picts all seem accounted for, On with the plan

bought a new pair of hiking pants at 5th Season in Shasta, paying too much of course, but my otehr pair was shredded badly.  Asked them about options for boot protectors or as I called then plastic socks or gaiters that went over the shoe, they did say there were alpine gaiters that went over the boot for use with crampons, but probably overkill for my use. Described to them what I was doing they seemed impressed.

Headed to the Grocery store and got extra strenght garbage bags. Will cut them to shape for use as boot gaiters, try them out sort of (my microspikes are packerd at Castle Crags.)

Drove to Gumshowe Pass and prepared a food cache and found a good hiding place for it, then on to Weed's McD to doublecheck my picts.  Good to go.

Should be back in touch in about five days.

still on track to start tomorrow Castle Crags to Parks Creek Summit

Dallied the morning away at the Dog Trailhead just SW of the State Park, actually making a list (several lists for backpack, daypack, other todo's while with car.)  Finallyaround 1pm  got the main backpack packed and hiked it up the Dog Trail to it's junction with the PCT and found a perfectly invisible spot above the trail to hide it (wrapped in a garbage bag.)  Back down to the car & a stop at the frontage road where there's that I5 spur-trail undercrossing (the trail leading east to the sacramento River portion of Castle Crags park, and west to the main campground, arriving at the bathrooms with the shower.)  Verified that the toilets flushed this time, and took my shower.

Back to the car, took the Creekside drive around to  the east side of the Sacto River and took a peek ant  the park's campground by the river.  The riverside drive continues winding north past the CG through a very dense "old-growth" riparian valley, a single lane road the entire way from where it first crosses the single lane bridge, to it's junction with the road ] that the PCT drops down to off of Girrard Ridge from the east (which I walked a few weeks ago now.)  There are a few turnouts and designated trails to the river from that section of road.  Anyone visiting Castle Crags should be sure not to miss this section of the park.   

On to the Mt Shasta library to write this, before shopping for a few more things... I've totlly shredded my hiking pants and need to find something similar.  Also need to buy some plastic bags, beleive it o not.  I had abunch but seem to have left them in storage in Santa Rosa.  Will probably get big sturdy garbage bags, that I can cut the corners off of to use as "plastic socks" or  "soft snowboots" that I can use with my non-waterproof Lowa hiking boots and my microspikes, in preparation to a few snow-fields I may have to negotiate on the trail.   I did stash my XC-ski poles along with my backpack this time.  I normally hike without hiking poles, but in snow, they  definitely help.  (I could also use them to "self-arrest" if needed, on a steep snowfield.  I've sort of done that on a few occasions in XC Ski trips.)  Not that I'm expecting any significant snow in this section, as I've concluded from my recent scouting drives to the upcomming road summits.

OK, so after I'm done in town I plan to head to the Gumboot road summit, that I'll hit about 20 miles on the trail from I5.  I'm going there to leave myself a food & water cache, for "convenience".   On studying the details of this route, in addition to the major climb from 2200ft to 7800ft, most of the water sources are siignificant off-trail side trips to lakes uphill or downhill from the main trail.  So the 30 mile nominal distance will actually turn out to be more like 40miles.   leaving myself a cache here saves me some pack weight during the first major climbing part of the route, and may save me a side trip in the Gumboot area..

After that I may stop at the McD's in Weed for more internet time and to doublecheck that all my picture data has been offloaded before reformatting my CF cards.   I have managed to charge all my camera batteries and my smartphone batteries (I'm using my smartphone as a mapping-gps.  I'm also using the Holux M241 as a gps track logger. this seems to be working ok as long as I feed it disposable aa batteries - my solar panel doesnt seem to be charging the AA rechargeables enough to use with the Holux.  Grrr!   Niether is the panel keeping up with smart phones power usage to keep it's batteries charged.  Grrr!  Also another problem with my smartphone...  Whenever I reboot it (like when I change batteries) the phone takes FOREVER to "check the storage card's file system" and my main app, BCNAV, is running off the storage card, because this old Nexus-One phone has so little Phone memory that I can have NOTHING extra on it's flash ram... Have been spending a gazzillion hours troubleshooting that problem, to no avail!  Anyway, all that makes my picture geolocation method very sub sub optimal!  I'm also using my old garmin etrex to tracklog, though it usually can't get a strong enough signal from satellites , and its log capacity is very limited.  With three loggers "going", I'm lucky to get a useable log from one of them.  Enough ranting.  

