Pacific Crest Trail Hike: CA Section O & P – Mile 1420 – 1600

The PCT CA Section O & P tested me in ways that I had not been previously tested. There was an intense heatwave throughout this section which added a layer of difficulty. Some of the days were slow moving and the miles were hard earned. I also had my first interaction with a wildfire that would change the trajectory of my hike. There were positive things in this section as well including great social time with other hikers, trail magic, and a good amount of swimming in the natural resources.

PCT CA Section O & P Summary

Statistics:

Days: 7
Full hiking days: 5
Zeroes: 0
Neros: 2
Total Trail Miles Hiked: 150.6
Total Miles Hiked: 149.2
Trail Elevation Gain: 22,847 ft
Trail Elevation Loss: 20,741 ft

Highlights:

Enjoying the small treats of the trail in the form of rivers/lakes for swimming and trail magic.
Hitting 1500 miles!
The trail community continuing to provide.

Lowlights:

A heatwave was pervasive through this whole section which made me switch up my hiking style. It was also just unpleasant.
The first fire of the trail came much earlier than years prior. It was hard making a decision to skip trail miles.
Did I mention the heatwave?

PCT CA Section O & P Detailed Version

Day 103: Mile 1410.8 – 1435.7

Trail Daily Miles: 24.9
Total Daily Miles: 25.5
Total Trail Mileage: 1435.7
Elevation Gain: 4037 ft
Elevation Loss: 1996 ft
Weather: Hot, Sun
Overall Day Sentiment: Hot but grateful

Much to my dismay, I had to leave Burney Mountain Guest Ranch to continue on hiking. It was another wildly hot day, so I got an early start with Yeti as we made our way to Burney Falls State Park. This was just under 10 miles away which was a good way to break up the day. I’m unsure if it was the relaxation I felt from the zero day or some other phenomena but we both entered a flow state during this section. At one point, I thought we had maybe done 4 miles but I was already at 7 miles meaning I was off by an hour. It was a pleasant feeling because in the last section, the miles seemed to come a bit slower.

Burney Falls State Park was beautiful, though somewhat inaccessible due to construction. Typically you would be able to hike down the falls and swim in the pool that the falls feed into, but that was closed. I had to look on to this majestic cool water pool while dealing with the sweltering heat. Luckily the small gift shop was open and I enjoyed a 9:00am milkshake.

Soon after leaving the state park, the trail crosses a one lane dam. I had seen this in videos before and it was much larger and more powerful in person than I realized. Because it is a one lane road across, it can be dangerous to pedestrians. For this issue, they provide an air horn to blow that would allow hikers to warn oncoming cars (a la a car horn) that hikers were on the road. I didn’t see this and the mischievous Gang Signs blew the horn at the exact moment I was starting to ascend the other side and scared me deeply for a brief moment. A reminder to always stay vigilant.

The day did turn out to be quite hot, so Yeti and I, among many other hikers hunkered down underneath a bridge during some of the hottest hours of the day. We all ate lunch and chatted while dipping in and out of the water. At one point, we all laid on our mats and fell asleep for at a minimum 30 minutes. Another hiker, Motion, arrived to the river at this time and I’m sure had a very funny sight upon his arrival; 6-7 hikers passed out. After the river was a climb, but overall not too bad. This was a bit of a water carry due to the excessive heat (95F/35C+) and needing to drink more water than normal.

After the climb, I was greeted with beautiful sweeping views of Mount Shasta – a large volcano that can be seen for hundreds of miles while on trail. Yeti, Gang Signs, Bear Cage, Forest, and myself all camped up on the ridge. Most of us were gifted with a beautiful sunset on this peaceful evening. I ended up cowboy camping for a second time and slept much better than the first time partially due to me wearing earplugs to block out snoring from others. I woke up in the middle of the night and was able to see the sky/stars crisply and clearly. It made me grateful for the experience, people who push me out of my comfort zone, and for my lasik eye surgery 🙂

Day 104: Mile 1435.7 – 1465.0

Trail Daily Miles: 29.3
Total Daily Miles: 29.9
Total Trail Mileage: 1465.0
Elevation Gain: 4212 ft
Elevation Loss: 5226 ft
Weather: Hot, Sun, Snow??
Overall Day Sentiment: A slog.

