Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - July 23rd
Day 98: Tuesday 23rd July Peak 6,610 – SE of Mavis Lake
The skies cleared overnight. I left at 6.40am, well after “Happy Joe”, John and
Julia. I reached Highway 3 in two hours and found the food cache I had left there had
been destroyed by animals. I managed to recover the maps, which I had laminated, a gas
cylinder and a can of beer. Fortunately this was only a 2-day cache and rather than waste
the rest of the day trying to resupply I decided to carry on to Etna Summit 40 miles away
where I had my next supply bag. I still had the best part of a day’s supply left and I
reckoned I could cope on short rations for a couple of days.
A Pack Trail crossed the Pass by 1851 and was developed into a Stage Coach Road by
1860. A daily Stage crossed the Pass from1860 until it fell into disuse after the
completion of the Sacramento River Canyon Railroad in 1887.
About 10 minutes beyond Highway 3, I spotted an SUV on an old trail in the
woods. Jerry, aged 75, was “camped out” in his van. He liked it up here, preferring the
quiet of the woods to the noise and the dogs on the public campsites. I asked him if he
could sell me any food and I came away with bananas, grapes, tomatoes, a couple of
doughnuts and small tins of tuna, macaroni and beef, and fruit salad. Not the usual
backpacking food, but much appreciated. He told me he had taken a German thru-hiker
to Etna a week ago to resupply. On closer questioning the German turned out to be the
Austrian, Manfred, still going strong at least two weeks earlier. Jerry had never been
outside the USA and had the same confusion about European geography as most
Americans.
Today the conditions were nice for walking and there were good views of saw-tooth
granite mountains to the south. I stopped for my main break at 3pm. It was noticeable
that at 7,000ft, the vegetation was similar to that at 11,000ft in the Sierra Nevada
further south. The only trees to withstand the conditions were Mountain Hemlock and
Weeping Spruce, which was only found in this mountain range. These almost treeless
alpine ridges are much more interesting to walk through than the viewless forests at
lower altitudes.
I camped at 8pm at a site with a lovely view down West Boulder Creek Canyon. I
had seen no-one except Jerry all day. For the second day in a row I was camping further
south than the preceding day. The trail was taking a long detour to the west to go round
the west side of Mount Shasta, rather than follow the shorter route through hot and dry
hills to the east of Shasta.
Day 98: 19.0 miles 8.16 hours Camp: Saddle, SE of Mavis Lake
The skies cleared overnight. I left at 6.40am, well after “Happy Joe”, John and
Julia. I reached Highway 3 in two hours and found the food cache I had left there had
been destroyed by animals. I managed to recover the maps, which I had laminated, a gas
cylinder and a can of beer. Fortunately this was only a 2-day cache and rather than waste
the rest of the day trying to resupply I decided to carry on to Etna Summit 40 miles away
where I had my next supply bag. I still had the best part of a day’s supply left and I
reckoned I could cope on short rations for a couple of days.
A Pack Trail crossed the Pass by 1851 and was developed into a Stage Coach Road by
1860. A daily Stage crossed the Pass from1860 until it fell into disuse after the
completion of the Sacramento River Canyon Railroad in 1887.
About 10 minutes beyond Highway 3, I spotted an SUV on an old trail in the
woods. Jerry, aged 75, was “camped out” in his van. He liked it up here, preferring the
quiet of the woods to the noise and the dogs on the public campsites. I asked him if he
could sell me any food and I came away with bananas, grapes, tomatoes, a couple of
doughnuts and small tins of tuna, macaroni and beef, and fruit salad. Not the usual
backpacking food, but much appreciated. He told me he had taken a German thru-hiker
to Etna a week ago to resupply. On closer questioning the German turned out to be the
Austrian, Manfred, still going strong at least two weeks earlier. Jerry had never been
outside the USA and had the same confusion about European geography as most
Americans.
Today the conditions were nice for walking and there were good views of saw-tooth
granite mountains to the south. I stopped for my main break at 3pm. It was noticeable
that at 7,000ft, the vegetation was similar to that at 11,000ft in the Sierra Nevada
further south. The only trees to withstand the conditions were Mountain Hemlock and
Weeping Spruce, which was only found in this mountain range. These almost treeless
alpine ridges are much more interesting to walk through than the viewless forests at
lower altitudes.
I camped at 8pm at a site with a lovely view down West Boulder Creek Canyon. I
had seen no-one except Jerry all day. For the second day in a row I was camping further
south than the preceding day. The trail was taking a long detour to the west to go round
the west side of Mount Shasta, rather than follow the shorter route through hot and dry
hills to the east of Shasta.
Day 98: 19.0 miles 8.16 hours Camp: Saddle, SE of Mavis Lake
Happy Joe at 5:30am
Plaque at Highway 3
Alpine Meadow
California Pitcher Plant
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