From one trail town to the next
After reaching my first trail town I was faced with all the chores that come with that. From resupplying food (enough for the whole next section), to charging batteries, doing laundry and showering.
Yes, showering turned into a whole chore itself. It was my first shower after 5 days on the trail. This meant that I was caked in dirt from head to toe. My feet were insanely dirty and covered in tape and blister patches. My blisters had started pretty much straight away and were getting progressively worse with every day on trail. I tried to cover them up as good as possible, but that meant I had to get all the tape and the left over glue off in the shower and scrub and clean everything very carefully to try and avoid getting them infected. Showers took up to 20 min of scrubbing from head to toe with one of my bandanas - rinsing and scrubbing again. Even after that I would still find dirty spots on myself. You learn to just accept this at some stage.
Mount Shasta was a cute little town and I was lucky enough to run into Caboose - a seasoned PCT hiker who took me under his wing while I was in town and helped me figure out my resupply - and also showed me where to have a few beers in town.
Being back on Trail felt good though and I was just pumped up after finishing what felt like my first proper section on trail. The upcoming section would be just shy of 100 miles and my next stop was Etna.
It was hot but manageable. Whenever I could I camped near water. I took a 1,4 mile detour at some stage to camp at a lake for the night and go for a dip. Sadly, my feet were so sore, that I couldn't bare the sensation of the little pebbles and twigs pushing into the soles of my feet. so I just waded in up to my knees and splashed myself with water.
I found comfort in being the only PCT hiker camping at this lake. It felt like it made my morning a little more relaxed and free of the pressure of everyone else being already up and gone around me. My favourite trail breakfast was hot green tea, and granola with hot milk (made from milk powder) with freeze dried berries. Most other trhu-hikers just get up in the dark, pack up their stuff and get hiking. They have breakfast later on in the day, and it often consists of granola and protein bars.
Being efficient with your breaks
I started to settle into a rhythm of hiking 20-25 miles a day. Getting up at around 5 o'clock being packed up and on the trail for 6:30am. Then hiking between 5-7 miles to a water source where I would have a first snack break. I was always trying to do more than half of my miles before lunch, meaning I would have anything between 10 and 15 miles hiked before that. Lunch would be normally about an hour, but I kept a close eye on the clock. I was tired and if I would have listened to my body, I would have needed a looooong lunch break (or two weeks of a holiday). I simply had to be supper efficient with my breaks, knowing when I could take my pack of to take a water break, or a snack break. If I wouldn't have put a schedule in place, I would not have made it in time before my food for those 100 miles would have run out.
The most beautiful time of the day were those late afternoon / early evening hours. The sun was hanging low in the sky, the mountains were illuminated in a soft golden light and camp was only 5 or so miles away.
Those last miles often were the toughest and i had to drag myself and push, push and push.
Its not easy to walk 5 miles on a tired body and with blisters that slowly but surely filled with blood, instead of the clear liquid. I called it blister-ception since it was blisters on top of blisters, on top of other blisters.
The golden hours, the soft light, the tall mountains and the quiet soothed my soul and helped me push past the pain in my feet. I ended most days grateful that I made it and that I was cozied up in my little sleeping bag - a gift from my Dad, to keep me warm and safe on my adventures.
Arriving in Etna
Arriving in Etna was huge - what a victory for me. I was really proud of myself and settled into the PCT- hiker camp ground. This was the town park, where we could camp for 5$ a night. It was way too loud and busy for my liking, with hikers playing drinking games in the evenings and pretty big crowds being there. I had to take a zero day (a day without hiking) to take care of my feet. They were in agony. The Blisters were only part of the problem, one of the arches of my feet started swelling significantly and every single step hurt. I booked an appointment with Morgan, from Blaze Physio. She travels along the PCT with her campervan during the hiker season. As a professional physiotherapist and successful PCT thru-hiker herself, she has all the insights and expertise anyone could want. I had a tele-health call with her and she helped me figure out what was wrong with my feet and how to help them heal, while on trail.
I was happy to leave Etna after I had all my bits sorted. It was just a bit too intense and too busy for me, even though the town itself is amazing.
A lot of hikers who arrived at the same time that I did, decided against hiking out, since there was a severe heatwave coming in. The temperatures were forecasted to be 45 degrees Celsius for the next few days. As daunting as it sounds to be hiking up and down mountains with a fully loaded backpack in this heat, sitting in the town park and slow baking in my tent at night sounded way worse to me than being out and up the mountains.
I headed out to the trailhead with Stealth, a woman from Scotland who truly amazed me. She is just such a free, adventurous spirit and we had great chats all the way.