This day also started early to avoid the worst of the heat (are you noticing a pattern for this section yet?). A few miles in there was a potential road walk that meant to cut off some of the elevation gain, so Yeti and I took it. Unfortunately it didn’t go wholly as planned and we ended up bushwhacking a bit to re-find the trail once the road petered out. Once back on the trail, it was an average day. There was not going to be any site or attraction of note, just a lot of miles.

We did run into some snow, which was a welcomed relief in the heat. I laid down on it to cool down and appreciated it for maybe the first time while on trail. It is a strange juxtaposition for there to still be snow in Northern California while nearing 100F/38C on a daily basis.

This is also the location where we ran into another hiker in distress. They had been at Burney Mountain Guest Ranch with us so there was some rapport. They had gotten turned around because of the overgrown trail and the snow and was escalated. This person had previously been helicoptered out via the SOS button on their Garmin (a few times). Yeti continued on, but I sat with her for about 30 minutes using some deescalation techniques from my previous profession which seemed to help. I hoped they were able to continue on with their hike once settled.

After the snow and escalated hiker, the remainder of the day was business/hiking as usual with some sincerely overgrown parts of the trail. Scratchy branches and hot leaves rubbing your entire body while sweaty, hot, and dirty is just not fun. The last water source before camp was a small flowing creek with cold water – what a treat! As I was crossing it, ie stepping on a few rocks, I slipped and completely turtled. My entire pack was turned down in the water and I got drenched. Luckily none of my sleeping items got wet and truthfully, the cold water plunge was nice after such a hot day. I am unsure why the tiny creeks are the ones that take me out whereas I never once slipped/fell in the Sierra.

As I approached the desired campsite for the night, I still had not run back into Yeti. But as I had done nearly 30 miles that day, I was not going any further to catch up to him. Motion was cowboy camping at the site as well so we were able to have dinner together and talk trail. Eventually Yeti shows up to the site indicating that he was behind me the whole second portion of the day. Turns out he took a nap slightly off trail and I passed right by him! In an unfortunate turn of events and way to wake up, he woke up to the distressed hiker sitting near him completely escalated again – despite my best efforts previously outlined.

The campsite itself was one of the only sites in a many mile span because of the type of trail; tight trail to the mountains, not much flat space. It is known for having a few incessant deer in the area. Once the sun started to go down, they made their appearance. They are attracted to the salt hikers provide via food, sweaty clothing, sweaty trekking pole handles, and my personal favorite – urine. I had to make sure that I went a decent away from my tent as they dig at any pee spot for minerals. I ended up putting in my earplugs at some point because it was a deer digging party.

It was just a hot, long, strange day.

Day 105: Mile 1465.0 – 1490.5

Trail Daily Miles: 25.5
Total Daily Miles: 25.2
Total Trail Mileage: 1490.5
Elevation Gain: 4793 ft
Elevation Loss: 4617 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: A meh day

Another hot day was upon me which meant an early wake up. It was the 4th of July and this is perhaps one of the stranger ways I have ever spent that holiday. The beginning of the day continued to walk along a tight trail heading towards the McCloud river. A few more hours were spent along the river looking at it from above which were really the only views until the evening. Staying in the trees with no views while being hot and having miles to get through lead to a slog of a day.

Eventually we got to a large river which preceded a large climb, so the plan was to hang out in the shade in the river for a few hours in the afternoon to wait out the heat. It was a beautiful river that had giant lush plants in contrast to the bit of a burn zone I had been in and out of. After a dip in the river, I took a nap which gave me the energy to do the last climb of the day. There was also a bit of trail magic in the form of hidden candy stores which also fueled the impending 3000ft.

