Hmmmm. I got up in the middle of the night last night to relieve myself. Good thing I turned on my headlamp first to see what was out there. Two more scorpions were hanging out just in front of the tarptent. So I reached for a couple of sticks and picked them up and sent them to the next neighborhood over. Sometime during the night a steady cool breeze developed which helped to take some of the heat away from an otherwise sweaty, sticky night inside the sleeping bag.
Tabasco and I got on the trail about 6:40am and resumed our hike to get to Interstate 5 where we would try to hitch at the ramp to Dunsmuir, 5 miles north. The trail ascended 1000 feet gently to a ridge, which we then traversed around, getting great views of Mt. Shasta, which we have been circling in a broad arc for some time. The views opened up as we weaved our way around the ridge. Looking west, we saw the Castle Crags and beyond, the Trinity Alps and the Marble Mountains of northern California. I was relieved to see no snow on the high peaks, as my last visit was from the airplane back on July 7th from San Francisco to Portland and they were covered in snow at the time.
We began a long, gentle switchbacked descent , finally to Castle Crags State Park. Tabasco gave me his Ipod Shuffle on the descent to listen to some music as we hiked. I had forgotten how much music is a part of my life and as I hiked, listening to the beautiful music of Enya, I was filled with peace and a spiritual awareness of the majestic beauty of the forest we were quietly passing through.
After a break at Fall Creek for a few minutes, we continued our descent, crossing below 4000 feet and reentering the poison oak and gnat zone that were a dominant theme over the last 82 miles since Burney Falls State Park. As we neared I-5 I checked voice mail on the cell phone and was able to discern from a garbled message from Phantom that they were on trail behind us. From the message I could tell that there had been a problem with Bad Moon’s pack tearing apart, which delayed them in Burney and that they apparently had a change in plans as a result. I can only assume from the garbled message that they are most likely a full day behind us now.
After reaching and passing the boundary into Castle Crags State Park, Tabasco and I began catching up to a couple with a dog, who were obviously out for a day hike. With our thruhiker pace we quickly caught up to them and the man jogged ahead to get the dog on a leash. As is typical with dogs, Chloe doesn’t care for the hiker poles we use and was afraid of them. Consequently she barked at us upon approach. Pamela asked us when we started the trail, so it was obvious she knew the PCT and that we were thruhikers. As we answered and they let us pass, she asked how far we were going today and we responded that we needed to get to Dunsmuir to resupply. She and Ghen responded that they live in Dunsmuir and could give us a ride into town if we wanted to wait at the Soda Springs road crossing. Fantastic! Now we didn’t have to hitch on the Interstate, which from previous hikers comments and Yogi’s notes indicated, would be a difficult hitch.
So we waited and soon they showed up in their car and we were whisked down the interstate to downtown Dunsmuir. First stop was the post office where I had multiple packages to deal with and organize. After some sorting I was able to get everything down to one box to carry about town. We next hit the pizza joint down the street for lunch and watched as CNN broadcast live reports about Hurricane Katrina hitting the Florida coast.
After lunch we headed to the library, which is always a priority, due to limited hours and limited computers for internet/email access. Tabasco took the first time slot for an hour from 2-3pm, so I returned to the PO and organized food and took care of all outgoing mail/packages. I returned to the library to claim my 3:00 time slot. Unfortunately when I got on line, the library’s restriction parameters wouldn’t allow me to access my AOL email. So I gave Tabasco my time slot and I walked down the main street to an alternate place for internet access, the Pacific Crest computer repair shop. There I had high speed access for 5cents a minute and had the place to myself. I got a good hour and a half in for $4.00, a cheap way to take care of internet related activities.
Tabasco met me at the repair shop and from there we decided to buy our resupply groceries. Upon completing that process we were only left with lodging decisions and laundry and a shower, which weren’t mandatory, but sure would be a nice luxury. With Tabasco’s cash situation, we were determined to find a way to sleep somewhere in town for free. We asked around as we met people on the street. The best anyone could come up with was the park a couple miles out of town and a fishing hole by the river, also two miles out of town. Tabasco said that he had been able to have previous success by meeting folks at the local tavern, so we trusted things would work out and we entered the Spirits Bar and Lounge, also on Main Street. (This is one of those small towns with everything commercial on one street, about 5 blocks long).
We bellied up to the bar for a beer and eyed the pool table in the back, learning soon from the locals at the bar, that there would be a darts tournament at 7pm (now 6:30); we decided to shoot a couple quick games before the pool table would be inaccessible during the tournament. The friendly locals tried to convince us to join in on the darts. Tabasco paid the $3 entry feet to see if he could win some money. I opted to sit back and relax as my eyes were hurting and fatigued in general. I was very tired, so I watched the tournament for awhile, then left to make phone calls and to find some dinner.
While Tabasco was racking up wins, I got us a couple sandwiches from the pizza place and returned to the bar to see the final couple of rounds. Tabasco won second place and collected his $9 prize; a $6 gain for 3 hours of fun. Tabasco made good friends with folks playing the tournament and at the end of the evening, Jean, her daughter Phyllis, and boyfriend Mike, invited us to their home to camp in their backyard. Yea! So we piled our stuff in the car with Phyllis and drove just a couple blocks to their home on Shasta Avenue. Tabasco and I were invited inside where we sat in the family room and watched a little TV and I made a phone call to Debi in Portland to wish her a very happy 40th birthday tomorrow.
I was able to leave the cell phone plugged in for the night for a recharge of the batteries. We were tired; it was late; so we set up our tarptent and tarp and called it a night. As usual the trail angels always show up in our lives when we need something and our basic needs are met. I continue to celebrate the beauty of community and human goodwill to strangers. That is the essence of the journey.
Today’s weather: sunny, low 51, high 96. Today’s miles: 15.0; cumulative mileage: 1079.4.
