Day 107 : 1500 miles

4th August 2013
Mile 1484 to mile 1506 : Non-descript logging rd to I-5.\
Mileage : 22

Average mileage since day 101 : 24.4

My body punished me all day today for not having a hot meal yesterday evening. I dilegently counted the calories, but my body seemed to know i was cutting corners, and was not happy. Luckily, the day was short, only 22 miles, mostly down hill, and shaded, except for a climb in the middle of the morning. The only thing worse than an exposed section of trail, is an exposed section of the trail which goes up. I was worried that the climb might be such a section, so planned to repeat yesterday's 12 miler before the first break. The hunger, however, set in about 5 seconds after i put my rucksack on, and by the time I reached the bottom of the climb was growling audibly. Concered about the increasing heat of the morning, i decided not to stop and eat but rather content myself with sugar, something I don't usually do. I try and avoid sugar on the trail as it is not very calorie dense, and provides only a 'hit' of energy that i can't sustain during my 12 mile stints. I do, however, always carry a big bag of skittles for moments when i need to push through the hunger and get somewhere quickly. I raced up the 6 mile climb at speed stopping every half an hour to eat a few handfuls of skittles, which would get me through the next half an hour before i would start to crash. This tactic proved effective, and i was glad I did it, as there were significant portions of the climb that i could tell would be exposed to the sun in a very short space of time. After the climb, it was all down hill to the 1500 mile marker, and I-5. After an obligatory photo at the marker, we all headed down to the road looking for a ride into Shasta City for a night off the trail. Some hours later, Rocky, T-Rex and I were sat outside at a bar/restaurant (Dr Slosh carrying straight on up the trail to meet his girlfriend's family, with whom he'd be hiking at a leasurely 10 miles per day for about a week) when out of the blue appeared Cuddles, the hiking cellist, and his wife Emma who is supporting him as he makes his way to Canada. I hadn't seen cuddles in over 1000 miles, so it was a chance for us all to catch up and swop stories. As we were doing so, he reached into his bag and pulled out a pinata. Not just any pinata, but Prophet's pinata that had been given to him as part of the Top Gear challenge many miles ago in Tehachapi. To say I was surprised to see the pinata would be a significant understatement. Prophet ditched the Pinata at Kennedy Meadows South, just we were beginning the Sierra Nevada so PRT decided to mail it to him at Mammoth where we assumed he would stop and pick up a package, and then rediscover the pinata. For a long time Prophet has been 10-14 days ahead of most people I know, so none of us knew whether or not he had picked it up in Mammoth or not. Along with the Pinata we had put a note saying as punishment for ditching it he would have to take it all the way to Oregon, and to give him credit it appears he almost made it. Given how light it is, I have decided to tkae it up the trail as far as Ashland, where I intend to leave it for the rest of PRT, who are now about 4 days behind me. After dinner, a couple of beers and a catch up the three of us headed back to the scabby motel we were staying at looking forward to a shower and a well deserved lie in.


Nel took us from the trailhead into Shasta City



From left to right : T-Rex, Rocky, Myself and Slosh at the 1500 mile marker!



From left to right : Rocky, the Pinata, Cuddles, T-Rex and Emma

Day 106 : Foot Pain

3rd August 2013
Mile 1456 to mile 1484 : Mt Shasta Lookout to Non-descript Logging rd
Mileage : 28

Average mileage since day 101 : 24.8

Today we were lucky in that passed out of the logging zone and had protection from the sun for most of the day except the morning when the trail hugged an exposed ridgeline. The exposed nature of the trail in this section motivated me to get it over and done before it got too hot. My high calorie intake in the morning means i can stave of the hiker hunger for the first 2 to 3 hours of a standard hiking day, but after that my body knows it is time to eat. I didn't want to break and then return to the exposed ridgeline so decided to push through the hunger and get off the ridgeline and down into the forests before. My stomach was literally screeming at me when i finally stopped 12 miles into the day at a small stream to have lunch. T-Rex and and Rocky were just ahead of me, but Slosh was nowhere to be seen. He had decided to push on another 8 miles downhill to a nearby river in order to do some fishing. After a hiker box surprise lunch of home-made mac n cheese courtesy of the hiker box in Old Station, I continued another 8 miles down to the river for a quick dip before ending the day with an unwelcome 6 mile climb. Thoroughly knackered, i reached the summit in a darkening forest, and camped along with Rocky and T-Rex on a former, and now overgrown, logging road right on the ridgeline itself. We were anxious to get an early night in order to get to town at a reasonable time the next day, so i decided against having a hot meal and instead made up my evening calorie count with a snack food food. This turned out to be a mistake.

