Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Old Station to Castella/Dunsmuir

Hello!

Indie, Bigfoot (size 16 EE shoe) and I left Old Station after procrastinating at the market all afternoon eating ice cream bars. We started a night hike along the hat Creek Rim with our first views of Mt. Shasta to the north and fading views of Lassen peak to the south. It was a surreal moment watching the quiet headlamps of Bigfoot and Indie making their way north along the rim, while above, the annual Perseid meteor shower was putting on a show with fiery shooting stars.

This week, a Southern California-esque heat creeped into the mountains. The trail was hot and dry and the vegetation resembled that of SOCAL at times. The one major difference was the abundance of pine trees that covered the mountains. Indie and I spent most of the week talking about everything and nothing while we leap frogged a couple of hikers named Stumbling Norwegian and Spillz.

It was a good wildlife week. I saw my first bear of the trip, (in fact two bears in two days) an owl, and a baby rattlesnake which I thought we had left behind in the desert. Yesterday was so hot that a swim in the Squaw Valley Creek was a refreshing change of pace.

Indie and I joked that we really matured this week on the trail. In the beginning, we were extremely picky about our break spots and campsites. We needed views, water, and flat ground just to name a few amenities. This week, as long as their was shade and minimal mosquitoes, we were perfectly content. Twice we spent the night camped on the trail because their was nowhere to camp, and another time our site was nothing more than open sky to see the shooting stars while sleeping on top of volcanic rocks and thorny weeds. We can't decide if we are becoming more wild, or more homeless as human beings. Probably a combination of the two...

Thanks for reading...

-Flyboxer

1 comment:

  1. Flyboxer, looks like you are making some good time! The photos are wonderful. Hope Oregon treats you well.

    ReplyDelete