Mt. Shasta 7/15 & 16

U

Hello friends, 

I'm  laying in the dirt waiting for the word to get out; waiting for every bug and it's mother to start chomping on me. We're heading toward the sacred, mystic mountain called Shasta. It is over 14,000 ft and has snow on it all year. It commands the sky and clouds. It's obvious they are in obeisance to it. We are not doing an entire circumambulation around it but it feels like it. It is the Mt. Kailash of Northern California, a destination point for mystical vortex seekers. It has powers. We initially were walking northward towards it and now we are west of it. We first sighted it about two weeks ago. We are now in Shasta Trinity Forest which is definitely a managed area. There are lots of clear cut areas, logging roads everywhere and turning corners often brings you in hearing distance of machine sounds . This morning FC heard a sound she mistook for a muzzein calling Moslems to worship - a Middle Eastern invocation to bow before God. She stopped and listened more carefully, ascertaining the sound to be a distant chain saw changing gears. It feels like wilderness but someone got here before us. We crossed many dirt roads today and saw hills that looked like they were shaved for only one ski run. 

     The terrain itself reminded Firecracker of a dirt bike competition route. Rolling and steep, short up and downs. The trail for the last weekor so has been incredibly dusty. It seems more like a horse trail and in fact is also a horse trail. We might as well be walking inside a corall. Twenty feet of  distance is needed between hikers to avoid choking on kicked up dust. Sometimes the dust is beige but it can be white like baking flour, or red.

In the distance are many small rounded heavily forested mountains. They crowd into each other there are so many of them. You can't see anything else like valleys or roads or towns in the distance; just rolling forests.Above them was a hazy mist. The temps got into the 80's but this climate is humid and thick. There are lots of ferns, bushes and manzanita along with all kinds of pine and fir trees ( ponderosa pine, Jeffery pine, incense cedar). FC grew up in a humid city (Toronto) and it feels OK. She did sweat non-stop and there wasn't any water for fifteen miles except for a surprise spring that only dripped water like a tap that needs a washer. We put a cup under it and waited for that ice cold liquid elixer that keeps us alive. Out here the importance and many uses of water is worshiped and fully embraced. We do not turn away from a drip. We have taken full baths from a 8 by 8 inch puddle. Water directs us on this trip. It's all about going to water in order to get to Canada. 

 

1 cup per minute flow. 

A friend near the spring. 

Moxie has been traveling with us 

since Chester but we haven't seen her  since yesterday afternoon. She is a six foot tall gazelle who has much longer strides than we do. She can do 3 miles an hour with ease. TC and FC for the first time walked 4.5 miles in an hour and a half. FC drank some black tea at 6:30 pm and her energy was renewed. Before drinking the tea she was ready to stop but TC wanted to keep going. There was only one solution : TEA. TC didn't drink it but she did manage to keep up with FC. They were headed to a creek which meant clean body and feet. They arrived at 8:30 just after sunset.

Firecracker's mini addition. 

      The mood of these blog enteries seems to have changed. Initially they were perhaps more bubbly and optimistic, life was one big adventure after another. Now there seems to be more complaining, maybe some outright whining. Well it seems to be pandemic. Lots of hikers are losing motivation. Thoughts of quitting are rampant. FC and TC have the thought of quitting at least once a day for a couple of weeks now. What is going on? FATIGUE.WEARINESS. We have been walking for almost 4 months without a real rest. Real meaning just resting. No shopping, no resupplying, no ordering new equipment and supplies, no planning ahead, no future thoughts concerning the PCT. Not to worry, we will rest when we get home. Barring unforseeable catastrophe, we will make it, despite our fluctuating moods and impulsive mind. 

N.  Today we saw 2 juvenile deer ( one female, one male). They did not run from us and were mildly curious. Yesterday the same thing occurred with an older female. She continued eating as we drank from that tiny dripping stream. Eventually they moved to the side of the trail. Which reminded me of a story Mr. President told us. Way back in Warner Springs he was walking on the trail and somehow found himself with a line of cows In front of him and a line behind him. He was trapped in a line of moving cows. He don't know how it happened or what to do about it so he just stayed in the line and walked. It was unfortunate for him that they were shitting as they walked and he had no choice but to step in it. He was too hemmed in. This went on for about half an hour and eventually the cows veered off the trail. He was a bit shaken, his shoes were very shitty and his hopes of getting to Warner Springs in a hurry were dashed. He walked on and saw someone he knew surrounded by cows. Thinking they were going to harm him he ran up to the group yelling and screaming. The cows scattered but the man was perturbed. "Why did you do that?" he asked. "I thought they were going to hurt you"replied Mr. President. The man then asked Mr. President to stand with him, back to back,and wait. He wanted Mr. President to see something. Mr. President decided to trust this guy and did what he asked. Moments later the cows returned and gathered around both men. They came very close nudging them with their noses,then they started to lick their hands. Mr. President remained calm. It was pleasurable and even a bit intimate but extremely messy. Once they had been licked over good they dispersed the cows. It had been quite the cow day for Mr. President. FC remembers this story when she saw the deer. She wanted to be licked by the deer and would have let them but it did not happen. Ultimately she thinks that it is better if wild animals stay wild. Cows are not exactly wild. 

This is our reward. Squaw Creek.