6:06am. I awoke, hoping to hear silence so I could sleep some more. It had turned cold overnight with a passing frontal boundary. Unfortunately, I could hear my hiking partner, Tabasco, moving around under his tarp. So I got moving and ate my breakfast in the tarp tent and packed up. 6:52am. We were hiking, and for the first time since the Sierra in July, I had my thermal top on. After 2 miles ascending, I warmed up enough to drop the coat and hike in my T-shirt. From the moment we topped out of the climb about 2.5 miles from our overnight camp, until we stopped for lunch 15 miles later at 12:22pm, the hiking was just incredible. The views and the scenery were breathtaking, invigorating, inspiring, and really blew me away.
All morning I kept saying WOW, every time we turned a corner or exited forest to open views. The Trinity Alps were so beautiful with snow still laying in patches. Our trail passed rugged wilderness of craggy towering peaks and alpine lakes glistening in the sunlight below, and at times dense, dark forest laced with yellow moss in the trees. As we hiked out of the Shasta Trinity wilderness into the Trinity Alps wilderness, it kept getting better and better.
When we finally stopped to cook some lunch, I kept thinking that today’s hike was equal in beauty to the High Sierra AND I felt well enough and strong enough to enjoy the hiking. After lunch the trail still had beautiful views and was enjoyable, but became noticeably more difficult with lots of steeper climbing and descending and the roller coaster effect. Still, with great views and no injury pains, except one nagging toe blister, I felt great. By late afternoon it began shaping up to be a big mile day. The way water resupply points were spaced we knew we would be hiking late.
Tabasco and I took a couple late afternoon breaks and spent considerable time and effort discerning the data book information and reading the guidebook information. There were many times this afternoon when I just wasn’t sure exactly where we were. We finally saw humans late this afternoon when we crossed a mountain road that the California Transportation guys were working on. Soon after, on a steep 800 foot climb, we passed two women on horseback. (I love being in such good shape that our pace doesn’t slow on climbs and we pass the horses!).
The next three or four miles were difficult climbs and descent, fairly steep and relentless. Around 6pm we left the Trinity Alps wilderness and entered the Russian Wilderness. Leaving dense forest at a saddle on a high ridge, we emerged at the top of a long, steep canyon with a deep valley cut thousands of feet below. Both sides of the canyon had towering granite spires of rock, resembling the High Sierra peaks farther south. Our evening walk took us along one side of the canyon wall, first descending steeply, then ascending steeply for several hundred feet of climbing.
The time was after 7pm and we were tempted to watch sunset from the canyon wall, but we still needed some flat ground to camp on and water to cook our dinner with. So we exited the canyon at a ridgeline crossing point and re-entered deep forest. In another mile we saw a tent and two campers off to the side of the trail. These were the first hikers we had seen all day, and they were camped at the only flat spot we had seen, just adjacent to a small trickle of a creek. They were on vacation (from NYC) and were out for a week. We talked briefly before filtering water at the creek, then moving on down the trail.
Now almost dark, under the dense canopy of giant trees, we spotted a potential spot to camp about 20 yards off trail. I hiked down to the area and spotted one small, tight flat spot, then a second. We decided it would be good enough and I claimed my debris covered ground and began removing sticks and logs and rocks to make adequate space for the tarp tent. It was 40 degrees and dropping as I boiled water and set up the tarp tent with my headlamp. Tabasco was out of fuel and was thinking about skipping dinner, so I called him over and put some water on my stove for him to use for dinner. When the water was hot enough to pour into his freeze dried meal, Tabasco retreated to his tarp to escape the cold wind and I, too, ate dinner within the confines of my tarp tent.
After dinner I settled into the sleeping bag and made my “to do” list for Etna and reviewed the data book for the upcoming section of trail from Etna to Seiad Valley. Too tired to do much journaling, I listened to a couple songs on the radio, then turned off the head lamp and snuggled deep into the sleeping bag, cinching it tight around my face so that only my nose and mouth were exposed to the night chill. Today was one of the best hiking days ever, and some day I plan to return to hike this section again from Dunsmuir to Etna.
Today’s weather: sunny and cold; low 36, high 58. Today’s mileage: 30.7; cumulative mileage: 1185.0.