Then I'll head back to the Parks Creek summit (will be about my 5th overnight there, now.  Then tomorrow morning I'll leave my car there and bicycle down to Weed to catch the bus to Dunsmuire then bicycle for one exit on I5 to the PCT, hide my bike, and continue with my daypack through Castle Crags Park, to the Dog trail junction where I've stashed.my main pack.  Swap packs (adding a few things to the main pack from the day pack) then onwards upwards back to the car in probably four days.  This will be Thursday afternoon through the weekend.  Weather calls for some significant "instability over the weekend, especially Saturday, with a 40% chance of rain, up from 20% blurred over the surrounding few days of the earlier forecasts. Hope I'm prepared for it.

In the Etna library just offloading picts from my cards

Very frustrated that I seem to be having problems simply uploading my CF cards.  Seems to be a cable or card reader problem, or certain cards.  Have just managed to get one of my cards to work, so after two hrs of wasted troubleshooting, have a few minutes to do something else, namely start updating this blog... Still don't know if will now be able to copy the balance of my over 96gb worth of photos taken the last 5 days during my hike from Burney to McCloud.  If not, more troubleshooting. if so, will have some blog updating time til the library closes, then will try copying as I drive, and maybe try to use power at the McDonalds in Weed before continuing on to Castle Crags this evening.

I had hoped to be on my way back to Castle Crags to leave my loaded backpack, then head to Trinity Divide/Parks Creek Summit//State Route 17 PCT crossing, overnight there (again) then leave my car in the morning and bicycle down to Weed to catch the bus (STAGE I5 Southbound) to Dunsmuir then bicycle to my backpack.  Might still happen but it will now be a long evening.  Fortunately I am not too costrained for time tomorrow to catch the bus, as there are several runs throughout the day.

Will then take three or four days to make the 30 mile 5500ft climb from hwy 5 to Parks Creek.  I may try the side-trip to Mt Eddy, which is near the end of that route, though I'd expect it to be snowed in, so unlikely to reach the top..

After that my plans are to to the next section to Etna Summit, but hiking in the reverse direction, due to the Bike/Bus Logistics.  I would be leaving my car at Parks Creek again, bicycle to Weed, then take two buses, (STAGE I5 Northbound to Yreka, then Scott Valley loop to Etna) then in Etna, hitch a ride to the Etna Summit.  I may first stay a night in Etna at the Alderbrook Manor "Hiker Hut".

Now the library is closing.  Will have to head for the McD's.  

Drive from Parks Creek Trailhead to Etna

Woke up to a cool morning (compared to the balmy mornings of the last week in the Burney/McCloud area) at about 7800ft, so didn't waste much time moving on with the car heater going, which I managed to develop the rationalization for doing while trying to rehearse my plan of the night before, and settle some of the details. Whereas yesterday I had planned on first leaving a food cache at the Park Creek road summit before moving on to do the same at the next two road crossings (AKA summits AKA trailheads) between here and the Etna (road) Summit, namely: Scott Mountain and Carter Meadows.

This was based on my still somewhat muddled conclusion yesterday that I might just have to do the entire 100mile Castle Crags to Etna route without interruption.  But that left the problem of how to stretch my 7 camera batteries and 200GB of memory (normally I figure one battery and 32GB per day) over the dozen to fifteen days that would take me, at 13-15 miles/day.

So I would likely split it in two, either at Parks Summit or Scott Mountain Summit. (These are Road Summits, not trail summits; from the trail's point of view, the road summits are saddles - the trail essentially traverses the slopes of ridges from saddle to saddle.)

