Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - July 18th
Day 93: Thursday 18th July Deer Creek – Squaw Valley Creek
Harley passed me at 6.30am, while I was still eating breakfast. The morning started
with a traverse through forest to the McCloud River, which is trout stream of World
renown. I chatted for a while with three fishermen at the parking lot by the river. One
was a professional and was giving fly-fishing instruction to two clients. I had an early
lunch at Fitzhugh Gulch, as it was clouding over and I thought there might be rain by
the time I wanted to rest. It was very hot and humid so thunderstorms were likely.
“Jaybird” joined me for lunch. Although he walks fast he wasn’t doing really high
mileages because he rarely started before 7.00 or 7.30 am and he usually stopped well
before dark.
The climb from Fitzhugh Gulch was easy on a well-engineered trail. When I stopped
at 2.30pm the rain hadn’t appeared yet, but with the temperature around 95ºF I was
soaked through with sweat anyway so I stripped off and dried my clothes, while having a
cup of tea. The trail continued traversing along steep slopes high above the creeks,
through the thick viewless pine or oak woodland.
The rain held off and I camped by the parking lot at Squaw Valley Creek. This was a
lovely little creek cutting down into the bedrock to give nice rock pools. There was an
SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) at the parking lot with a flat tyre; the delights of
civilisation. As with all sites with road access it was a bit of a mess with lots of litter. I
had a much-needed bath and then had an early night.
Day 93: 18.4 miles 7.46 hours Camp: Squaw Valley Creek
Harley passed me at 6.30am, while I was still eating breakfast. The morning started
with a traverse through forest to the McCloud River, which is trout stream of World
renown. I chatted for a while with three fishermen at the parking lot by the river. One
was a professional and was giving fly-fishing instruction to two clients. I had an early
lunch at Fitzhugh Gulch, as it was clouding over and I thought there might be rain by
the time I wanted to rest. It was very hot and humid so thunderstorms were likely.
“Jaybird” joined me for lunch. Although he walks fast he wasn’t doing really high
mileages because he rarely started before 7.00 or 7.30 am and he usually stopped well
before dark.
The climb from Fitzhugh Gulch was easy on a well-engineered trail. When I stopped
at 2.30pm the rain hadn’t appeared yet, but with the temperature around 95ºF I was
soaked through with sweat anyway so I stripped off and dried my clothes, while having a
cup of tea. The trail continued traversing along steep slopes high above the creeks,
through the thick viewless pine or oak woodland.
The rain held off and I camped by the parking lot at Squaw Valley Creek. This was a
lovely little creek cutting down into the bedrock to give nice rock pools. There was an
SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) at the parking lot with a flat tyre; the delights of
civilisation. As with all sites with road access it was a bit of a mess with lots of litter. I
had a much-needed bath and then had an early night.
Day 93: 18.4 miles 7.46 hours Camp: Squaw Valley Creek
McClouid River
Ancient Brit
Camp by Squaw
Valley Creek
Valley Creek
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