The big, big Fire
Our next stop would be Seiad Valley, only 50 odd tail miles away. Since this section was short, compared to others we had a bit wiggling room. I was excited about taking it easier.
As a storm was brewing over our heads we decided to set up camp, after only being 15 miles in for the day. Neither of us had any desire to get wet. We settled into our tents and a thunder and lightning storm broke lose over us. I didn't worry about my tent holding up, since I had camped out in storms before. My body and mind were tired and I was sound asleep very soon.
At 2:30 am in the morning I was woken up to Stealth shouting at me
'Leika, get up! There is smoke everywhere and I think I heard a helicopter flying over our heads.'
As we got out of our tents we could see fire glow in the distance and Stealth was right - there was smoke everywhere. We packed up our stuff as quickly as we could . Not knowing which way to go was a tough one. Was the fire behind us, or in front of us? Which way would be safe to go?
When you are out in the wilderness, you do not have reception to quickly check up on things. We started walking towards Seiad Valley for a mile or so, till Stealth had some reception and was able to check where the fire was at. It showed that the PCT was hugely impacted and that the fire was right outside Seiad Valley.
We turned around immediately and talked to all other hikers we saw along the trail and told them about the fire and what we were doing. Some decided to push onwards, most turned around. We were power hiking towards the trail head and once some of us had reception we got a better picture of what was happening.
Lightning had caused a wildfire in the Klamath National Forest. Due to the viciously high temperatures and the extreme drought it was spreading very quickly and the PCT was closed between Etna and Ashland.
Later I should learn that the fire was called the McKinney Fire and would be one of the biggest in the 2022 Northern California fire season, consuming more than 60, 000 acres of land in less than 36 hours. Four people lost their lives and many more lost their homes. This is why we need climate action. This is why we need to change as a society and start protecting nature and our environment - this is the only way we can safe ourselves.
I am very grateful that I wasn't any closer to the fire when it started and I am super thankful to have had Stealth with me. It was way easier to make a call being the two of us. My phone never had reception during this ordeal. I would have been left blind to what was really happening without Stealth and her phone.
When we arrived at the trailhead in Etna, there was already a car waiting for us. Stealth had organised someone who would bring us to Ashland.
Ashland
I am sure Ashland is usually a stunning town. With all it's little shops and places - even a goldsmith workshop, how could it not be? The thing that tainted it a bit for me was the crowds of hikers that started to pour into Ashland after we all had to flee from the fire. Some people were so close to the wildfire that they had to be rescued. Once again, I consider myself lucky to be able to walk out on my own. There must have been hundreds of hikers in town. All of us were trying to figure out what to do next. starting just outside Ashland could mean to hike in wildfire smoke for a good amount of days. Over the couple of days we were in Ashland the air quality improved a lot though, so we decided to start hiking out from Callahan's Lodge towards Crater Lake.
A whole group of us set out towards Crater Lake and it was nice to hike with people during the day. In the afternoon I already knew that once again, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of these well broken in hikers. After all it was only my third week on trail.
The 103 miles between Ashland and Crater Lake are mainly a blur. My feet were bad, my spirit was pretty crumbled at this stage. Having to adjust my hike so much within just 3 weeks, from the snow to the fire, felt very intense. I started questioning what the heck I was doing out there. Wouldn't it be better to spend my time and money to be with my family? I hadn't spend more than 10 days in a row with them, since I moved to Ireland 4,5 years ago.
With those doubts eating away in my brain I had only 2 encounters that really stood out to me on the stretch to Crater Lake. I ran into Sassenach. His story really inspired me. He survived harsh cancer treatment, and lives his life knowing that his cancer is incurable. Knowing he only gets a break right now and has to make the most out of the good condition his body is currently in must have been insanely tough. He managed to walk the PCT in under 3 month. Stronger and more determined than anyone I have met out on trail.
When I set up camp that night another hiker walked up to the spot. Steve - She was one of those well broken in hikers but very chill and super friendly. I felt right at home with her and very comfortable sharing a camp spot. We kept on meeting up over the next few days. She helped me a lot to figure out what to do next - another fire closure lay ahead of us past Crater Lake. We decided to make our way around this together via hitchhiking all the way up to Bend.
Crater Lake
Crater Lake simply blew my mind. There are no words to describe the deep blue colour of the lake. I have never seen anything like this before in my life.
To be able to share this experience with someone was everything. I am glad I ran into Steve, not just because it made hitchhiking from Crater Lake to Bend feel safer. Every chat meant the world to me. Having other people around me to experiencing the same beautiful places with lifted up my spirit.
Being in awe together of what we saw made it worth the pain.
I was hoping to wrap the PCT Blog posts up today, but I am afraid you will have to read more in the upcoming Part IV.