I need to have one end of my loops accessible my bicycle. One way I can split a long section that has both ends accessible is to leave car at high point in the middle and hike in opposite directions from lower bicycle-accessible trailheads. Parks Creek meets this criteria, but leaves an assymetrical split, thus I was considering Scott Mt would be the ideal split point (but with an assymetrical bike loopback: first a longish trek via Callahan, Etna, bus via Yreka to Dunsmuir, then bike to I5 Trailhead at Castle Crags, but for second half a bike-only Callahan to Etna then hitch to Etna summit.)

What I realized overnight was that Parks Creek Summit was the ideal split point, mainly because the 5600ft climb to get there from Castle Crags would multiply the effort to do that first 30 miles to balance the 70 mile remainder.  Also, the bike loopback via Weed to Dinsmuir from Parks Creek Summit would be simpler than the longishroute via Callahan, Etna, Yreka to Dunsmuir from Scot Mountain Summit.  Further, I could split off the Parks to Schot 25 miles into two day-hike round trips from each end, leaving a Scott Mt to Etna Summit loop that would have a simple bike-only loopback (um, except for the taken-for-granted hitch from Etna to Etna Summit, which I read was an "easy hitch", since Etna is a "hiker friendly" town with a "trail angel".

So I wouldn't be leaving a food cach at Parks.   Well, so I drove down the west side to the junction that goes south to Weaverville and north over Scott Summit to Callahan, stopped at the Scott Summit campground to "clean up" a little - and forgot to leave a now "contingency" cache, and on to Etna.

Chatted with a number of people various places in Etna, getting lots of good info, some of it surprising.

[But I'll leave that for another post, as it's getting late as I'm leaving this post-dated post at the McD's in Weed late evening of Tuesday 5/27.]  

killing time in my car in front of the McCloud library, my backpack near Burney Falls

Well, it was a rainy drive east (some very heavy downpours) to overnight in my car at a turnout near where the PCT climbs up out of the Pit River Canyon north of the Lake Britton Dam north of Burney Falls.

Woke up to partly sunny skies, and proceeded to explore the several paved and gravel roads off of Clark Creek road which crosses the dam and connects with hwy 89 to the north.  I was reading the PCT guide which mentioned that the PCT crosses a paved road near Rock Creek, (a few miles along the trail up from the dam) which seemed curious to me, and after driving all the candidate gravel roads in the area, I concluded that the guide was mistaken.  Too bad, because I might have tried to shave off a day at the east end of the 60 mile hike via a short day-hike today with my bicycle closing the loop.

I did spend several hours in the morning at the nice car-camping spot at Rock Creek, sorting out my car and my backpack and my bike-pack.  All packed (more or less) I went back to the area above the dam to see where I might leave my pack.  In the process, I hiked about a mile of the trail above the dam, (and got a bit drenched by a brief unexpected sprinkle during that walk.)  I did find a road crossing that would be quite convenient to get to by bicycle. just about a half mile up from the dam.

I had tentatively assumed I might be staying in that area another night to avoid my stashed backpack getting a drenching from a chance thunderstorm that was forecast to be possible in the afternoon/evening (even though I do wrap my pack in a garbage bag.)  But it seemed to be clearing, slowly, so I took the chance and left my pack, while I was there, and since I'd then have the opportunity to use the wifi at the McCloud library, and triple-check my 45 mile bike route during daylight hours. That will be a rather strenuous ride for me, a 1400 ft gain in elevation from the trailhead at Squaw Creek to Deadhorse Pass about midway to the dam, then only 800 ft net loss down to the dam.   Lots of ups and downs will make the actual amount of climbing about double that. It will be "a challenge"!  I will plan to take it easy, take lots of breaks to un-numb my butt, take all day.

So, I guess I'm about to leave the library here. (Actually I've left and come back a few times, to recharge my battery so my inverter doesn't go into screaming mode powering my laptop. I've been doing a few errands, getting some groceries, topping off the gas, checking shower availability at the RV campground across from the gas station - yes, they do offer showers for $7 - I told the lady I'll be ready to take one five days from now.

