After 1200 miles hiked, grinding through the hot desert and the leg burning Sierras, Peru and I are tired when we got to Truckee. Problem is that we spent so much time in the Sierras that we are falling way behind and can't afford any more days off. We originally planned for mid-Sept but are now aiming for early Oct and even then it will be tight. Our spirits are high and we're still healthy but it's just that I know that we have to make some sacrifices somewhere along the way so we can finish in time.
It wasn't long before we had to make one. We were eagerly counting down the days when we would have the opportunity to visit my cousins Pam and Jeff Fleckser and take a real break. The problem was that we would have lost a minimum of 3 days of trail time and despite Pam's effort to make it happen we had to decline the offer and continue on. Both Peru and I were dissapointed but we have to keep going.
Mixed results on the way to Sierra city and beyond. The forest has changed from wild to used. I call it a beer can forest because of its multi use. Clear cuts, Beer cans, shell caseings and atv tracks scar the forest. There aren't any animals to be seen except for biting flies, yellow jackets and mosquitos. Yet, the bright side about this is that this aloud us to put on our headphones and up the daily mileage. A significant event also happened here is that we finally left California and enter the self declared State of Jefferson, our country's 51st state.
If our challenge to finish in time wasn't hard enough, things got even harder. I left my battery pack on a charger and let my phone die on trail without realizing I didn't have any backup power. As a result we have a whole section we couldn't photograph. But I may have not taken any anyway. A heatwave rolled in with temps here soaring over a 100 forcing us to night hike most of it. The heat led us to another critical decision which we made upon arriving to Old Station. Temps here were 110 the day we arrived with the next day expected to hit 115. Hat creek, the next section, is notorious for its lack of water and shade. So we decided to hitch around it missing 35 miles of trail. Trail snobs may stick there nose up at us now but after a few days of guilt about skipping, I had to remind my self that the PCT is secondary to having fun with Peru. So I quickly got over it.
The city of Shasta is a place everyone should visit at least once in their lives especially if you're willing to get out and mingle with the population. We learned about Lumarians and Atlantians that live in the mountain, aliens, crystals, portals and the three toed bigfoot. We were given four crystals from a man named Jeremiah and we're told to bury one in the Trinity Alps and carry along the other two so we could forever be connected to this sacred land. However, I had no intention of doing so as carrying rocks in my pack isn't something a thruhiker should do. My quick dismissal of the excistance of Lumarians and the power of the crystals may have cast some bad juju on us. After a lengty ride back to the trail and a big climb, we realized that we were out of propane. So we had to climb out and hitch back to Shasta getting sucked right back into its vortex. We lost two additional days of precious time.
The town of Etna was a special place. Never met a friendlier community. Everyone waves at you and locals went out of their way to make us feel welcome. The town allowed us to camp in the city park with locals bringing us pie and other treats. We ran into Legend again along with his helper Raven. Raven wanted to hike the next section with us which helped motivate us to keep going.
Ok. Were now in Ashland and planning our stroll through Oregon. Very few towns along the trail so we now have to mail our food ahead. The flip side to this is that there won't be any towns to take a zero day so we will be going non-stop all the way through making up days. At 25 miles a day, we should be through in three weeks. Well, that's The plan at least....
*Thank you all for support and comments. And thank you to Legend and all the other trails that got us through this difficult stretch.
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SAM: PORFIN EN OREGON!Despues dejamos south lake tahoe, fue un camino largo, pero se hizo corto pues pasaron una sucesion de cosas que merecen la pena contar.
Mi papa necesitaba una mochila como comente en la anterior actualizacion, ademas de un par de zapatos xD eran cosas cruciales y tuvimos mala suerte de no poder encontrar ni zapatos, ni una mochila que le fuera bien, ambos estaban en muy mal estado y la seccion que tocaba era demasiado larga, asi que decidimos que era mejor llegar a a un lugar donde el pudiera reemplazar sus cosas y no arriesgarnos a lesiones, asi que decidimos conseguir un carro que nos lleve un poco mas adelante, que era la siguiente parada.
Pasamos un dia y medio en Truckee, visitamos un museo y partimos caminando hacia Sierra city.
Un pequeño poblado casi casi en medio de la nada pero muy bonito, una pequeña gema en el camino, no tuvimos tiempo de preparar nada asi que decidimos pasar la noche, y fue en la casa de una señora retirada que decidio convertir su casa vacia en un hospedaje para los caminantes de PCT :D y hasta ahora, ha sido mi estancia mas placentera. Susan, la dueña de la casa vivia en una casita un poco escondida en medio de un jardin que parece que ella misma cuida, con acceso al rio que esta practicamente al lado y simplemente una casa extremadamente comoda, y ademas de todo eso era muy, muy amable y despues de tanto tiempo durmiendo acampando, en el suelo y en hoteles, era muy agradable sentirse como en casa.
Despues llegamos a burney falls! Un sitio hermoso con unas cataratas impresionantes, cuando llegamos alli, estaba pasando una oleada de calor y hacian 40 grados, pero cuando estabamos en la orilla de las cataratas hacian 20 grados menos y era demasiado genial, con suerte estabamos en ese sitio cuando hacia tanto calor.
Y entonces llegamos a Mt. Shasta! Ya casi 1500 millas y mas de la mitad del camino, necesitabamos una pequeña motivacion, nos encontramos con Legend y Raven, Legend es un angel que lleva ayudando a los caminantes por varios años y que alguna vez lo hizo el mismo y Raven una chica que decidio unirse con el ayudarlo. Nos ayudaron bastante mientras estabamos en Shasta y ellos nos dieron ambos viajes hacia la ciudad y fuera.
De alli llegamos a Saied valley, otro pueblillo remoto y amigable, aunque solo paramos un par de horas para ducharnos y lavar la ropa, de alli nos fuimos a la hora de almorzar y entonces hicimos todas esta seccion y pasamos a Oregon!!! Porfin!!! Segun dice el rumor pasaremos este estado muy rapido, ojala sea cierto y lleguemos pronto a Washington!
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