Day 105 : Clear Cut

2nd August 2013
Mile 1429 to mile 1456 : Rock Creek Bridge to Mt Shasta Lookout
Mileage : 27

Average mileage since day 101 : 24.2

Today was another tough day on the trail. I was up and moving at the relatively late time of 7:45. The first order of business was a 2000ft climb which thankfully was shaded for most of the way. After that however the scenery changed. Through this section the trail passes through logging country, the results of which are evident all along the trail. One minute the trail is passing through beautiful, shady forests and the next emerges into a large expanse of clear cut forest. I understand that logging is an important industry, providing products that i use, and supporting a substantial number of jobs, but all the same it is a sad business. At the midday break Slosh, Rocky, T-Rex and I were sat on a non-descript logging road hearing the sounds of logging activity, but not seeing it until a tree literally disappeared about 50 metres away, with an almighty cracking sound followed by a thump that made the vibrate. It was too hot for us to move, so we sat for a good our watching the forest disappear before our eyes. Some time later we were back on the move passing from forest to clear cut a couple times every hour or so. The exposure to the sun that accompanied the clear cut sections was really taking its toll on me, and halfway up the last climb of the day my body said no more. Given the high calorie diet that i've been attempting over the last few days i've noticed my energy levels are significantly higher and constant throughout the day, but today was tough regardless of how many calories i'd consumed. After stopping for a good half and hour at a creek i had taken on a good thousand calories and was able to complete the final miles to the campsite. The others were already finishing up their dinners when i arrived and were wondering where I had gotten to. I explained my calorie crash, a common hiker issue, and also told them of the incredible view of Mt Shasta i'd had by being half an hour behind them. After being hidden for many miles since Hat Creek Rim, the volcano came into view in the evening light so spectacularly that i just had to stop and watch it for a few minutes. Although i didn't know it at the time, there have been a significant number of fires in the forests behind Mt Shasta, and the smoke and sun set light combined to fill the entire sky surrounding the mountain with an incredible set of red and pink light. Once again my camera is too small to small to be able to do it justice, but hopefully the below image goes some way to illustrating the scene.

Day 104 : Stand by me

1st August 2013
Mile 1397 to mile 1429 : Hat Creek Rim Lookout to Rock Creek Bridge
Mileage : 32
Average mileage since day 101 : 23.5
About 5 years ago i was completing my Master's at Manchester living in a suburb called Withington sharing a house with Dave, Tom, Helen, Sarah, Ted, Carrot Top and Simon. I remember one winter's evening watching a film called Stand By Me, a coming of age story about group of boys exploring the forests of the American outdoors together one summer. In one scene, the protagonists are wandering across what they think is a disused railway bridge high over a river when suddenly they are surprised by train coming directly toward them across the bridge and after much nail biting on the part of the viewer they escape unscathed and continue their adventure. Today i crossed that same railway bridge and incorporated it into my through hike from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail.
Following my ordeal yesterday afternoon on the Hat Creek Rim i was determined to get down early to escape the baking heat and the sharp rocks of the lava flows, and so was up and doing the early morning hiker hobble before the sun was up. I loosened up quickly and hiked as.fast as was possible over the rocky terrain and before long was down off the rim and crossing the last lava flow before making it thankfully to the first natural water since Subway Cave 30 miles ago, and sat in he shade for almost 2 full hours rehydrating and tending to my still sore feet. Later that afternoon, much recovered after my long lunch break, i detoured off the trail.a short way down the now disused railway line towards the bridge on which the pivotal Stand By Me train scene was filmed. The railway line has long since been removed, so there was no danger of me having to inadvertently reenact the scene from the film, but the bridge was still there towering above Lake Britton far below and i sat contentedly in the afternoon sun high up above all the pleasure craft zipping along the lake below. Given the bridge was technically off limits to the public, i decided not to linger too long on the bridge and crossed back across a nearby road bridge before enduring a short and painful road walk to Burney Falls State Park where i intended to camp for the night. My road walk complete i headed back to the trail and the falls via the campground store for an well deserved icecream and a couple of beers. Icecream and beer in hand, i made my way to the river to soak my feet and found Dr Slosh, T-Rex and Rocky by the river doing the same thing. Infuriatingly the river in which we were soaking our feet was actually too cold for our sensitive feet, none of us could manage more than a few seconds before it would become too painful. The reason the river was so cold is that its source is only a few hundred metres upstream. Apparently it is one of the places in the world where an entire river, i.e not just a small stream or creek, emerges from the ground in this way. I was tempted to go up river to see it, but it was in Tue wrong direction and i couldn't justify the time as i still wanted to make another 6 miles before nightfall, so i had to content myself with cold, painfall feet as proof. That evening the 4 of us managed another 6 miles to Rock Creek taking me to my biggest mile day in a while at 32. Surprisingly, my feet didn't hurt at all during these last miles, no doubt due to a combination of the ice cold water and the 2 beers i had had prior to the 6 miles. Usually a 30+ mile day means finishing in he dark, which i try to avoid as my head torch is nothing special and only really illuminates the ground directly in front of me and is mostly useless for anything else. This proved problematic when we arrived at Rock Creek as none of could see the campsite which was somewhere nearby, so in the end we all ended up sleeping directly on te bridge itself, and that turned out to be a very good decision. The nights are still usually too hot to warrant my high performance sleeping bag, but the creek right below us cooled the air considerably to the point where i was just right temperature-wise as i got in my maggot. Also, the river provided a great source of white noise helping me pass out even quicker than normal. A good end to a good day.








