ORV trail to skirt around a few miles of sloped snow. At 1699.8, we realized that there were no other water sources for at least 5mi, and we were tired since it was already nearly 5pm and we had done 25mi, so we made the call to play it safe and hike .3 downhill to Wrangle Camp for water. Once we arrived, we decided to just call it a day and not push ourselves too hard. The spring was a little hard to find, as were the tent pads, but eventually we located them and got set up. There were two goofy dudes there who were recent college grads playing “catch the rock.” I chatted with them a bit about Ohio over dinner, and then tucked in for an early night in hopes that we can glide into Ashland early tomorrow!

Day 108

Eager to get into town and beat the heat, we were on the trail and moving by 5:20am. The valley that Wrangle Camp was in further highlighted just how much daylight we had already lost since the solstice, although the cool darkness was fine by me. Right away, we took a forest road around Big Red Mountain, and we were rewarded with an incredible smoky sunrise over Mt. Shasta off in the distance. At mile 1703, we took another, more direct forest road straight up a climb to cut a few more miles on the way up from Siskiyou Gap. At the top of the climb, where the forest road paralleled the trail, we found coolers of trail magic, loaded with Shasta sodas! Anna had a cream soda and I had a root beer, which we sipped as we cruised along the smooth road. Eventually, it turned in the wrong direction, so around mile 1710, we hopped back on the trail. Right away, we started passing loads of dayhikers with dogs despite it being a Monday. We also started noticing the sky becoming much hazier. At Mt. Ashland Ski Road (mile 1713), we were offered a ride into town, and due to the heat and smoky air, we happily took it. 

Gretchen and Ray were incredibly kind locals who wanted to hear all about our hike. They also told us about Ashland, and advised us on where to shop. They ended up taking us straight to the Ashland Co-op grocery store since we were eager for some town food. After we said goodbye, we grabbed some snacks and headed over to The Columbia Hotel and checked in. The baguette and block of Jarlsburg never stood a chance and we finished it within the hour. Not long after we arrived, Bush rolled in! He had just skipped up from Mt. Shasta due to all of the fires behind us. Naturally, we grabbed some drinks from the convenience store across the street and caught up in the lobby. Once we were all showered, we headed over to a brewery for dinner and promptly got rained on by a massive thunderstorm passing through. Once the weather passed through, we stopped in an ice cream shop for gelato and settled in for the night. I ended up staying up late to get our laundry done, and around 10:30pm, I got a notification about a new fire nearby. Curious, I headed outside and could clearly see the flames lighting up the night sky on the hill across from us! Unfortunately, the storm had started a whole new slew of fires. I guess we’ll need to do some more research tomorrow.

Day 109

Despite the late night, I was up early at 5am on the dot, so once Anna and Bush were up, we headed over to the Ashland Food Co-op for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and pastries. We had agreed to stay for another full day, so we also picked up some more snacks before heading back to The Columbia Hotel to extend our stay. Once we dropped off our snacks, Anna and I strolled down the block to the Safeway to knock out our resupply before it became too hot. Annoyingly,  the selection was abysmal, so it looks like we’ll be eating more junk than usual for the next stretch. I grabbed an ice-cold Arizona Arnold Palmer on the way out, and we wandered our way back down to the street. Along the way, we stopped in at Mountain Provisions to swap out our now clean Darn Tough socks, to play with the dog again, and I finally replaced my threadbare boxers. The owner was incredibly kind and took the time to chat with us about our trail experience so far, what living in Ashland is like, what to expect in the next section, and to give us more detailed info on the fires that popped up the night before. Gear sorted, we dropped everything off in our bunks at The Columbia and then went to the ticket office for the Ashland Shakespeare Festival to see if we could grab some last-minute cheap seats to a show. I’m not very knowledgeable about theater, so I let Anna pick the show, and we ended up with prime seats for the evening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. I knew absolutely nothing about this play, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was excited to go to my first professional theatrical performance! Tickets in hand, we went back to the hotel and hung out with Bush in the lobby for a while before crashing in our rooms to grab some much-needed midday naps. Early in the evening, we all went out for Indian food to take a break from the usual trail food. Once we had cleared our plates, we made tentative plans for tomorrow, and then Anna and I headed over to the theater to catch our show. Our seats ended up being closer than I thought, and we had an excellent view of the whole stage. Funny enough, I think the two of us were the only people in the audience under the age of 70! The show itself was wonderful and brilliantly funny, especially compared to the current quip culture in movies. We both really enjoyed it, and we were glad that we had stayed an extra night! We stayed for the whole show, which did not end until around 11pm, which was tough due to our usual bedtime being 8pm. After the show, we walked back in the cool air, sleepy, but happy to have had such a good town stay, and excited to finally be in Oregon!