Fischtailing to Ashland

3/8/2015

After we left South Lake Tahoe (again;) the wheater got a bit worse. There were often big "thunderstormclouds" drifting over us. We were lucky that we often could see the thunderstorm from a distance raining down on a close by mountain rather than on us. Especially because we often had to hike on exposed ridgelines of mountains (where you do not want to be when a thunderstorm is hitting. )

One day after a long 30 mile day, I was about to knot my Ursack high on a tree, while I was standing on a dead tree. Suddenly some big mosquito bit, which was quite painful. When I was looking for the mosquito I found a few other insects at my legs biting me. I then realized that I probably made some wasp/bee type of insect angree by standing on that dead tree which probably was their home. I was running as fast as could back to the tent. Suus was shocked because she first thought that I was chased by some big wild animal. I am still not sure what bit me, but I was not curious enough to investigate that dead tree any further;)

The next miles we on and of hiked with Winedoc, who is a fast hiking 50 years old physician who also runs a winery (thats why he is called winedoc). Together we got a lift to Buckslake by two mexican-americans who, at the end of their workday, were still about to drive 400 miles home. Tired as they were, the driver also had the tendency too turn around to talk to us and fishtail. We were happy that this was just a short hitch and the streets were empty...I am exaggerating mama... (I am not;)
At Buckslake we stayed at a fantastic secret trailangelsplace. Reaaalllyy nice. Just open for hikers every now and then. We could do our laundry, got fed (dinner and breakfast) and we got a ride back to the trail. It is really nice when you are invited by trailangels. even more when it is a very nice place you haven't heared about before. Probably also nice for the trailangels since they can decide from day to day weather they want to invite hikers to their home or not, compared to "official trailangel places" where hordes of hikers pass by everyday.

Halfway point:1325 mile! Yippie!
We finally reached ...just half the way? But it took us 2/3 of the time we have...how does that fit? Well the first half takes longer because you are less fit and the terrain is more difficult (dessert/ high sierra)...I hope so at least...

Our next town stop Chester took longer than expected. Pizza in the morning with Malibu and Queen B, Resupply, Laundry, Shower, milkshake (huuuge!), leaving town? no, again hungry, so one last Garden burger. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m....that was efficient; )

We hiked on, sleeping at Swan lake where Suus could not sleep because she heared noises outside...again a bear? We ended up chasing deer which seemed to like our campside.

Because we heared that Drakesbad is supposed to have a good lunch buffet (it is all about food), we hiked really fast to be their in time. When we got there, a few other hikers (Velcro, pinklady...) where already waiting. And it was worth it. Really good food and ...real healthy food. It I s difficult to get something else than burgers or pizza at the trail. The food was espescially delisious because a women spontaneously decided to invite us for lunch after she talked to Suus and heard that we are PCT hikers. I am everytime fascinated how friendly people are to us...

We spend an afternoon at Old station (I am not going to list the food) to escape the heat. We had to walk a 32 mile waterless strech and we planed to walk most of it late evening and early morning. We hiked untill 10p.m. because we then found velcro and zackly, cowboycamping at a nice lookout point and decided to cowboycamp there too. We slept untill 1a.m., when it started to rain on us. we all packed our stuff and hiked on...we did not want to hike in the heat anyway. we stopped at 5a.m. slept for two hours and then hiked on. we messed up our biorhythm.

Our next resupply point was Burney city, where we hitched in together wuth winedoc and leanderthal which ended up being as time (and food) consuming as Chester. Out of Burney in the afternoon we stopped after one mile, because trailangels builded an amazing hiking paradise in the middle of nowhere: dart, picknicktables, solarshowers, food...it took us another hour. We decided that we are now going to hike on for sure, doing more miles. Well, at Burney Falls state park we actually just wanted to shower, but we ended up getting invited for dinner. Ok, the dinner, then we leave...we ate a lot of the left over food of a family reunion. And because some family members already left, we were invited to sleep in a free cabin. Who can say "no" to such an offer. That was our 7 mile day.

At the highway to our next resupply point, Mount Shasta, we got picked up by Dave, a friend of winedoc, who wanted to hike with winedoc and us for the next section. He welcomed us with a beer, told winedoc how old he looked like with a beard, and as we got in the car he laughed loud telling us how much we stank and that he nearly had to puke.

The next days with Dave and winedoc were fun. Dave was excited to hike with us. He was funny and impressed about the amount of miles we were hiking. We were impressed by how he kept up hiking with us (up to 31, 5 miles), by the enormous blisters he developed and by the amount of chocolate he carried and shared with us. In this short section, Dave got a good impression what-thru-hiking is like, cowboycamping at a ridge line of a mountain with a beautiful view, seeing deer on the trail, chafing, hitching back to town with a stoned couple with an right a rather aggressive dog, having a dinner in town (which tastes much better after a hike). He was so nice to hitch back early in the morning to get back his car and to be able to give us a ride back to the trail again. On his hitch back to Mount Shasta he even was stopped by the police (hitchhiking is not allowed at highways), but instead of a ticked, he got a ride.

After we left Etna and said goodbye to Dave (who's unofficial trailname became "sugarman" because of the chocolate he gave to us), we saw another rattlesnake (no.4), met the very nice "Lady with the Lama" (she is mentioned in the book "wild") and "Wildhorse".

On the way to our next resupply point Seiad Valley we got slowed down by tasty blackbeeries that were growing next to the trail. Seiad Valley was so hot. (106degrees) that we had to wait untill 8p.m. before we started to climb the long 12 mile long ascend. "Leopard sauce" was joining us. We arrived very tired at 0.30 at the next campside, where we hurried to get in our sleeping bags to get some sleep.

F.