Start point
Dirt Road intersection at mile 1453.7
End point
Ash Camp and McCloud River, mile 1472
Miles hiked
18.3
Wilderness area
Shasta National Forest
People I met
Moses
The day on trail
Today was so fun. It was a really nice, easy distance with the terrain with a wonderful treat at the end.
The day started off with some optimism. It’s really easy to see the new growth at the ends of their branches. I hate how much these forests have been ravaged by fire, pine bark beetles, and other effects of climate change. It’s just really great to see a touch of growth. Those lighter tips at the ends of the branches are new pine growth, and it’s all over the forest.
After a little walking I saw something else that delighted me: mushrooms. I’ve missed being in this kind of lush area with fertile soil and moisture.
But just because we’re in Northern California doesn’t mean rattlesnakes are gone.
I saw this one well before I was on him. I set my poles down to take some photos and he started coming toward me. I gently tossed some rocks to land near him and he turned around and went off trail into the bushes. Then I just ran past where he got off trail.
A little further there was a sign that was falling apart.
I saw this bumblebee flying around, landing on different spots and trying to find a good place to burrow. She was covered in dust and undeterred from her mission — sounds familiar.
The views of Shasta and the butterflies were great. There was just so much around that I found so much joy in, including a woodpecker feather.
I found this little cave thing.
There were these giant trees. It’s not that I haven’t been around other giant trees, but sometimes the scale of it all just comes and hits me. These moments leave me feeling both strong and insignificant at the same time.
I still love seeing PCT signs.
Some of the blowdowns were really gnarly. I didn’t take pictures of all of them. This one was interesting to navigate under and over. The way around it was actually just up the hill a little bit. You can see the makeshift foot path to the right around it.
There were a lot of blowdowns though. It was hard getting past some of them. For some, the path around was on slippery, loose dirt down the side of the mountain. For others I had to crawl under or vault over.
I got to one of the last stretches of trail today. It was a dry stretch, and I was walking in a lot of sun with dust. I was running a little low on water, though nothing dangerous, as I knew water was ahead.
I came to a spot with a little left-behind trail magic. There were things I didn’t need: battery banks, electrolyte powder, a can of tuna, and an overflowing trash receptacle. Lots of hikers disappoint me by littering when they should pack out their trash. I don’t know why they think it’s okay. It’s disgusting to leave it overflowing and completely against LNT that we agreed to.
At least I saw this cute mushroom nearby.
Finally I rolled into Ash Camp. It was by a convergence of two rivers. One is runoff from, I think, a dam. The other is a creek or river that drains from a mountain. With the former, there are signs that the water can rise rapidly and unexpectedly.
I took off my clothes, rinsed them in the water and got the sweat out of them. I sat in a little pool area and washed off my legs, dunked my body under the water and got the sweat and dust off. I felt new, afterwards. I made my way over to my pack, threw on my warm clothes and set up camp.
I looked around the campgrounds a bit. There was a single pit toilet that was far, far neglected. It was downright creepy. There were mystery stains on the walls, rat poop on the toilet, a paper wasp nest on a wall, and a general horror movie vibe about the whole shack.
Nonny, Swiss Cheese, and Eva rolled in later. I showed them the spot to rinse off. They made their way there and cleaned up while avoiding some of the other people that had meandered in. We made fun of the pit toilet and commented on its horror quality.
It was Canada Day, and Eva and Swiss Cheese taught us the “Canuck Stomp”. They, much later, revealed it was made up. It was a camp song they used to sing and they pretended it was a whole Canadian tradition.
Seriously. They got us. I loved it. It was a perfect prank.
But after that it was time for dinner, then bed. With all of our stuff tucked away so the deer wouldn’t get it.