8/23/2023
Section: Milepost 1468.2 to 1444.1
Total Trail Miles: 1495/2650
Distance: 24.66 Miles
Moving Time: 10:15
Elevation Gain: 4587 ft
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Today was another less-than-exciting day. These stages, on the south side of Mt. Shasta, are pretty low and all in the trees. There are some exposed ridges to see out from but it’s mostly ground pounding in the woods which, at least, allows for a faster pace. The route today goes entirely east and a little north. On the Pacific Crest Trail you have to get creative with the “wins” and for me today’s route is a win. That is because, if you zoom out on the PCT through Northern California, today’s stage marks the end of the “due east” travel we have been on since Day 95 and, while we continue to travel east from here, it is typically south and east. So… little victories.
Today starts on a due south trajectory as it runs the course out to the end of a ridge east of Butcherknife ridge before it turns east and north. The first 6 miles are composed of consistent climbing as the trail makes its way up and out of Deer Creek, eventually gaining Stout’s Meadow USFS Road at 5700 feet. From there, the elevation profile stays fairly steady, moving up and down as the trail traverses high above the impressive Kosk Creek basin. At mile 17, Mushroom rock is reached and the trail winds along a wide ridge, through the Bartle gap and ends around the 24 mile mark, where the trail crosses Summit Lake road.
Got another late start today - just tough with everything damp. By 8 am we were up, fed and out. The sleep last night was okay. I got a tad bit chilly but, given the conglomerated sleeping bag, wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t a cold night and the gurgling of the creek provided some nice white noise. Plus… I now have decaf coffee crystals. While digging through the hiker box at “The Fifth Season” in Mt. Shasta I discovered a glass container with decaf coffee crystals in it and what a score that was. I suppose someone probably abandoned them because they were trying something similar to me with the caffeine purge and just couldn’t do it anymore. I’ve thought about giving up too - the draw to make the mornings a little more supercharged is a strong one. This will probably be my gateway back to coffee if I'm being honest.
As we climbed up and out of Butcherknife creek and especially on the climb out of Deer Creek, we started to notice appreciable overgrowth on the trail. I always have to be careful to walk back a bit from Amanda. Usually I am right on her heels but the first time I get thwacked in the face by a branch that she inadvertently holds back to swing into my face I immediately draw back a little bit. We neared the top of the climb out of Deer Creek in around 3 hours and took a break on Stout’s Meadow road. The sun was really out now so we, again, brought out our tent and sleeping bags and laid them out to bake. As we tucked into our snacks a girl showed up on the trail and sat down with us to take a snack break. Her name was Light Weight and she was from Chicago originally but doing her residency in Boston. A guy we had seen briefly the day before with a Green Bay hat showed up but kept going and then, for the first time in 2 months, we ran into Twister and Husband, the 2 Czech guys we had gone back and forth with in the desert. They reached the road coming NOBO and we caught up with them for a bit. They had gone through the Sierra and were hoping they could avoid any fire closures ahead. We told them about the Etna bypass but that maybe it had been brought under control - we weren’t sure. After a bit we all went our separate ways, LightWeight leading the way South ahead of us.
As we traversed above the Kosk Creek basin, the overgrowth got pretty terrible. We weren’t cutting a path through it yet, but it was starting to get oppressive. We ran into a guy section hiking the Northern California Section of California and talked to him for a bit. He said the trail was generally in good condition but that the overgrowth would continue for another day or so, which we both groaned about and then told him he was almost out the other side. Along the ridge, we caught a few good glimpses of Mt. Shasta behind us; kinda weird we hadn’t seen it a little more over the last 10 days, there are definitely more views of it on the south side sections of the trail than on the north side. We passed Lightweight and continued on, eventually stopping at Bartle Gap to complete that dreaded activity - filtering water. Fortunately, LightWeight caught up to us and offered her filter when she was done. We gladly accepted and got the task done in a quarter of the time before we all continued another 4 miles down the trail.
Another hour and a half brought us through a cleared spot. The USFS had been doing a lot of clearing and there were quite a few slash piles laying around but towards the end we ducked back into low trees and skimmed along the top of a large basin with epic views looking west. The sun was setting and made the sky glow in beautiful pinks and purples.
The campsite was just on the outside of a nice little meadow and we set up on a large pre-cleared camping pad. We thought LightWeight had carried on a bit further but heard her voice and figured she was somewhere just ahead. I set up the tent and Amanda got the water going. We had carried it from the last fill-up spot as this campsite had been reported dry. That night, for the first time in 2 days, we crawled into a dry bag and reasonably dry tent and passed out with conviction that we would finally wake up early and get out on time the next day.
