I-5 at Castella (mile 1501) to campsite at mile 1487
Total PCT miles hiked: 753
Due to our early start Keith (Starman) and I arrived at the Sierras when there was still a lot of snow, and decided it wasn’t safe to attempt a crossing given my skill level. We elected to flip up to northern California and hike southbound (SoBo) back to where we left off near Lone Pine – giving the snow a chance to melt out. During this flip the PCT milage will be counting down, but I’ll include a tally of our total milage hiked so that you can keep aprised of our progress in a linear fashion.
We drove out of Reno under leaden skies – the same ones that had tailed us since Lone Pine. It’s astonishing how quickly one can dispatch miles when traveling by car. Within four hours we’d crossed over the mountains, past small communities and long, shallow lakes, reaching the town of Redding, CA where we’d returned the rental car and taken a Lyft to the trail near Castella. In the four days since we’d left Lone Pine, we’d skirted around nearly 750 trail miles – just about the same number it had taken us six weeks to walk. If our only goal was expediency we would never thru hike.
Our driver dropped us at an unremarkable under pass on the I-5, likely completely unaware of how drastically different this environment was to the one we’d left just a day before. We’d lost the gradual shift in climate that one savors during days and weeks spent walking, having instead been plunked from one place to another via the miracle that is modern automotive technology. But my stars is this new place amazing. Steep hills rising from stream-cut valleys. Dark green trees dripping with humidity and sunshine covering every square inch. Shade! Deep, obscuring shade through which our perfect trail cut. Shade like this doesn’t exist in the desert. Shade like this has been but a memory the last eight years in Los Angeles. I savor this feeling as I make my way up the trail.
And it does feel like our trail. We’re likely some of the first thru hikers to come through this season as evidenced by the general debris of rocks and sticks carried onto the trail by melting snow. Also, and somewhat less pleasantly, by the innumerable spider webs that I walk through. All afternoon we climb through this lush forest, so different than what we’d grown accustomed to in the desert. Off our shoulder stands Mount Shasta, it’s giant form reaching far into the sky, attracting an afternoon thunderstorm that sent rumbling thunder peeling across the valley while the trees overhead are showered in pure sunlight, stray rays slicing to the dark earth.
We don’t see another person all day. Our only companion is the fleeing backside and tail of a young mountain lion we lucked to glimpse as we round a corner to a water source. The forest is so quiet without the hustle of fellow hikers, it’s something I’m looking forward to having more of in the coming weeks.
What a change in scenery! Wooo!