The first sign where Mexico is farther away than Canada, I'm getting there slowly but surely

Day 103 : The Hat Creek Rim

Date 31st July 2013
Mile 1368 to mile 1397 : Badger Flats to Hat Creek Rim Lookout
Mileage : 29
Average mileage since day 101 : 21.3
I started early again this morning eager to get out of the burn zone before the sun rose to high in the sky, as one obvious consequence of a forest fire is the lack of shade. By mid morning i had made it to a small RV park and store on the outskirts of Old Station, a hamlet at the southern end of Hat Creek Rim, about which more will be said shortly. I hadn't intended.to stop in Old Station at all, as i had more than enough food to get me to Burney, but a sign on a trail tempted me with words like 'milkshake' and 'cold drinks', and i was unable to resist,and as it turns out I'm very glad i didn't. Upon arrival i discovered several hikers, including Shady Acres and Busted, sitting in the shade rejoicing in having received supply boxes from the nearby post office, and examining a very well stocked hikers box. I joined in with gusto and came away with almost 5 days worth of food, and some of it even homemade! I had originally planned on doing a short stop in the next town Burned to pick up the 4 days of food i needed to get me to Mt Shasta, but now i could blaze straight through gaining at least half a hiking day and saving myself a bit of cash. I celebrated by spending some of the saved cash on a large milkshake, and assisted Shady Acres who, instead of carrying his hikers box winnings with him, had decided to eat much of it directly. To top off our collective good moods a.south bound thru-hiker informed us that a water cache halfway along the 30 mile imminent dry stretch of the Hat Creek Rim was fully stocked, meaning i wouldn't have to carry than 3 litres of water with me at any one time.  Feeling very full and pleased with myself i headed off in the midday sun toward the Hat Creek Rim.
The Hat Creek Rim is well known among thru-hikers as being  a notorious stretch of trail, and with good reason. It is dry for 30 miles, very exposed, very hot, and very rocky. At Old Station there were signs advising hikers to start late in the afternoon, hike as far as possible, sleep a few hours and then get off the rim as soon as possible the next day. Thanks to the cache knowledge, and the sparse cloud cover, i set off confidently toward the rim in good spirits making a short detour just before the start at Subway cave, a former lava tube, before ascending onto the rim. Within a couple hours my good mood had entirely been replaced by an intense anger, hatred and a sense of disbelief directed at my feet. I just could not believe how much they hurt. The only comparable foot pain I've had has been following the descent off Mt San Jacinto. This was worse, much worse. At some point i stopped and tried the pain with Iboprufren, but it didn't seem to help. Usually i hike until i lose the light, usually around 8:30, but today at around 7:30 my feet decided i could go no farther so i stopped short of the halfway cache, which had been my goal, and did my evening routine with my feet elevated as high as was feasible possible as this was the only thing hat seemed to quell the pain. I was not looking forward to continuing on the rim the next morning.



