Russian Dust Challenges Thru Hikers on Pacific Crest Trail

Day 56, SOBO Mile 978.8, 1004.8, Grider Creek Campground

Day 1 of week 9. I did not think we would hit 1000 miles today. I was pretty confident we would be camping in the trailer park in Seiad Valley. Today I also learned we are not in California. We are actually in the State of Jefferson. This is an interesting state.

We flew off the mountain into town today. The Cafe closes at 2 and we wanted hot food and milkshakes. We made it there by noon. Unfortunately they were out of ice cream, so no milk shakes. We did get blueberry cheesecake which was excellent.

The store next door has a very convenient resupply. I purchased too much, Meriwether might not have purchased enough. Should work out. The resupply options were really good except for the tortillas, they were corn, not flour, and will probably fall apart before they all get eaten. Resupply was finished quickly and we decided to hike out of town.

The hike out of town is a 7 mile road walk. Our elevation is very low, the temperature was in the 80s making it a very hot hike. We got to the campground before 5 and set up midway between the pit toilet and creek.

After setting up, I rinsed my feet in the creek and got most of the dust off them. I’m not sure they will ever be dust free again.

Dinner was a challenge. The bees found us pretty quickly. There were more than I am comfortable with and they were swarming over everything. The campground has picnic tables which means we had a lot of stuff out and were really spread out.

After the water boiled, I added it to my bean flakes, and fled the area with only the dinner essentials. A smaller, more manageable number of bees still found me. I was able to eat in relative peace until the corn tortilla filled with refried beans and bacon spam started to fall apart. I only have 8 of those tortillas left and they will be consumed quickly.

Tonight is the first next to moving water in quite some time. The white noise is great and will hopefully make up for the much higher temperature. Happy Trails!

Day 57, SOBO Mile 1004.8, 1025.2, Paradise Lake

Today was hard. Lots of climbing, very warm. The views were excellent and the first 7 miles or so were next to a beautiful creek.

We started walking up a deep valley, maybe a canyon. It got light pretty quick even though the sun did not peak over the mountains until after 10. The temperature was cool, almost chilly. The last creek crossing had a great swimming hole which we skipped because the air was still cool and we weren’t sure when sunshine would arrive.

When the sun did arrive everything heated up pretty quickly. Even with the super low humidity, my pants and shirt wetted through in a couple hours. There was never more than 5 miles between water sources, I consumed two liters between each.

Our original plan was to go about 4 miles past Paradise Lake. The heat really slowed me down this afternoon. Meriwether need a few extra cat hole breaks this morning which cost us about a mile. She thinks the cheese cake, with fresh blueberries, caused some stomach issues.

Hopefully we can make up some miles tomorrow. We have laundry and shower opportunity in Etna the day after tomorrow and it would be nice to get there in the morning.

I had a hard time keeping my head in the game today. Meriwether prefers not to talk while hiking and slows way down when she does talk, so I get a lot of time to think. Our friend Ket let us know he is getting off the trail. I was looking forward to hiking with him some more, he is a great conversationalist.

Today I am thankful for the wonderful views I get every day. Not many people get to see these views. I am also thankful for the opportunity to hike this trail, even fewer people do that.

Our camp setting is beautiful. I’m glad I’m here tonight.

Day 58, SOBO Mile 1025.2, 1047.0, Dusty, No Water, Excellent Views

Most of the day I was doing great. We started off with a magnificent, hour long sunrise. Then we saw our first bear, running across a high meadow. The bear was young and smallish, not a baby.

We hugged the side of a series of mountains today. Stunning views, fairly easy going, only saw 5 other people.

The goal was to get as close to Etna today. 7 miles is pretty close. The campsite in 3 more miles sounds bad. The campsite in 5 miles doesn’t sound much better and it would be pushing dark when we got there.

