8/17/2023
Section: Milepost 1586.3 to 1561.4
Total Trail Miles: 1378 / 2650
Distance: 25.38 Miles
Moving Time: 10:29
Elevation Gain: 3317 ft
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We woke the next morning to the continued clinking of cow bells. It was a cute sound for sure but it had kept us up last night, constantly fearing a 1200 pound animal was going to come barreling through our campsite. I don’t think cows have the best night vision. We ate breakfast, had some tea and were underway at 06:48.
The path today is kinda frustrating because, for the last 3rd, our heading is literally north…when we should be going south. The route follows a shallow “U” shape through the Klamath National Forest, starting with a traverse around the southern side of an east-west running ridge before dropping down to the Carters Meadow Summit on the Callahan-Cecilville Road where the Trinity Alps wilderness is entered. From there, the trail zigs and zags high above some drainages in an easterly direction, eventually passing under Eagle Peak, at which point the trail turns northeast. At about 16 miles in, the path breaks through the tree line and offers beautiful views of the Trinity Alps wilderness, before descending east off the nose of a ridge to the Mosquito Creek NFS campground. The path then parallels a NFS road for the last 5 miles winding up then down to the Scott Mountain Campground on Highway 3.
Today was pretty uneventful. As we were making our last preparations to leave, we encountered our first NOBO of the day. He asked us which way we were going and we told him south. “That is good. I think this is better.” he said in a strong European accent. It was heartening to see NOBO’s coming through this section, as we looked south to the Deep/Upper Fire.
We eventually bottomed out around mile 6, at Carters Meadow Summit and started climbing again. 5 solid miles of climbing brought us up and out of the saddle and onto the ridgeline. Signs of past and present fire surrounded us. We encountered an older group of weekend hikers along the way with their dogs and talked to them for a while. They are always interested in our progress and story. They said a car at the summit had been broken into and some beer had been stolen, which was a bummer. Once back up on the ridge we looked out onto…smoke. Kinda sad, because we had heard that the Trinity Alps were beautiful but, this is August in northern California these days. Without grand views out, we focused on our feet and saw 3 little frogs along the way. Sometimes you just have to appreciate the little things.
At mile 16 we started our descent. We had started hopscotching with a younger guy who was also headed south. 4 miles on we bottomed out again and started the short and final climb of the day. At the top, we ran into our fellow NOBO again. He was contemplating the path ahead. As we passed we asked where he was thinking of camping for the night. “I’m not sure, I was thinking about going down to Scott Mountain but I heard a group got smoked out there a few nights ago,” he said before taking a heavy drag on his cigarette. Amanda and I shared a grin at the hypocrisy of that comment and then said we were going to give it a shot before wishing him luck and continuing on. Again, we didn’t know it at the time, but the group he was referencing was our fellow, nameless thru-hiker who had bailed at Scott Mountain to retreat to Etna and jumped down to Dunsmuir because of smoke in the middle of the night.
Four more painful miles of downhill brought us to Scott Mountain campground where a bathroom was located in the middle of about 10 sprawling campsites. We picked a nice one close to the entrance and got set up, relishing the presence of a picnic table to keep our things off the ground. After our typical activities and some nice ramen with shredded beef we passed out under a darkening sky.