I still have my camera & gps accessories and my "emergency kit" to get sorted out. Will probably do that in the morning since it may be after dark before I get to the Squaw Creek trailhead south of town where I'm headed now to overnight, and where I will leave my car tomorrow morning.  This is the same place I bicycled to about a week ago after taking the bus from Dunsmuir on my overnight hike from here to Castle Crags.

Now it's raining!

Writing this from in my car in front of the Shasta City library.  Got kicked out of the library here in Mt. Shasta.  Had to dash to the car to avoid getting soaked.  Surprise.  So the forecasters were indeed not totally off-base.  Well, I'll stick with the plan, sort of.  Still heading to Burney Falls tonight.  Forecast is now calling for continued "instability" with isolated showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday.  So I may delay another day - stay in the Burney area Tuesday and start my bike ride from McCloud on Wednesday.

I'm finding it very difficult to restart this blog after abruptly "dropping the ball" last October in Lassen.

 Unbelievable that I've yet to insert the missing entries for the hikes I took across the HatCreek Rim and northward to Burney falls in late October, and then in November, the 4-piece out&back day-hikes centering on Jackson Lake , which is how I ended up negotiating the chunk of trail between Hwy 80 at Donner Pass and Hwy 49 at Wild Plum CG (um... except, I'm still trying to properly completer the little 10mile section just north of hwy 80 - I made a go at it with snowshoes just after visiting Rebecca in Davis, but only got to the Castle Ridge before the Sierra Club cabin, so, will be doing that again later this year, probably before doing my skipped Tuolumne to Hwy 50 section..

At the moment though, I'm in the Mt Shasta library.  Someone just said that it looks like we'll have a thunderstorm outside.  I'm somewhat glad to hear that since I've actually committed almost a whole week of delaying resuming my "real" PCT hiking from Burney Falls to the Squaw Valley Trailhead south of McCloud, til after this "weather" passes through. This chance of rain and thunderstorms has been forecast for a week now - but the forecast keeps getting pushed forward in time and backed-off in described intensity.  This has been as frustrating as waiting for a car to pass by an intersection before entering the road, only to find the car going slower than assumed, then finding it slowing down further as it approaches the intersection.  I could have been done with that 4 or 5 day hike by now!

Instead, I've killed some time by scouting out some of the road crossings for my next section long the Trinity Divide, verifying that the snow conditions this "early" in the year are not going to be a problem.  Of course I've continued taking lots of picts during these raod trips, which I then hopelessly attempt to "process" to the point of posting them..

Worse, I've taken some side trips just because I'm in the area, like driving around the mountain (Shasta, that is.)  Took a nice morning hike in the snow to "tree-line" from the Brewer Creek trailhead on the north-east side. Some awesome photos, I'll post some eventually.

I have just back-date-posted some email excerpts as stop-gap accounts of what I've been up to earlier this month.   I still want to fill in with some hand-written notes, when I get a chance.

But now off to Burney Falls to drop off my backpack, then back to McCloud to leave the car and tomorrow bicycle 45 miles back to my pack for a 4-5 day 60 mile PCT walk back to the car.


  

a Sunday drive Stewart Springs Rd to Gazelle-Callahan to hwy 3 Etna to Yreka etc.

Woke up to a silent sprinkle of snow, enough to dampen the rain fly, but not sticking to the ground. Turned out to be a partly sunny morning, rainbows could be seen over the Scott Mts to the west. I walked my camera a bit up the ridge to the north, then decided I'd check out the otehr road crossings to the PCT north of here.  Nice photoops the whole way - regrettably I passed by a few.  Snapped quite a few in Callahan - of a nice blooming field of lupines and yellow mustard, and the "ghost-town" storefronts, of course.  Not much else to say about the drive.  Got to Yreka to find a Walmart and a McDonalds.  Bought some bike tools and tire patch kit at the W, and sent some emails and processed my picts at the M. Returned to the Parks Creek Road above Stewart Springs, finding a dispersed camping spot half-way up the hill, with a nice view of Mt Shasta through the trees.

excerpt from an email to Sandy re: wasting afternoon at the Yreka McD's etc

... I've wasted a nice afternoon at McDonalds, due to my having postponed getting on the trail at Burney Falls a few days ago due to a very threatening sounding weather forecast calling for thunderstorms, hail, snow at 6500ft, etc, which they've then kept pushing further forward nd making more mild.  Sort of like waiting for a car to pass before turning onto the highway, then realizing its going slower than you'd assumed, then realizing that it's slowing down to turn or something, no turn signal given. Too late now to turn in front of it til you're sure it's turning.   Losing my mind in frustration.  

