Day 84 - Tuesday, July 20

Tenting at Moosehead Creek (mile 1447.3). Walked 24.3 miles today.

We rolled out of camp just after 6 am this morning. The rain stayed away last night, but the bugs were pretty annoying. We struggled with protecting ourselves from the bugs by using our sleeping bags as cover and being WAY too hot. A few tenths of a mile up the trail, we exited the woods and the temperature instantly dropped by 10 degrees. Had we known this, we would have camped in this area. Oh well...we survived.

We hiked down to Rock Creek, one of the few flowing water sources in this section of trail, but didn't get water because there were reports that it was a source for Noro Virus as somebody had pooped upstream of where people were getting their water. We hiked on and began a 3,000 foot climb. Frank looked at the data last night and we only have five more large climbs left in California including this one.

Part of the way up, we got to an actual good flowing water source and we took advantage of it and collected some water. Hocus Pocus was hanging out here and Phantom Dooker joined us after a bit. J-PRO, Frank, and I hiked on up through the trees. The trees finally opened up and we had a fabulous view of Mt. Shasta to the west.

We hiked along a ridge with views of the mountain for a while before heading back into the trees.

At another water source (which was just water coming out the end of a culvert), we ate lunch and were joined by Odysseus and a few others. I left before everyone else because I was trying to get to camp earlier today in order to set up and seam seal my tent.

I hiked through the woods and along a ridge with some views to the south.

There were large areas here which were scheduled to be logged soon.  The trees were marked with tape.  I ran into Hocus Pocus and Phantom Dooker just past this area and we chatted briefly.  Phantom Dooker said the flagging tape that said "Special Treatment Area" (to mark the area along the trail in the logging area) should be changed to say "Special Tree-tment Area".  I wholeheartedly approve of this change.

Shortly after, parts of the trail were eroding a bit and there were some sketchy spots.

I arrived at camp about 5:30 pm and set up and sealed my tent. J-PRO showed up a little later and Frank rolled in about an hour after that. Phantom Dooker, Hocus Pocus, Odysseus, Rambler, and Baby Bucket are all camped here this evening with us.