Northern
California Oregon border
to Beldon 410 miles
"I'd
like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars
I'd
like to lay my weary bones tonight on a bed of California stars"
Woody
Guthrie
Introduction
From the Oregon border to
the north, the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California follows
a wide sweep eastwards to connect with the Sierra Nevada mountain
mass to the south. There is a great deal of variety in this region;
from live volcanic activity in the shape of steam vents and hot pools
around Mt Lassen and the dominating snow covered cone Mt Shasta to
the more rugged Trinity Alps with the metamorphic
Marble
Mountain. Forest covers much of the lower terrain but the trail takes
in some extremely arid semi desert areas as well such as Hat Creek
Rim near the resort of Burney Falls.
Towns
passed through tend to be small country stores and lodges as the trail
avoids any larger urban areas. Seiad Valley, the first stop south
of the border lies deep in the trench of the Klamath river, 5,000
feet below the ridge crest of the PCT.
We
would be hiking this area in mid to late August and the hot daytime
temperatures would be our biggest danger even higher up in the mountains.
Despite having various aches and pains, our condition was fairly good
by now - having already hiked around 1,500 miles in all kinds of terrain
and Martina thankfully seemed to have recovered from her prolonged
bout of giardia. Our slight concern at the back of our minds as we
left the Oregon border on the 17th August was that our summer
was beginning to draw to a close and we still had around 1,000 miles
to go, with the final section over the Sierra Nevada, the highest
mountains on the Pacific Crest Trail and the ones most likely to attract
autumnal snow. Anyway, we just kept on hiking and waited to see what
weather we would encounter.
Our
guidebook split the PCT into alphabetical sections and it was the
name 'Section O' between Burney Falls and Castella that was much talked
about amongst hikers as being the worst section of path on the whole
trail. Indeed we first heard about the infamous 'Section O' back in
northern Oregon. This area was still being actively logged and the
trail disappears for miles on end under a tangled mesh of fallen trees
and bulldozed dirt tracks.
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Trinity Alps Northern California
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(Note:
I understand that the trail has been upgraded substantially in this
area since we were there in 1998).
We
had not heard much other information about the area so we were to
hike into fairly unknown country for us.......
Keep
hiking in northern California from the Oregon border to Seiad Valley.........
