Day 95: Best of Times, Worst of Times — Ugly American Adventures

8/19/2023

Section: Milepost 1537.8 to 1512.2

Total Trail Miles: 1427 / 2650

Distance: 25.11 Miles

Moving Time: 09:54

Elevation Gain: 1696 ft

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You can really cruise when your total ele over 25 miles is less than 2000 feet. Gotta love these days.

Despite threatening skies when we went to bed, there was no thunder and lightning last night so we got some of that lux sleep. We woke next to the gorgeous lake, got ready to go and were out by around 8 am this morning so… couple of late starts these past days.

The stage today is gorgeous and features the beautiful Castle Crags state park just south of Mt. Shasta. The PCT starts today by making a small climb out of the Deadfall Lakes basin before staying very level through the middle half of the stage. After leaving the basin, the trail passes out of tree line for a little before crossing above Toad Lake to the south. Here the trail turns south and traverses along White Ridge, eventually crossing above the Fawn Spring basin. At mile marker 10.22, the PCT crosses NFS Road 40N45 and then Road 26 shortly after Blue Divide. At 13.2 miles, the stage crosses high above the 7 lakes basin with great views down into it while heading due east. 4 more miles brings on the border of Castle Crags wilderness and beautiful views down onto the main wall of Castle Crags before a huge traverse around the North Fork Castle Creek drainage - this time worth it because shooting straight across would mean several thousand feet of elevation gain and loss. The stage ends with a brutal descent into the North Fork valley.

We made our steady and short climb out of the lakes and eventually regained the crest. We had some beautiful views as the PCT passed abovef treeline - the cool air of the morning settling some of the smoke for us. The early part of the day passed uneventfully. Sometime in the morning we ran into a huge group of weekend warriors and were passed by a true-SOBO girl going too fast to have any time to talk with us. Gotta love those “more than a hobby” thru-hikers. Above toad lake we ran into a few women from Bend who insisted on taking a picture of us, which we obliged, before heading on.

About midday we stopped for another dreaded water filter session but, at White Ridge spring, I encountered 2 women already filtering and struck up a conversation with them. They were from Redding and doing some smaller sections of the PCT and offered to let me use their Sawyer when I mentioned that I hated filtering. The difference was night and day. I filtered 2 liters in less than a minute. “I have got to replace this thing,” I mused as Amanda showed up just behind me. We talked with the couple for a bit longer and they gave us some cheese, which was amazing. A woman we had met earlier came by with her incredibly well-behaved Belgian Shepherd who had found himself a nice stick to take home. We thanked the Redding couple and followed the Belgian Shepherd up the trail.

The middle part of the day passed without much to report. Loads more weekend warriors due to the many NFS roads and trailheads in the area. After about 6.5 hours, we reached the North Fork Castle Creek drainage traverse and stopped to take in the beautiful granite wall below us. In Siead valley, Niccolo had given us a few campsites that he recommended stopping at and this was one of them, one of his favorites and for good reason - it was beautiful. Unfortunately for us, the day was still young and we were exiting out to Mt. Shasta the next day which we wanted to make as short as possible, so we continued on.

The North Fork Castle Creek drainage traverse was brutal, mostly because it looked like it should have been quick but, in reality, it was about 6 miles and took a solid 2.5 hours to make happen. It’s frustrating to see your trail right there and have to hike for hours to get to it. In any case, we reached the far side and started down the steep section on impressively cut switchbacks into the North Fork Castle Creek valley. As we started our descent, Amanda caught sight of, to her chagrin, a critter we had not seen in a while - a baby rattlesnake. “Ugh,” she said “this day just took a turn.” It wasn’t long before I saw my own, heightening our fear that maybe we were seeing a recent hatch of new serpents - not a wonderful thought. As we descended further, the conifers gave way to oak trees. Not sure why, but oak trees, for me, heighten a certain creepy crawly feeling. I think some of it is that I associate oak trees with ticks but they also drop a lot of leaves which makes the forest more noisy and with the presence of snakes, neither of us was really stoked about the descent into the valley.

Eventually we ended our descent into what had quickly become Amanda’s hell, nearly stepping on another rattlesnake near where the spring should have been. It was at the spring, literally called Disappearing Spring, that Amanda said wryly “I know what’s disappearing - my patience” which made me laugh, even more so because she was not, exactly, in a humorous mood. We found some spots that had been cleared of oak tree leaves and made a very tentative set-up of our tent. As we finished setting up we heard something big traversing the lower section of the ridge about 50 yards from our tent site. Probably just a deer but we pumped our headlamps up to max to try and catch some sign to confirm that suspicion. We couldn’t find whatever it was between the oaks which just made everything even more uncomfortable. Finally, I begrudgingly decided to go find this water that was supposed to be about a quarter mile up the trail. It was now dark and Amanda said “Hurry back - this place gives me the creeps.” So I set of. About 20 yards down the trail my headlamp started blinking at me, indicating a low battery. I cursed and ramped it down to its lowest dimness and continued on. As I made my way up the trail I caught sight of a light and, as I approached, saw a single guy setting up his tent. We said hello and he said he had found the water and that it was just off the trail a little bit. I thanked him and headed in the direction he had pointed, watching the ground for snakes. Eventually, I found a gorgeous pool of water, like straight out of a Hollywood film set, and got to work filtering. When i had finished I stopped back by the guy and talked for a little bit. His name was Midnight because, as he said, “that’s when I started putting on sunscreen.” I thought Amanda would like hearing about a fellow Ginger’s trail woes. Conscious that she was holding the dark at bay by herself, I wished Midnight a goodnight and headed back down the trail soon finding that Amanda had retreated into the tent.

We made a quick dinner and skipped some of our other routines due to the general oppressiveness of the place before going to sleep.