Offloading picts, of course, from my last few days from Castle Crags to Parks Creek summit.
Taking extra long for technical reasons as usual - which is why I say "wasted": feeding the needs of the technology. This time around, I filled up the 1tb Toshiba hard drive, and have been "inventorying" the other three drives I have along. Deciding to clear out my Toshiba "A" drive that held photos from 2012 Jan thru July. I've got those backed up on several different larger drives in various places around the country (thanks Liz & Becca!)
Have also been catching up on news, some "good", actually, like this:
http://www.pcta.org/2014/pct-tejon-ranch-step-closer-19979/
This reinforces my justification for leaving that one last SoCal PCT section undone "indefinitely": namely the "aquaduct-walk" between the "hiker Town" Hostel on hwy 138 at Lancaster's 269th street, where I left off, and hwy 58 at ___ road, where I resumed. When I was at Hikertown, I talked to the owner who said he had purchased a new house on 300th street to be ready to relocate his Hikertown when the trail moved there. This still has the trail going down all the way to the valley level, though the route coming off of Liebre Mt diverges just before reaching Pine Canyon Road, heading essentially directly north to cross hwy 138 at 300th Ave instead of eastward to align with 269th street at hwy 138.
It then will head northeast into the "foothills", I call them, of the Tehachapi range. I guess the newsworthy milestone reported in the above link is the assurance that the viewshed from those foothills into the Tehachapi Ranch lands will be protected by easements procured by the Tehachapi Ranch Conservancy. Of course, due to these foothills being Condor habitat etc., there are additional hoops to negotiate before an actual trail can be constructed. Years away, still, they say. Ah well, maybe this new years eve., I'll hike or maybe "poach-bike" this quasi-roadwalk.
Note: the term "poaching the trail" refers to bicycling a trail closed to bicyclists. So I learned from Bodfish, the bicycling enthusiast who owns a bike shop in Chester, CA on Lake Almano SE of Lassen Park, that I visited while "passing through" there last fall. I bought a very brightly yellow-orange-green-colored t-shirt from him, that I sometimes wear while bicycling, and a self-published biker guide - I actually bpought that at a bookstore also in town, then made sure to stop at his store to ask him about his experience publishing that, because it seemed similar in "style" to what I envisioned my book-to-be, tentatively entitled "Section-Hiking the PCT with your road-bike and the bus". He said it was a lot of work, for little gain, essentially. Oh well.
And now I've totally side-tracked myself, forgetting how much time it takes to write up even this wee bit. It's way past my bedtime, and still have miles to go before I can sleep: I started at the Shasta Library as I said. meantime, somewhere between these lines, that library closed, I went outside to looming thunderclouds, took some snaps I hope to share eventually, moved on to buy a rotisserie chicken at Ray's Market (ubiquitous grocery chain in this area) wolfed it down with a bag of salad mix, moved on, filled my water bottles at the downtown town water faucet (by the police station across from the Fifth Season Store where I bought my new hiking pants the other day) moved on through a bit of rain and lightning to Weed where I entered the McD's just as their power went out, briefly. Here I've been.
Plan to be back at Parks Creek summit tonight, will probably do an overnight out& back hike tomorrow to above Kangaroo Lake. This is a potential Car-drop-off for me as it's a bike-coast down to Callahan and from there to Etna, which will be my starting point for the next section that I'll do north to south, from Etna Summit back to Kangaroo Lake. We'll see. I may also, after that overnight O&B north of Parks Creek Summit, go south for a day-hike up Mt Eddy. We'll see.
As usual, hope to post-date accounts of my actual hikes...
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