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.