NorCal is notoriously hot and dry, especially in contrast to the Sierra with water everywhere and beautiful views all around. A lot of hikers find this section incredibly tough, many become demotivated and even drop out here. After returning south from Trail Days, I was well behind schedule. I arrived in Dunsmuir on the Amtrak from Portland at 1 am. Sleeping rough and making a move to Seiad Valley, I got a taste of the dry, hot and exposed trail in NorCal. From talking to others at Trail Days, I didn’t feel too bad about missing the major burn sections from Truckee to Dunsmuir, although there were some gems in there I’d heard.
I began this section far behind the bubble, the solitude and barren landscape was a totally different atmosphere to what I had just left behind. There were still hikers with me this far back, but most of them were crushing 30-40 mile days. I was astonished to see what these guys could do and I pushed as hard as I could, just wanting to cross the California/Oregon border – my daily mileage paled in comparison though. I have to admit that I felt uncomfortable with my position while I was hiking up through NorCal. The trail was lonely and the days were long, this was the part of trail where I spent the most nights setting up cowboy camp after dark, and leaving camp before sunrise. They say that the middle part of a thru-hike is mental, and for this piece I had to keep myself together and just push forwards with good strategy.
Throughout Oregon, I continued to push hard to catch up with the bubble and hit Washington with enough time to beat the end of season weather. I encountered a small group of hikers in Oregon who I’d spent time with at Trail Days, and initially met at the end of the desert, Mango, Cook and Wow. These guys were the Party Turtles, their style was to hike the good stuff, not to sweat over daily miles, and to have a great time in town too. Their style matched mine perfectly, and I carried on through the end of Oregon with them.
There were some large wildfires in Oregon, as with most years, and we skipped around a few smoke affected sections. While logistically interesting, the fires helped us to further catch up with the schedule. Its tempting to stress about circumstances here, but one thing I learned was to take things as they come, it all works out so much better when you don’t force it to.
I reached the end of Oregon in early-mid September, with almost three weeks until the generally accepted target date to finish trail. I still had some pressure to get through Washington before the snow, but I had caught up significantly and felt confident that I could make it to the end before any big storms locked me out.
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Days 117-121, 17-21 August: Getting Back to Trail
After Trail Days, everyone had different plans, but we all needed to get back to trail, one way or another. A lot of people simply walked north from the island into Washington. My plan was to get back down south to continue from northern California, over the state border and into Oregon. The first step
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Day 122, 22 August: Cook and Green Pass
Getting started on trail today felt like the beginning of a whole different life. After spending so much time in the Sierra, enjoying whatever came my way and and any blue-blaze (secondary route) or sidequest I happened upon, it was time to get serious (ish). I woke up while it was still dark this morning,
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Day 123, 23 August: Bearground Spring
I hiked up from Cook and Green today. On the way up, it was clear that a lot of trail work had been done to clear the blowdowns which people had been warning me about at trail days. After climbing the ridge, the trail was mostly flat and the going was quite easy. I passed
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Day 124, 24 August: Entering Oregon
I finally crossed from California into Oregon today. After so long in one state, it’s easy to forget that there’s more to the trail than just California. I walked from Bearground Spring to Donomore Meadows, visited Donomore Cabin along the way. Just after Donomore was the California/Oregon border. Once in Oregon, I continued walking along
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Day 125, 25 August: Callahan’s Mountain Lodge
The storm had passed this morning and I woke to a fresh day with clear skies. I climbed gently from camp up to Meridian Overlook, on the way up I saw a wildfire starting up on the side of Siskiyou Peak. The trail follows a ridge around for several miles to Grouse Gap. I then
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Day 126-127, 26-27 August: Ashland to Crater Lake
I was very lucky to be able to stay at Callahan’s Lodge last night. Inferno Man had booked a room for himself, but they had given him a double queen at no extra charge. The room was huge, and all the other hikers were invited to stay, but these guys were dedicated to the trail
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Day 128, 28 August: Crater Lake
We hiked up to, and then around the Crater Lake Rim today. Starting from Mazama Village, we got to the top of the rim around 11:30 am, with enough time for a couple of beers at the lodge. We walked around the Crater Lake Rim trail to the far side of the lake before descending
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Day 129, 29 August: Mt Thielsen
I walked along some of the flattest and softest trail I’ve ever seen today. In the morning, I walked to highway 138 and had lunch at a huge water cache. In the afternoon, we climbed up and around Mt Thielsen to camp at Theilsen Creek Meadows, a total distance of 16 miles, 25.7 km. When
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Day 130, 30 August: Into The Smoke
We’ve been keeping a close eye on the wildfire the last few days; the Emigrant Fire had grown to 19 500 acres since 26 August. Today we walked into the area affected by smoke from that fire. At first the smell was faint, but as we walked around the mountains and towards the fire, the
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Day 131, 31 August: Oregon Skyline Trail
I took an alternate route today to put a bit more distance between myself and the Emigrant Fire. For the first section this morning, I was on the PCT with Catch-up, Brewmaster and Canyon Man. We hiked around Tolo Mountain and past Windigo Butte to Windigo Pass. From this point, I left the PCT, while
Trekkin Weka 
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