Day 5-6

Except for the usual topics (sound of my sleeping pad, etc…) my night is quiet ok. I wake up with the sunrise but it is so cosy under my quilt that I stay in my tent until 6h. I make breakfast, pack everything up and within no time it is 8:30h when I am back on the trail.

I really enjoyed my last tent site. It was secluded from the trail and I was so far away from other hikers, that I couldn’t hear them at all. It was very nice.

From the start of today’s segment it is uphill for a longer time. But the nature is wonderful. I see little chipmunks, grasshoppers and a lot of butterflies. The rock formation remind me a bit of the Alps. This is even amplified by the flowers I see. There are Lupines, Asters, Yarrow (Schafgarbe) and other plants I have already seen at home.

At around 10 a.m. I see the first signs of an old burn area and I am completely fascinated. Each tree seems to be a sculpture on its own. The black charcoal like surface of burned trees shines in silvery colors depending of the angle of the light hitting it. I stop often and make a lot of photos.

But at some point it hits me. I have been walking through this burn area for hours now and there is no end in sight. The destruction is so complete that there is nothing green except far in the distance. I assume that this must be a more recent burn area. Also there is only very few shade. As all the tree crowns are burnt the trees are like upstanding toothpicks which only provide very little shade. In addition the earth is darker due to the ash. All these things let you feel the heat even more. At some point I take my sun umbrella out again.

At around 2 p.m. I meet another hiker and we spend and hour in the shade and talk. I start hiking earlier then him but he catches up quickly and goed by me shortly after. As this is my fifth days on the trail, I am passed by a lot of hikers which started at the Mexican border. I just don’t have their pace yet.

In total, after having spend most of the day in a burn area I must say that walking through one isn’t very uplifting. At least towards the end of today’s section the greenery comes back and with it the flowers and butterflies.

My initial plans were to hike another 1.5 miles but at around 5:30 p.m. I am beat and the tent site I am at looks so nice. There is ample water and I have friendly fellow hikers to talk with. So I decide to stay here for the night. I set up my tent, we cook, eat and talk by the creek. At around 8 p.m. we all go to sleep.

Today I thought that my sense of smell might be coming back. There were occasions where I thought that I smelled something. At least Covid didn’t take my sense of taste. Not smelling can even be an advantage from time to time. They say to hike the PCT one has to „embrace the stink“. Without smelling there is no stink 😉

Day 6

As usual, when I am camping with others, I am the last to hit the trail.

Yesterday’s decision to not hike the last planned segment turns out to have been the right choice. Right after the creek I have spent the night the trail ascends for nearly 1000ft/350m. The next tent site would have been on top of that ascent and without water.

Today’s segment is not that long (only 11.8 miles) but it has a lot of elevation gain (3300ft / 990m). At first I am taking breaks after around 5 and 8 miles. At least there is enough water on trail.

The added difficulty for today is that there are a lot of fallen trees blocking / over the trail. Some can be easily passed or gone over. Others have taken down other trees with them which makes it more like a game of Mikado. On which log do I have to step first to make it over there. And the trail is on a mountain slope while being blocked by logs and not on a wide open area. Also between the logs the bushes are sometimes so overgrown that I feel like bushwacking. I have to push myself through the branches while paying attention to the little of the trail I see to not trip and fall over rocks or roots.

But the last segment for today is a b……east. The gradient is 11% and the trail is above tree line and exposed. At least there is some overcast which makes the sun less intense. I have passed the 7000ft / 2000m elevation mark two times already today, which makes the last climb more challenging as it goes up to 7000ft again. I am huffing and puffing up the last segment drenched in sweat while other hiker „flash“ past me without any visible exhaustion.

But at some point I finally make it to the top. Luckily there are two tent sites close to the mountain top I just climbed. I am so tired that I tell myself to take the first one for a break no matter what. But once I make it there, I can see that it is within a small burn area and has no water. So the second tent site it is.

It is green there, has a stream of cold water and it feels like paradise. First I only sit down to make a break as I had planned to hike a little more to a lake. But while I am sitting there enjoying the cold water my body is telling me that it has been enough for today. So it start setting up my tent, cook dinner and talk with other hiker who arrive soon after. In the end there will be around 14 hikers dispersed in the woods around the stream.

While I am waiting for my dinner and while eating I myself am a dinner to bumble bees (Hummeln). They land on my legs and I can see them lick me. I assume it’s the salt they are after. There are 4-5 of them which don’t want to go 🙂

The next day we will arrive in Etna, CA. A lot of talk among us hikers is about town food, what we want to drink and eat, what we have been craving for etc. Needless to say, we are all excited to reach town tomorrow.

Some of the other hikers want to have breakfast in town. So they decide to leave camp at 4:30h which will allow them to be at the road junction by 8:30h when they will be pickup up. I am amazed by the level of organisation and pre-plannig they have done.

Unfortunately I don’t have a place to stay yet but I hope that something will present itself. There is the option to set up the tent in the town park but I would really like to have proper bed. At around 8:30 p.m. I fall asleep.