Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1524 to 1554. A soft pitter-patter on my tent awoke me in the middle of the night. In the background, I could hear the snores of Big Daddy rumbling like some Industrial Revolution machinery. I put in my ear plugs and went back to sleep. When I awoke next, it was...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1502 to 1524. I woke up not to the sound of my alarm, but to the sound of silence. I looked at my watch 6:00. We overslept. We started to pack up and went to get out our breakfast. Then we remembered. It was day one of resupply roulette. Our enthusiasm for...
Pacific Crest Trail
Town day in Shasta. A few days back when Bedazzled and I were bored while walking through yet another forested slope in Northern California, I brought up the idea of buying each other’s resupply in Shasta. It would be a sort of game. We would buy unappetizing...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1417 to 1499. I don’t plan to do this regularly, but the lead up to Mt. Shasta involved a lot of hiking so I didn’t have the energy to write a journal entry each night. Thus I decided to combine three days into one post. We left our campsite near...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1391 to 1417. There are certain things that stand out on the trail as milestones. Mt. San Jacinto, Mt. Whitney and Forester Pass are just some of the points that you set as goals to keep you moving forward each day. When you reach one, excitement wells up in your...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1363.2 to 1391 We woke up at our campsite just over the border from Lassen Volcanic National Park. With smoke still hanging in the air from the nearby wildfire, I expected a spectacular sunrise. We got one, but it was unfortunately blocked by trees. We were...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1343.5 to 1363.2 (plus 9 non-PCT miles) We camped .3 miles from the border of Lassen Volcanic National Park. New regulations require all campers to store their food in either bear boxes or bear canisters. We sent our bear canisters home after the Sierra, and we...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1315.5 – 1343.5 A rustle, a snapping branch, and hot breath. I quickly slid my hand over to my headlamp, aimed it, and turned it on. A comically startled deer with a face frozen in surprise as it nearly fell over itself trying to bound away. 10 minutes...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1257.2 to 1286.5. Like an ice cube floating in a punch bowl, we floated among the stars. Our campsite on the pinnacle of Lookout Rock gave us a 360 view of our galaxy. Shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way twinkled as we struggled to take it all in and...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1242 to 1257.4 We woke up at 5:00, and I could see Bedazzled looking at me to see if I was moving. “How about we sleep a little more,” I said, and we both rolled over and closed our eyes. We got a sleepy start at 6:00 and made our way among towering...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1226.3 to 1242. Rustling, a bound, a crash, and a snort followed by more snorts that sounded strong enough to rip out a lung. Stamping and then a leap into the bushes. The night time intruder was gone and the silence of the forest descended upon our campsite. We...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1197.9 to 1226.3 Our camp was perched precariously on the side of a forested mountain. Just off the zigzagging switchbacks on a ledge just wide enough for a sleeping pad. As I tossed and turned through a night of fitful sleep, I stared up at the trees towering...
