Logging Road - Castle Craggs Campground 8/13/10 16 miles

We thought we were getting up early when we started packing up around 7ish. Two hikers passed by and introduced themselves, Whifflechicken and Swiss Miss. The hike today consisted of a steep morning climb to warm us up, a nice shortcut to a logging road and a lot of downhill before we reached town. We arrived right at lunch time. We grabbed some burritos and drinks at the store and ate them under a tree as we hunk out with Dude, Trouble, El Presidente and Mr. Green. It was nice to relax and socialize without feeling rushed to get back on the trail. Went next door to pick up our box from Mary. Thank you! We loaded up our food and headed back to the "Chevron Tree" to hang out for a bit longer, with full intentions of walking a few more miles this evening. A few drinks later and a lot of laughs later, it was 7pm. Looks like we're going to stay at the campground next door. We stumbled to camp, took an amazing hot shower, and set up. Sleeping good tonight. -KB

8/12/10

We slept well in our makeshift camp in the middle of thee trail. We set out pretty early for a nice, roaded downhill stroll to the McCloud River. It was some of the prettiest blue water we've seen on the whole trip. Pictures do it no justice, we walked another couple of miles and had lunch before we started to climb. We pigged out trying to get rid of some of our food before we headed into town. It was a nice gentle climb and we took a long break at the top. We met "El Presidente" and he talked for a while with us. He said that he'd saw a huge mountain lion the night before. We headed down the mountain and Kristi said that she didn't feel so well. I think she had gotten a little dehydrated. Planned to camp at the river but there were no flat spots big enough. El Presidente said that he saw four bears on the way down the hill, we were only ten minutes behind him, so we were either lucky or not lucky, I don't know. Climbed a little ways up to the logging site and found a nice spot in the middle of some white pines. Had a good dinner of couscous and slept well knowing that town was not far away. -CM

8/11/10

It was nice to get up and get moving away from probably the least scenic and most unattractive campsite we've had yet. The mornings here are becoming much cooler and it took us a while to warm up this morning. We walked through a lot of brushy trail, dodging poison oak. Chris remained on poison oak patrol and pointed out each time he spotted it. We took a morning break with an outrageous view of Mt. Shasta in the distance. Clouds surrounded her peak and it most certainly didn't look real. I can't wait to get even closer. We stopped and took some crazy pictures of some dandelions, because they are as big as my fists and it's nearly impossible to blow off the seeds. Very unlike the small, fragile ones back home. We had lunch at Moosehead Springs, which we intended on being less than an hour, but was the full hour as usual. We ealked on ridges throughout the entire day, which continued to be taken over by much brush. I took my time and tried to save my legs from becoming more scratched up, as Chris smashed through it like a wild jungle man. We were nearly frightened to death as two jets soared just above the trees over us. Talk about loud and breathtaking! I came close to jumping in the bushes as I covered my head and ducked! I did a lot of thinking about the remainder of our hiking trip and plans afterwards. Listened to some music to pass some time, which really got me craving a live show! Chris cracked me up today as we passed a seedy pile of bear evidence as he said, "I would just love to watch a bear poop. You know it'd be funny because they probably poop like a dog.". Haha!! It was a good but long day! We hadn't came upon a camping spot in miles due to all of the ridgewalking, so we had to create our own. -KB

8/10/10

Woke up earlyish this morning after sleeping through the alarm. We packed up and filled up our water at the spigot (you know it's bad/good when campgrounds are civilized.). We stopped by the camp store and got some hot chocolate and postcards. We got started about 9am finally. Had an easy walk to an early lunch at another rock creek under the bridge. We did some math and more planning for the last leg of our adventure. We continued on oin some dense woods. It was overcast all day, which is very unusual. Usually not a cloud in the sky. We stopped at a huge powerline and there was a beautiful view. We met Sheepdog and Sandals, which were southbounding and making a "class of 2010" video. We didn't qualify since we are "section hikers", long story. It started to sprinkle, another surprise, but we continued a while longer through a lot of logged areas. Some clear cut and some selectively harvested. The trail was overgrown towards the end of the day and we ended up camping on a logger's loading site. It's not being used anymore, not the nicest piece of real estate, but it will do. Dinner in the tent and a late bedtime after a late start this morning. Burney Falls was definitely worth the detour. -CM