Did make the best of it, maybe. I think I left off telling you I was going to Redding for that PCT section-hiker's presentation for the Sierra Club.  That turned out to be another bit of confusion - whether it was Wednesday or Thursday.  Turned out to be Thursday evening, so I went to Redding a day early and had to then find a place nearby to overnight.  Ended up after a bit of an exploratory detour, heading back to Whiskeytown - to near the end of the road at the "Whiskytown" turnoff which went north along one of the arms of the lake, past a boater's picknic area and then a group campground. Past the campground about a half mile was a nice turnout for some "dispersed camping" that I'd found actually on the morning after leaving you at the Oak Bottom CG.  It was a pretty warm night; I was in my screen-tent laying on top of my sleeping bag much like you described that night in Nevada on the picnic table.  Well, not quite that awesome.

Next day my initial quest was to find a shower.  Asked at one of the RV campgrounds, they referred me to a nearby athletic club. that charged $10 day-use. I had forgotten to bring along some swim trunks so I couldn't take full advantage of that. Next I drove 5 miles south on I5 to a truck stop I remember passing. But that charged $13 for just the shower.  Returning north to Redding I stopped at a Big 5 at the east side of town and got myself some Speedo's. They were cheaper than the baggy alternative.  Yeah.  I next went to the aquatic center along the river just west of the Sundial Bridge.  but it only opened later this month.  So I knew there was also a Y in town but didn't know where, so back to the visitor center to ask. Turned out it was practically next to the aquatic center.  Hav they offered a $5 shower, but only before 8am. Settled for the $10 day pass there.  Did about a half hour of laps in their outdoor pool (water not quite as "hot" as their indoor pool which at 90degrees sounded like hot-spring territory.)

Spent the rest of the day in the library, again, just processing picts mainly.  (Or did I now forget I've already told you this story of my Redding shower quest?)   Attended the PCT presentation, talked to a number of people there including a another CNPS member. and two people considering doing the PCT next year.  And got some ideas based on that presentation how I might put one together myself.

Drove back up to the road past Castle Crags to overnight. Another hot night. 

Next day Got some good picts of the two falls in Dunsmuir: Mossbrae falls being very much like Burney Falls, flowing straight out of the lava-flow rock into the Sacramento River.  It took a mile of train-track-walk to get to it.  I've put together some good pano's of that. Here's one:

transcribed notes written from car at Deadfall Lakes PCT trailhead near Mt Eddy

I'm sitting in my car at what I'm calling the "Deadfall lakes PCT trailhead", AKA "Parks Creek Road  Trailhead" above Stewart Springs Road northwest of Weed.  It would be about a 10 mile hike up Mt Eddy from here, though I don't have that planned this time here.    

My tent is set up with rain fly because rain (or snow at this 7k ft elevation) is forecast, and it is indeed much colder than it has been the last week of record heat for this time of year.

I had a nice afternoon hike here, to Middle Deadfall lake.  I came here mainly to scout out the snow situation.  It is completely snow-free and dry.  I did my hike in sandals.

I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow morning with a dusting of snow on everything, for some good photo ops.   I may do another hike in the other direction in the morning if it's not too clouded in.  Then I'll probably head back down to Weed or on to Yreka (via the Gazelle-Callahan road which is the next road pass north of here, to Hwy 3 past Etna, to Yreka.)  

post-dated fill-in of morning hike at Brewer Creek trailhead and remainder of drive around Mt Shasta

Odd - I thought I had a draft of this... it might have gotten mis-dated and posted some random elsewhere. 