It is obvious that many people love to camp where we are. There are at least 5 spots, clear of rocks, where many have camped in the past. The wind is pretty brisk and the ground is either rocks or dust. We are between two burn zones, there is no real dirt. The wind kicks up the dust and it sticks to everything.

Currently we are waiting for the sun to set. We are baking in the tent. I got about 80 percent of the dust off me with a bandana and a dehydrated wipe that I rehydrated with a capful of water. As soon as both the bandana and wipe were saturated with dust, I got in the tent. I can tell that more dust is already accumulating. Tomorrow I am promised a shower. The next day however we start the process over.

The sunrise, bear, views, and good spring water really lifted my spirits today. Mentally I am better off than this time yesterday. I think the dusty campsites will clear in a month or so and won’t pick up again in earnest until the desert. Hopefully there will be some epic sunrises and views to take my mind off the dust.

Also, I polished off the last of the corn tortillas this evening. Meriwether has promised she won’t let me buy them again. All is good! Happy Trails!

Day 59, SOBO Mile 1047.0, 1054.6, Etna, CA, Kathleen’s Place

It got nice and cool last night. Bright moon. Heard of deer roaming around the tent. The wind calmed down. I slept my worries away. Today is going to be a good day.

The sunrise was not as good as yesterday. We didn’t see any cool animals, except the deer that never left our campsite. The trail was kind, the views were nice, the temperature was near perfect. We were only going 7 miles to the Etna trailhead.

There is no Verizon service at the trailhead and we had not prearranged a shuttle. The first truck flew past, didn’t even wave. I sent a Garmin message to a shuttle driver and before I got the indication it had uploaded, vehicle 2 sees Meriwether’s thumb and pulls over. Less than 20 minutes and we have a ride.

The town of Etna is nice. We got a great lunch at the butcher shop. I got my first in a lifetime trail haircut. We laundered and bathed. Resupply at the local grocery was expensive but very convenient. We did travel to the local DG to get instant coffee and could have done a full resupply there. Local businesses, however, are what makes these towns really cool. Dinner at the distillery was very good. They didn’t have ginger ale so the manager made me a ginger beer from some homemade syrup they have.

Tomorrow our packs will be heavy and there is very little water. Meriwether says we are doing an only positive NorCal, so I shouldn’t winge too much. The place is beautiful, it just needs a good dusting (first) then the streams and ponds filled back up.

Comfy bed tonight. My trail sleep system is pretty comfy as well!

Day 60, SOBO Mile 1054.6, 1072.9, Deep in the Russian Wilderness

What a difference a day in town makes. Bouch showed up at the hostel last night just as we were going to sleep. We got up and chatted for awhile. He said that he is having a hard time keeping his head in the game, a thought I might have said out loud sometime over the last few days. We end up at the same place at the same time even though he hikes more miles than we do most days. I told him to catch up with us and hike with us for a few days. I would love to have someone to talk to, he seems to be a very interesting person.

We skipped cook yourself eggs and bacon this morning and went to one of the bakeries instead. First we feasted on day old baked goods. Then we feasted on freshly baked goods. So good.

Alisha drove us and a NOBO back to the trailhead. She has lived in the area forever and was fun to talk to. She picked up two other NOBOs at the trailhead and took them back to town. Looks like she has a pretty good gig during hiker season.

We only saw 4 other people on trail today. There is a lone SOBO about 2 hours ahead of us and a SOBO couple about half day ahead of us. We think the couple are Z & WL, they must have skipped Etna.

The mountains are beautiful. Rocky, frequent trees, less frequent water. The ups and downs are generally gentle. The burn sections today were minimal. Each of the 4 NOBOs warned us of the miles of sticker bushes in the upcoming burn zones, the said it only goes on for a couple hundred miles and we were smart to have on long pants.

We have 80 more miles to the next resupply in either Dunsmuir or Mt Shasta. If we do three 25 mile days we can have another short day into town. If we do three 30 mile days we might be able to take a zero.