Once up the climb, we were just exhausted, and picked probably one of my least favorite campsites to date. For some reason the mosquitoes chose this spot as well and for one of the first times, I was covered head to toe along with my head net to prevent bites. This may not seem drastic but reminder that it was still over 90F at this point so it was either a choice of being eaten alive or sweating to death. Needless to say, I swiftly set up my tent and hid in the mesh the remainder of the evening. There was a mosquito symphony of buzzing that was heard throughout the night. There was also firework sounds in the distance to celebrate the holiday.

This was a hard evening for me because I was so uncomfortably hot, being bullied by bugs, and nostalgic for what July 4th normally is. It is no surprise that I was looking forward to a town day the following day.

Day 106: Mile 1490.5 – 1502.2

Trail Daily Miles: 11.7
Total Daily Miles: 8.2
Total Trail Mileage: 1502.2
Elevation Gain: 596 ft
Elevation Loss: 2957 ft
Weather: Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Excited for 1500 miles though overall low

After a fitful hot night of “sleeping” for me, I was excited to get into town. It was a short hiking day into Dunsmuir, CA which was made shorter by a road walk cut off. On my digital mapping application, it was suggested to take this cut off because of the views alone – so this is what I did! It saved 3 miles in the heat and provided stunning views of Mount Shasta. Though I was going into Dunsmuir, CA this was also the exit point if you wanted to go into the city of Mount Shasta, CA. I chose Dunsmuir to stay closer to the trail rather than straying farther away as I was not planning on taking a zero day.

Yeti and I caught up with Prick and Bags and we were all able to get into town that day, which of course was a treat! As was frequent on trail, I specifically remember breaking out into a giggle fit here. These giggle fits make me nonverbal (read: non functional?) for a minimum of 15 minutes. Typically it is something silly that sets it off, but this time it was just something simply stunning. On the way into town, we crossed over the 1500 mile mark and made a sign out of pine cones. Though I just had hit the halfway point, 1500 felt significant as well. When did I ever think I would walk 1500 miles?!

As we were on the road into town, unsure of how we were going to get into town, a trail angel named Doc showed up dropping off other hikers. He was able to give us a ride to Castella, CA, where Yeti had shoes waiting for him at the small market. He then came back to pick us up and drop us off in Dunsmuir – all for a fair price. I went to the post office as I had packages waiting for me that had my next resupply and some new gear items. There was a large group of hikers there (8+) all doing the same thing; reorganizing boxes on the lawn of the post office. A group of us went out to breakfast while we waited for our hotel check in time. A cute breakfast/coffee/bar? was great after such a hot stretch on the trail – they even had gluten free beer for me!

We got checked into our hotel room and though it was a nice room – the air conditioning unit left much to be desired. The whole point of getting a hotel room when it is upwards of 100F/38C outside is for the air conditioning. Though they tried to rectify the issue with supplemental fans, it was still plain hot. The four of us ended up going out for dinner where I consumed my 93,820th milkshake of this heatwave. A brief resupply and of course a purchase of more ice cream and we were tucked in. Bags had to temporarily leave the trail for a family situation and we were unsure of when we would see her again, so it was a bit of a melancholy evening.

Day 107: Mile 1502.2 – 1521.0

Trail Daily Miles: 18.8
Total Daily Miles: 18.6
Total Trail Mileage: 1521.0
Elevation Gain: 5710 ft
Elevation Loss: 1173 ft
Weather: Hot, Sun
Overall Day Sentiment: Okay heatwave, please be done.

The previous day, Yeti had organized a ride back to the trailhead with Doc, the trail angel, for around 8am. On the ride back to the trailhead, we had heard about a fire in this next section between Dunsmuir, CA and Etna, CA that was roughly 100 acres. Though 100 acres is a sizable fire, it was nothing to be too concerned about at that point, so we set off.

The climb out of Dunsmuir, CA is infamous as it is both beautiful and completely exposed. It winds through the Castle Crags wilderness area which serves up epic views of … craggy rocks indicating that it is properly named. It was the hottest day of this heatwave with highs topping out at 108F/43C and when the climb was exposed – it was a slow slog for me. Stopping at most water sources and getting more water/drenching shirts was the key to success. Additionally, I used my sun umbrella which lessens the heat that comes directly from the sun. I had a few great podcasts lined up for this climb as well so although it was a slog, I got through it.