So as I'd predicted the previous night, I had camped very close to the turnoff to the Brewer Creek trailhead.  I did wake up a bit later than hoped - missed the first morning rays of sun on the mountain, could have made a good shot, as it was still just "sparely" cloudy.

But I got to the trailhead early enough to claim the last obvious parking spot - lots of other skiers and a few climbers heading up the trail as I got there, and more behind me had to get creative finding spots to leave their cars.  The skiers carried the long wide skis, (not sure what they're called) not the narrow nordic skis.  The climbers were loaded down with ropes.  All seemed to have waterproof pants & large full packs.  I "self-registered" a wilderness permit stating "just a morning stroll", and put on my waterproof shoes and microspikes and gaiters over my normal hiking pants and a nylon shirt, my backpack with water and a few snacks and windbreaker and hoodie, and my camera.  The trail started out mostly the soft ash with some patches of snow, and got progressively more snow, and wetter ash (which behaved like quicksand.)  A few mostly dry gullies from recent snow melt flows.   

The snow was still hard enough in the early morning to make my going easy (no "post-holing".)  The "tree line" turned out to be rather nebulous, gradually reducing in size and clumpiness, and I just kept on going further, getting clear views of what clearly was blue-green glacier ice, I think part of the Hotlum glacier.  Quite expansive views of the topography to the north and northeast - the view east was of an undulating ridge-arm of the mountain.  It was starting to get cloudier, obscuring the top of the mountain in gigantic plumes of cloud.  So I turned around after having my fill of photoops.  On the way down, I continued to encounter skiers making their way up, one group of about a dozen skiers. I saw some ski tracks, but none actually skiing. I also saw two groups of "base-camp" tents presumably of climbers far above me.

Got back to the car, continued around the drive northwestward on Road 19, the Military Pass Road, to highway 97 to Weed, stopping a few dozen times for snapshots of the mountain, now about half obscured by clouds.  Poked around Weed briefly finding little of interest.

The forecast called for increasing chance of rain tonight and tomorrow, with snow level around 6500 ft, so I decided to head for the 7000ft PCT-road-crossing near Mt Eddy, on the Parks Creek Road above Stewart Springs road, northwest of Weed.  From Weed, snow could be seen on the tips of the mountain range looming to the west, which I assumed included Mt Eddy.  I hoped to wake up to fresh snow in the morning, but though I'd have a chance to take a hike along the PCT to the Deadfall Lakes at the base of Mt Eddy, to see what the snow situation might be for me a week or two from now - could I be hiking this "early" for a normal year?

   

transcribed notes written at an overnight near Brewer Creek Trailhead at northeast slope of Mt Shasta midway around a drive around the Mt.

I'm in my car on NF Road 31 just short of (east of) the Brewer Creek trailhead.  I'm facing Mt Shasta which just a bit earlier had been mostly in shadow but outlined in light from setting sun with some lit up whisps of clouds. Now in the dark I'm noticing some brief flashing points of light from the northern slope which I assume come from a climber overnighting (or maybe still descending?) from the mountain.

Still waiting for the forecast rain, (so far still just very sparsely cloudy) I decided to kill some time (and consume some gas) to do this counterclockwise circumnavigation starting rather late in the afternoon from Pilgrim Creek Rd off of hwy 89 just east of McCloud, turning left off the paved road at 41N15 which heads straight to the Clear Creek Trailhead at the southeast slope of the mountain.  I had been thinking of hiking a bit there, but seemed to be a snowless and viewless wooded walk for a while so lost interest and backtracked to Road 31 north to where I am now, just short of the intersection with Road 19, the "Military Pass Road", and 42N02 leading to Brewer Creek trailhead, which I hope to hike tomorrow. Suposedly, it's just a 2 mile trail to treeline.  Hope to encounter some snow there.  Hopefully not too much snow before the trailhead.

excerpt from email to Sandy Re: Overnight hike Squaw Creek Trailhead near McCloud to I5 at Castle Crags.

