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.