September 1

Distance: 18ish | Ascent: 2990′ | Descent: 2340′

Mile marker: 1169.6

Lunch: J – sausage stuffing (A), A – tomato cheese shells (B+)

Dinner: J – chicken soup (A), A – sausage stuffing (A)

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Even though we like hiking, we don’t always wake up excited to hike. Today was one of those days. We didn’t get the best sleep, and we have a full pack from the resupply. We lollygaged a bit – getting stickers for our bear cans, getting a coffee at the gas station, sending a postcard. We really didn’t hit the trail until well after 9am. Whoops.

The start of the hike was a road walk along an I-5 frontage road. It was shaded by trees, although road walks aren’t the nicest. The flat ground hurts our feet. But, when we found the trail, there was magic waiting! We each got a tiny soda and a clementine.

The actual trail was great! Probably our favorite way to climb a hill: shady, soft with pine duff, no more than 350 ft/mile. It was great!

When we were almost up the ridge, we got a wide open view of Castle Crags. But there was also a brand new wildfire just to the west. We had some cell service overlooking Dunsmuir and checked to make sure we were safe on this ridge on the other side of I-5. We were!

We watched as the fire grew, and planes and tankers dropped water and retardant on the trees, trying to contain the spread. It was neat to see the coordination of the planes.

A spot fire further east of the main blaze grew. It looked like the planes weren’t enough to squelch it out. All the while, the bigger burn kept growing and creeping up the ridge. We saw the whole fire grow from a few acres to a few hundred. It’s a harrowing reminder of just how powerful and quick wildfires can be. We are always vigilant and ensure that the sections we’re going into are safe. Don’t worry, moms.

We don’t know how the fire started, but in any case, it’s important to always drown campfires. Natural forest fires – typically started by lightning strikes – can be healthy for the forest. However, over 85% of wildfires are caused by people, not through natural causes. Edit from the future: this fire, the Root Fire, was started by an escaped campfire.

After watching for nearly three hours, we decided to keep moving. After all, we are here to hike. The rest of the trail was as easy as the first half. We reached camp a little after dark because of our extended fire watch break. We should be able to make up the distance tomorrow.

Also, there was a wee frog at camp. As we ate dinner, we watched him slowly work his way down from a tree to begin a night of catching bugs. He probably did not enjoy  the light of our headlamps – sorry, friend. Hope you get some bugs.