Near Lake Tahoe

9/15: Just out of Sierra City - great, cute lil town in the mtns, idyllic - reminded me a bit of Boulder Creek. Love walking up creeks. Yuba was excellent...Just got swooped several times by a big owl! 'Twas dusk and heard/felt a swoop above my head and heard a large bird settle in the branches above...Checked 'em out for awhile - Big Owl! and he/she followed me down the trail for a bit...lighting upon different trees along the way...maybe it's because my hands smell like sardines?

Sierra Buttes, Feather River to Sierra City

9/11: Last night, freaky noises - first thought it was from a dream but heard the animal(s) again. High-pitched like a coyote, but not the usual 'yip' and not like the howl of wolves - more like coyote shrikes! or mountain lions in heat. Gun season for something must have begun. Gun shots resounding all around me in the valley this morning. Two, too close to me this AM. Two big shotgun booms & I could heard the gunners' conversation. They didn't even get out of their pickup to shoot the guns; it was still running.

Above the Feather River

More tree bark

Switchbacks above Sierra City

From Lassen to the Plumas Natl Forest/Belden

9/10: Up some switchbacks on a ridge above Belden. This morning as waking up next to old growth burnt fir at dawn a chipmunk or squirrel starts dropping chewed upon green, fresh, heavy pinecones around me. Loud, fast-falling and close. 3 were within a yard of me! I was getting bombed from way way above and got the hell outta there. Saw my 11th bear today, near CHIPS Creek.

Well - upon leaving Drakesbad, (which was an amazing and nourishing stopover) (& Lassen was superb as well) - decided not to explore the rumored hot springs around Willow Lake. Part of this decision was b/c I would try to catch the Belden PO on Fri before they close on weekends. So I started hauling ass. Then I realized the PO closes @ 1 - so I started hauling major ass! To the extent that on Thurs I hiked 31 miles. 6 after dark & then hustled & did 13 miles before Noon today...and no box at PO. What's the lesson? - Do resupply myself? Go look, explore for hot springs? Don't depend on others? Chill out, slow down? But resupply in Belden was ok plus hiker box at PO. Later I figured out that most of the free food I got from the PO's hiker box was years old and it tasted nasty and gave me a very gross aftertaste in my mouth after everything I ate. I opened a can of tuna spread and after tasting the tangy flavor, I checked the expiration date to see that it had expired 3 years ago.

At the midway/halfway pt - I'm looking at the register and hear/feel a slight swoop and the shriek of a rodent and I see a huge hawk? swoop back up in a beautiful graceful arc. The chipmunk was probably on the side of the tree staring, distracted by me and the hawk swooped so fast and so quickly from above that I never saw where it came from.

South of Shasta: Burney Falls & Hat Creek Rim

9/3: Almost to Burney Falls. Hope Richard sent that box. Sitting next to Rocky Creek - very refreshing - beautiful, waterfalls, hot outside today. Hope it cools significantly before hat creek rim. Have gone 14 miles so far today and it's before 2pm. Camped with Cash last night...Seen no one else today. May be really close to Hunt Hot Springs, but unsure. They're off of FS Rd. 9702, which is right here, but dunno how far down the rd, etc. Anyway, it's too hot right now for hot springs. Feeling ambivalent about the trail and walking right now. Dreamed I was camped outside Burning Man last night. And we were able to get in through the forest into the desert through a back way.

9/4: Wow. Earlier today I was contemplating if I would consider starting a forest fire in this dry habitat of hat Creek Rim in order to get rescued from thirst/dehydration. I still had some water in my bottles but was saving it until I REALLY needed it. Was so hot and thirsty I couldn't eat. Wasn't hungry. And was unsure if the water cache 22 would be stocked cuz herd word coupla days before from Bog Bridge Tester that it was empty. Cash said it was full though - but he had gone into town.

Anyway, was hot and listening to NPR and I hear a familiar Fender Rhodes and then whammy bass - Brian and Reed in an interlude before a program on the Books. Finally the water cache 22 at dusk was glorious. And after telling Cash about my mental/physical barrier about walking more than 22 miles; today I walked 27!

And was confused about distance cuz Data book said I would see a Rd @ a closed gate.
At dusk here was a flurry of colorful hang gliders floating softly down from the sky and I realized that I should be hang gliding - not hiking in the heat. Hang gliding would be much more fun and glorious.

Russian Wilderness to Shasta-Trinity Natl Forest

8-27: Pretty tired after 20.5 miles. Went through Trinity Alps -now heading North & East towards Shasta & I-5...Have seen 9 bears since entering Cali, mostly cute cubs that I wanted to cuddle with.

Deadfall Lake
8/29: Snow last night. Yesterday morning was the first time of the hike that I felt cold. Very cold last night and this morning and glad now, finally, that I've got the 15 degree bag.

View towards Castle Crags State Park with Shasta in distance

Mt. Shasta

Marble Mountains, Etna Summit, Russian Wilderness

madrone bark

the Marbles...

At Etna Summit...John Muir quote paraphrased from trailhead: "If you try to change to change any one thing in nature, you will find that it is connected to everything else in the universe." 8/25: In Russian Wilderness. Muir quote was uncannily related to a talk I had with older couple that gave me a ride back to trailhead about how the 'protected seals' now eat all of the 'protected salmon' - & the reason there are fewer salmon is because there are now too many seals.

full moon rising by Mt. Shasta

Crossing into Cali: the Siskiyous & the State of Jefferson

North of Ashland

8/16: Walked south from Ashland today. This evening - thought I heard a trippy hippie bells & xylophone concert or wood windchimes through the forest, and I thought I even heard Buddhist gutteral chanting. Now I have concluded that it is livestock with bells around their necks that I am hearing especially since it seems it is random & changing/moving...(turns out the sounds were from mooing cattle and the bells they wore)...Hitchhiking is humbling.

At the California border

near Happy Camp (off of the trail)...8/19: Easy hitch into Happy Camp from Seiad Valley. Hot here. The Cali section so far is way more dramatic & spectacular than the 250 miles in Oregon. Think I've walked over 300 miles this trip. The sunset by Lookout Springs atop Middle Devil's Peak past Copper Butte last eve was stunning! Too bad my camera battery had died. At Cook and Green Pass, I had a cosmic moment with a black mama bear and her brown and cinnamon cubs. We made eye contact for awhile. They didn't run away. The cubs scrambled up a tree - easy like koala bears and stared at me. I stared back. Woman of the Karuk tribe who gave me a ride told me that male black bears attack & kill more humans than grizzlies do - but don't wanna believe it.

Grider Creek