Yeti and I called it at under 19 miles because I took so long on the climb (sorry!). A quiet, hot evening tucked into the trees to escape from the setting sun.

Day 108: Mile 1521.0 – 1553.0

Trail Daily Miles: 32
Total Daily Miles: 33.2
Total Trail Mileage:
Elevation Gain: 3131 ft
Elevation Loss: 3618 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot, Smoke
Overall Day Sentiment: Woof.

As a result of my slow hiking the day before, I didn’t cover as many miles as hoped. That meant, you guessed it, an early start to the day (5:30am) with hopes of an over 30 mile day as over the course of the day there was mild elevation gain. Luckily, there were some lakes that provided motivation to get going. I stumbled upon trail magic around 7:00am that had beers, pop, and some salty snacks. I got there before Yeti and the joy on his face when he realized there was trail magic is still unmatched. Though it set us back 20-30 minutes, we enjoyed what the trail provided!

We ended up having a later breakfast/first lunch at Porcupine Lake which was a dreamy oasis from the heat. Near the water it was several degrees cooler and the views were pristine. It was about 0.4 miles off of the trail, but well worth the 0.8 mile round trip visit. Later in the day, there was another lake that looked too good to pass up. I ended up going on a full swim for 20 minutes which really cooled me down. Some of these lakes are quite cold so it takes some nerve to dip into and may take some peer pressure, but it is always worth it.

I ended up running into Blaze Physio at a trailhead with her distinct red van. I was able to say hi to her and Honey and got a popsicle in the scorching afternoon which was a real pick me up. It is fun to run into the same people along the trail as it reinforces the feeling of a trail community.

The last 9 miles of the day were some of my hardest. I was exponentially slower than others due to the heat and I felt as though I was just pounding miles to get miles done. There was also a bit more smoke in the air as the day went on which was weighing heavily on me as I was nervous about the previously small fire growing. Eventually I got to the campsite at nearly sunset and did not feel like putting up my tent so I attempted to cowboy camp. All was well until ants started crawling in my quilt, as quilts do not fully close on the back. So after the sun went down, I sloppily set up my tent in the dark as to not wake up the peacefully sleeping Yeti.

It was just one of those days.

Day 109 Part 1: Mile 1553.0 – 1561.4

Trail Daily Miles: 8.4
Total Daily Miles: 8.6
Total Trail Mileage: 1561.4
Elevation Gain: 368 ft
Elevation Loss: 1154 ft
Weather: Smoke, Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Thankful for a safe evacuation off of the trail

I woke up with a stuffy nose, itchy/uncomfortable eyes, and a cough. Overnight the Shelley fire exploded and tripled in size. There was a terrible haze in the sky where the smoke plume had spread out. I got a Garmin InReach message from another hiker confirming the stats of the fire with my observations. Though I had planned to get into Etna, CA at the Etna Summit, there was a real chance that we would need to get off of the trail at highway 3, which was about 40 miles before.

Once we got to highway 3, it was confirmed that rangers were encouraging folks to get off and not continue on to Etna Summit because they may get turned around. Even though it was not officially closed yet, it would have been awful to do another 30 miles, have the fire spread, and then need to turn around and redo that hypothetical 30 miles. Additionally, hiking in dense smoke (AQI was 400+) is not healthy.

Also at the road, were Prick, Frozen, BigFoot, and Forest. They had a ride coming for them from a trail angel who had already given a ride to another carload of hikers. The trail angel showed up in their Subaru Forester and we began an interesting game of Tetris. Yeti and I were not convinced that we would also fit in this car, but Forest remained positive. We did in fact all “fit” and got safely to Etna.

More on my time in Etna and the Shelley fire in the next blog!

Enjoy these photos from the PCT CA Section O & P!

xoxo Kanga/Leeann