Water Cache - Rock Creek Spring 8/8/10 26 miles

Twenty six miles to go over our first marathon. We got up earlyish, had some breakfast with Dude and Trouble and then started the day loaded up on water. Hat Creek Rim is a Plateau over a volcanic rock covered valley between Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta. It is a really wierd geological place. The rim is at he edge of a cliff and at 45 degree angle. Lots of sand and tatally exposed with little shade and no water. Sounds fun right? We got about 6 miles and took a break in a smaill area of woods and then continued on to the next water cache. People bring water out in gallon jugs on the dry stretches. We got there about lunch. Dude and Trouble were already there and disappointed with no water. Twenty four water jugs and all empty. It was a nice shady spot and we had lunch there. Luckily I started with a gallon of water, so I still had two quarts left and twelve miles to go. WE crossed our 750 mile mark and our half way point. Exciting! We came down off the rim. It was still dry and we had to waqlk over ancient lava fields. It was wild! We ran out of water about 2 miles before camp, but the sun was low and the trees were funally giving shade, so we were okay. We finally got to camp about 7:30pm. Would have been earlier, but we took a nap at mile 18 under an awesome shade tree withthe craziest breeze. Camp was close to a hydro power plant and there was a huge water pipe that someone had drilled a hole in to make a sprinkler. It was heaven after a "dehydrated marathon" as Kristi put it. We had dinner and went to bed, suprisingly, not too terribly exhausted. -CM

The Heitman's - Hat creek Rim 8/7/10 7 miles

Veggie came through the back yard this morning letting everyone know that breakfast was ready. That's a good way to wake up!! She and Warner Springs Monty had made a breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and my favorite- biscuits and REAL gravy!! He had promised last night he would make some since we were southerners in need of it! Total approval! Loved it!! We hung there until about lunchtime getting our laundry finisthed up, making phone calls home and using trhe internet. It was a fairly chlly morning. We thanked everyone for the awesome hospitality and caught a ride to the store from Dennis, the owner fo the house. He told us a littel history of he and Georgie and how they moved around for a while and later found the property and built their cabin. We bought some lunch at the store and of course had to have some ice cream to get us going. We then caught a ride to the trailhad by antoher very nice man and started walking. We checked out the "Subway Caves" that are huge caves formed by lava many years ago. It was pretty amazing. We decided to camp close to the water cache, since our 26mile stretch tomorrow has no water. Set up, hung out with Dude and Trouble for a bit and time for bed. -KB

Drakesbad Ranch - The Heitman's 8/6/10 23.6 miles

We woke up early with our bellies still full from lst night. The mornings are getting much cooler already. We had alittle climb in the morning and took a break after about 8 miles. I realized I had lost my Jade necklace from New Zealand. I was not happy. Hopefully it will come back to me. We had lunch after a very hot stretch. Had a nice view of Lassen park. Ten miles to go. Everyone was so excit4d about staying with the Heitman's. There was about 9 people including up when we got to the store where they picked up up. It was abot 5 pm and they said they would have dinner ready by 6pm. Perfect timing! It took a couple of rides to get everyone there. Sugar Mama took us las and we rolled up as everyone wqas eating. There was still plenty of food left. Lasagna, corn on the cob and bread pudding with whipped cream. A good dinner two nights in a row and it was nice. They had a great set up with an outdoor kitchen and garge with hiker supplies, shower, laundry, hiker camping with tents already set up and a treehouse with beds!! It doesn't get much better than this! Unfortunately the treehouse was already claimed. Kristi worked late getting the blog caught up and we finally went to bed at 11pm. Lat night for us. -CM