Mt Shasta appears for the first time out of the haze



The steepness of the Hat Creek Rim

Day 102 : Drakesbad

Date 30th July
Mile 1339 to mile 1368 : Stover Spring to Badger Flat
Mileage : 29
Average mileage since day 101 : 16.5
I'm not usually a morning person, and am consequently the last person out of camp, which suits my hiking style fine, today i was up and on the trail early for one very important reason : New shoes! After my debacle with replacement shoes at Sierra City, i was anxious to get it right this time and didn't want any reason for worry, so had sent my shoes well in advance. This has meant that in the last few days my feet have been suffering, and today it was really bad. Clearly my feet knew respite was imminent, so they rejoiced in torturing me with every step i took. I was being so careful to avoid sharp objects, but somehow i stepped painfully on every single sharp rock or branch along the trail to Drakesbad. Drakesbad is a minuscule hot springs located in the Lassen National Forest. The small and sparse information board told me it used to be a refuge for Native Americans escaping the hot summer sun, but after its 'discovery' by the settlers by a man called Drake, a claimed descendant of Sir Francis Drake, it his progressively become a weekend hot springs resort for he general, yet exclusive given the prices, public. While descending toward Drakesbad the smell of sulphur began to fill the air. At first i didn't notice it as i was probably masking it with my own odours, but soon it was almost choking in its potency. The reason for all this sulphur was Terminal Geyser. A short side trail took me to the venting geyser and i stood watching the steam billowing out of it for a minute before continuing on. The geyser was proof of finally being in the Cascades! Geologically speaking i have been the Sierra Nevadas between Tehachapi and Chester, a distance of over 800 trail miles, but today i start the Cascades. The Cascades are a line of volcanic mountains running from Chester all the way to the Canadian border, and they aren't just mountains, they are full on volcanoes. The first of which is Mt Lassen, a now dormant volcano which has nevertheless erupted man time in recent history and will do again in the future, i just hope they all stay quiet long enough for me to hike past them. Out of Drakesbad the forest turned from the beautiful green canopy to which i am accustomed, to the desolate charred black landscape of one of the largest burn zones i have seen yet. It was so big i didn't manage to make it all the way through that night, and instead slept in a formally majestic grove of colossal pine trees. I don't usually get spooked by the forest, but there was definitely something eerie about a dead forest like this one. As i lay in my sleeping bag drifting off to sleep i could hear the sounds of hundreds of little insects chomping their way through the dead wood and slowly doing their part to fell and decompose the trees and help restore the forest to its former glory in a few decades. The decay of standing dead trees means they could fall at any moment so one should camp a good distance from any suspect tree.  Unfortunately for me the entire forest was suspect, and i had know way of knowing how far the burn zone might continue, and as i was unpreparedto hike any farther that evening, had no choice but to make my home for the night amongst standing and felled giant trees of black charcoal. With the forest alive with the sound of hundreds of minuscule unseen lumberjacks i finished my evening routine, fell asleep quickly and didn't think anymore about the dead forest until the morning.

Mt Lassen, the first of the Cascade mountains that I will follow al the way up to Canada



The trail winds through the woods of northern California

Day 101 : Late off the blocks

Date 29th July 2013
Mile 1335 to mile 1339 : Highway 36 to Stover Spring
Mileage : 4
Average mileage since day 101 : 4
So after all my talk of being diligent about miles i didn't get out of town til late. I woke up early and headed across the road to the adjacent motel for breakfast and interneting. By mid morning i had done all my trail chores but was still struggling to finish up on the computer. Many hours later i managed to finally get back to he trail-head thanks to Carol and Tod, who picked me up with family in tow. Back at the trailhead I discovered Chick-Chack and Starfox who were having similar issues leaving town. The three of us headed out into the evening together and camped just after the small springs not far from the road. I wondered when I'd next see these two again as my schedule from here on out is mile intensive and they hike at a more leisurely pace. I went to bed hoping thinking.about the end of the hike and with whom I'll keep in contact when this all done. There is no Canadian border equivalent to the Kick-Off at Lake Morena unfortunately, so hikers disperse quickly upon finishing. One compounding factor for me is hat I've decided i will not cross into Canada, and will simply head back to the nearest road when i get to the border monument. Hopefully I'll meet up.with some people in Seattle, but probably i won't see most of the other hikers I've met ever again.

Carol and Tod's family who gave me a ride back to the trailhead out of Chester