Tuesday July 7, 20.0mi/32.2km
Big Creek at FR16 (273.3/3150ft) to Philipot Campground (292.3/2750ft) (CA) + 1.0mi to Fairgrounds
It was a very cold morning, and I walked with my hands in my pockets the entire time. The paved road was empty and relaxing.
Just as I was thinking about stopping to take a break, a chair appeared around the corner. Ewww, no thanks.
Finally after 6 miles, the road emerged from the forest and into the warm sunshine.
And there were cows. Hi cows!
I walked into Hayfork around 10:30.
It is bigger than Junction City, there are 4-5 restaurants and two grocery stores. I went to the Hotel restaurant, the only one that was open on a Tuesday at 11am. I ordered a breakfast omelet, and by the time I ate that, it was noon, so I ordered lunch too. I stayed until 1pm eating and charging my stuff.
On the walk out of town, I saw some cool artwork on various buildings.
I stopped by the county Fairgrounds to get a shower, it felt good to be clean. It was $10, a little expensive considering they don’t even give you a towel (only soaps).
I finished there at 2:30pm and walked the last 4 miles of road. It was quiet thru the forests and fields.
I finally re-entered the woods, after two days of roadwalking (since Canyon Creek trailhead).
I crossed many little streams, surprisingly without any bugs.
And then, the trail went to crap. It was moderately overgrown, mostly with poison oak and thorny plants. It was easily followable (other sections have been way more overgrown), but finding and avoiding specific plants in a sea of green was slow arduous work. Finally after two miles of that nonsense, I emerged on a nice open ridgeline.
It was great walking, sometimes very steeply, and the trail had eroded into a V-notch in places. It looked like a bunch of mountain bikers made a path a long time ago, and hikers adopted it over time. No one builds a path straight down the fall line!
I arrived to Philpot campground at 7pm, and had my choice of spots. It is an old, seldom-used campground, it kinda reminded me of the creepy Grider Creek campground from a week ago. At least it was an easy day, only 2400ft of elevation gain.
A quick 30 minutes later and I was in “town”.
It’s just a general store attached to a post office.
But, it was all I needed, and I spent almost 4 hours eating and recharging my electronics. A bagel, orange, and yogurt were first breakfast; then a microwave burrito and bag of grapes; finally an 8-inch pie, Caesar salad and some snapples. Yum. I was full, so I walked out of town, crossing the Trinity River.
The entire day was roadwalking, but after I turned onto Dutch Creek road I didn’t see any cars, so it felt like a wide trail.
Apparently people drive this route to Hayfork, the town I’ll be in tomorrow.
The road was seldom used, nature is reclaiming the edges.
I took a break in the shade at one if the many creek crossings. The culverts here are huge.
I had a gradual 3000 foot climb over 10 miles, which I barely even noticed. I got to the top at 5pm, then started right back down.
I found a nice quiet spot by Big Creek, away from the road.
Tomorrow will be more roadwalking into Hayfork, the last town on this trail.
It used to be housing for the firetower watchperson. The summit was warm by 9am, with views in all directions from the 7822ft (2384m) peak.
Looking back north to where I’d just come from:
The summit benchmark.
Mt Shasta in the distance to the east.
The trail down was very steep, dropping 3000ft in 3 miles, but it was nicely maintained and easy to follow.
At the bottom, I had a one mile dirt roadwalk to the next trailhead. It passed thru some meadows along the way.
The was one house on the road, and it had the best mailbox holder…an old tree stump!
I got to the Big Flat trailhead and campground and had lunch, taking advantage of the picnic tables and trash cans. I was a little worried when I almost ran out of hot sauce for my wrap, but a nice car camper had extra Frank’s. Reenergized, I began the 2000ft climb up to the Caribou Lakes. I entered the wilderness again, and the river crossing was easy.
The trail was insanely good, it was graded for easy climbing, and before I knew it, I was up 1500feet.
The next section of trail traversed a blindingly white section of rock. So bright!
Then it wrapped around the ridge, and I got to see Packers Peak that I had climbed this morning.
The views just kept coming, as the trail turned south, I could see the snowy mountain I had been eyeing for days.
The trail was a feat of engineering, as it was cut into the side of a cliff here.
I was dropping down to pass these two lakes, Snowslide Lake and Lower Caribou Lake.
I stopped for a swim in Snowslide lake, it was cold.
The view of the same two lakes from Upper Caribou Lake.
I walked past Upper Caribou Lake. You can see the pass I was about to climb in the center of the photo.
The climb up the pass still had snow!
The view down into the Stuart Fork River Valley was amazing, looking 2500 feet down.
Amazingly, there was a trail that went down the steep hillside. Impressive engineering again. After 85 switchbacks, I was down at the river. I hiked a quarter mile to a good camping spot, and gave my feet a rest for the day. So much steep descending!
The trail climbed up 2000ft first to Russian Lake, and then Waterdog Lake, which was still very calm at 9am.
I meandered in an out of the Russian Wilderness as I traversed the ridge above the lakes. In Russian Wilderness, trail hikes you!
At the end of the ridge was Siphon Lake, and I took a nice long Nutella break there.
The trail had turned into a two-track when it reached an open meadow with views to the next ridge.
The junction with the PCT was a little haphazardly signed.
I turned off onto the Trail Creek trail, which dropped steeply down 2000ft to a campground. With picnic tables! Time for lunch.
I also got too excited about the trash cans. I can lighten my pack and get rid of all the food wrappers from the last 4 days!
After lunch, I followed a dirt road for a couple of miles to a trailhead. There was just one at parked there, not surprisingly a Subaru. And another Massachusetts export!
I climbed back up 2000ft to a ridge above Fish Lake, and I could see snowy Mt Shasta in the distance.
I think this was Long Gulch Lake.
The trail quality was great all day, until right after I took this photo.
I think the snowy mountain in the distance is Thompson Peak, a glaciated summit in the Trinity Alps.
As I walked around Rush Lake, the trail meandered thru nice open meadows.
I climbed my final ridge for the day, and on the other side of the ridge, the trail became much more obscure. I worked hard to follow it, using clues such as candlestick blazes, waterbars, switchbacks, and cut logs. It was just so covered in fallen sticks & branches.I did pretty well, and only lost the trail for 200m before I found it again. I got to a saddle/pass at 6pm, and decided it was a nice flat area to camp. There is a trail junction nearby, down to Lady Gulch. Today was 5500ft of elevation gain, tomorrow should be similar since I climb the highest point of the trail.
Looking south along the trail:
No keebler elves in that one!
Tomorrow is a big 5000ft climb back up into the mountains!