This was just at the start of my afternoon hike yesterday at Squaw Creek south of McCloud. 

I'll elaborate further later when I get a chance, but yesterday I overnighted at the Hwy5 PCT crossing parking area I showed you on the way to Dunsmuir from Castle Crags CG. Woke up at 5:30 to bicycle from there to Dunsmuir to catch the 7am bus to McCloud (with a transfer in Mount Shasta City.) Bicycled the 5 miles of paved road and 2miles dirt to the Squaw Creek Trailhead, hiked about 13 miles in 8 hours to the other side of Girrard Ridge, about 5 miles short of Hwy 5.  Overnighted at an awesome view of Mt Shasta.  Hiked the final 5 miles in two hours this morning.  

Got to my car to find someone asking for a lift to the gas station at Castella, which I did, in exchange for a coffee at the Amiretti store at the gas station.  Also got bits of local "secrets" from the guy who's dirt bike had run out of gas there.  One was that there's a tunnel from the side road between that gas station and the PCT crossing which goes straight to the showers building at the state park.  

So after dropping off the biker with a can of gas back at the PCT crossing, I went straight for that tunnel, ready to take a shower.  But there was a sign on the door saying that bathroom was closed, to use the bathroom in the upper loop.   But the door was open so I walked in and took a shit.   But when I was ready to flush, there was no water!   Oh well, so I left, and noticed a guy in a ranger suit (looked to me) coming my way from up the hill, but he turned around and went back to the tanker truck that I think may have been pumping the septic tank or something, the likely reason for the closure.  Walked back to the car, a bit relieved I didn't have a personal encounter with the ranger.  

Spent the rest of the morning sorting out my car some more, then to the Dunsmuir library.  Been her mostly figuring out a few snags with the tracklog I was taking of my hike, uploading my picts but haven't done much looking thru them yet - just remembered taking the pic attached.

Now I'm off to the Redding library again, to see that slideshow by John Livingston who's been section-hiking the PCT.

excerpt from email to Sandy: Gualala, Ukiah

Yes I liked the Gualala Campground. Thanks for the tip about the free camping.

I got there a bit after 6pm and the ranger drove by a few minutes later while I was taking a few picts of the backlit tree branches overhanging the river.  So I asked her that I'd heard I get one free camping night, and she said yes. After a long pause I asked her "so how do I invoke that?"  She said, I can do it right here if you have your card. "Good" I said. (Don't know why she was so reluctant to begin with, though later she asked me rather pointedly whether I had any problems with mosquitoes because there are a lot flying around, and after I told her I had bug spray and could retreat to the tent if necessary, she told me she just had another camper demand a refund because of the mosquitoes, and I responded that that type of person would have found another reason to try for the refund. She then asked me if I had any dogs or cats, I said "just my very active camera".

Anyway, the mosquitoes were pretty bad, but with the sun still up I took the path under the road, past the walk-in campgrounds (one was occupied) up to the parking area of the day-use area.  "How's your camera?" I heard, Turned around, it was the ranger picking up litter.  "It wants to get to Gualala Point for the sunset.  And this is my mosquito protection" I said pointing to the green parka I had put on.  The sunset turned out to be rather bland.  I walked back via the road as it got dark.   

Sorted my stuff this morning (will need another iteration to get it all settled more compactly, had to ask for change to take a shower, walked to the campground host, saying hi to c couple walking a very skittish littile  black dog with no tail.  Called out "anyone home?" at the trailer and the couple I had passed responded "can I help you?"  "yes, I need quarters."  I hadn't recognized her without her uniform.   As she went back to the trailer her dog pulled on it's leash and looked at me the whole time rather suspiciously. 

I got going at 10am, got gas & coffee  in Gualala, made a few more stops along  the road, getting to Navarro River Beach by noon.  Took my camera for an hour walk along the river & beach, then another walk from a turnoff in the Navarro Redwoods, getting some good picts of Ginger, and a few oterhs I can't remember the name of.

The I headed to Ukia, where I'm at the library that's closed but they're having a book sale, so I guess I better get shopping for a book now.

Will continue later.