Days 124 - 127 (Aug 25 - 28): Miles 1830 - 1910

We got to Crater Lake early on Saturday morning. What a sight. It was smoggy from some nearby fires but the views were incredible!

We ate a nice breakfast at the lodge. It felt weird - us looking like bums in the fancy dinner room with a bunch of tourists. I forgot my battery pack at Mazama store but the guys at the lodge phoned down (they all work for the same group) and they retrieved it and drove it up for me. The trail provides, as they say!

The hike along the crater rim was awe inspiring! I'm really love Oregon so far and not just because of the easy walking. We have had some great views and I've enjoyed much of the woodland areas.

We are down at Shelter Cove resort right now. Pretty neat place and Odell lake is beautiful! The chipmunks here are so tame I saw them eating out of a little girl's hands. And the people that work here drive pretty sweer trucks!

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Days 118 - 123 (Aug 19 - 24): Miles 1726 - 1830

On Sunday morning we got a hitch to Callahan's lodge with a friendly trail runner and his wife. He goes by the name of Inquisitor and has hosted PCT hikers before at their Ashland home. He mentioned that there was another South African, called Little Bear, on the trail.

The hiking through Oregon has been great so far. Lots of flat forested walks with good shade. Out of Ashland we walked through oak woods and dry grasslands and then into pine forest. Small Huckleberry bushes are everywhere now and the pines are covered in hanging moss.

The days and nights have been a bit cooler which is great!

Lots of wildlife too this week: we saw loads of deer, a garter snake eating a frog, a white bird of prey yet to be identified (guessing a falcon) and a big furry old badger running right down the trail!

On Friday we hit Mazama Village and had a great salad buffet at the restaurant accompanied by some beer. Rian tried on some of the sun glasses at the store as well! We walked out that evening to just before the Crater Lake rim and set up camp.

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Days 114 - 117 (Aug 15 - 18): Miles 1660 - 1726

We decided to get up at 3am on Wednesday morning to tackle the 4500 foot climb out of Seiad Valley. There was lots of smoke in the valley to the east and at times we walked through quite a bit smoke up on the ridges.

We reached the California/Oregon border on Thursday! What a great feeling! I have now walked over 1700 miles and there is just of 900 more miles left to Canada!

We spent Saturday in Ashland and visited some of the breweries there. What a great town! We also checked out one of the free shows next to the shakespeare theatre. Sunday it's back to the trail! Would love to come back here and watch a show in the big theatre!

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Days 114 - 117 (Aug 15 - 18): Miles 1660 - 1726

We decided to get up at 3am on Wednesday morning to tackle the 4500 foot climb out of Seiad Valley. There was lots of smoke in the valley to the east and at times we walked through quite a bit smoke up on the ridges.

We reached the California/Oregon border on Thursday! What a great feeling! I have now walked over 1700 miles and there is just of 900 more miles left to Canada!

We spent Saturday in Ashland and visited some of the breweries there. What a great town! We also checked out one of the free shows next to the shakespeare theatre. Sunday it's back to the trail! Would love to come back here and watch a show in the big theatre!

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Days 114 - 116 (Aug 15 - 17): Miles 1660 - 1726

We decided to get up at 3am on Wednesday morning to tackle the 4500 foot climb out of Seiad Valley. There was lots of smoke in the valley to the east and at times we walked through quite a bit smoke up on the ridges.

We reached the California/Oregon border on Thursday! What a great feeling! I have now walked over 1700 miles and there is just of 900 more miles left to Canada!

We spent Saturday in Ashland and visited some of the breweries there. What a great town! We also checked out one of the free shows next to the shakespeare theatre. Sunday it's back to the trail! Would love to come back here and watch a show in the big theatre!

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Days 110 - 113 (Aug 11 - 14): Miles 1606 - 1660

We left Etna on Saturday and the last few days of hiking has been hot but easy. We had some great views and walked through some areas where new vegetation like Madrone trees popped up. We did a lot of ridge walking and with quite a few fires around northern California we had some smoggey views across the valleys.

On Monday we descended down to Seiad valley through pretty thick, almost tropical, but beautiful vegetation. I had two great swims in Grider creek. It was hot and humid going down into the valley.

We got to Seiad Valley cafe on Tuesday morning. They have this challenge where if you eat 5 pounds of pancakes in 2 hours you get your meal for free. Only a handful of people have ever completed it successfully and I didn't even attempt it but  I did have a tall stack of pancakes which was great.

We chilled the whole day at the RV park and we will be climbing out of the valley early on Wednesday morning. Next stop is Ashland and we will be crossing the border to Oregon before then! There is a fire to the west of Seiad but it isn't affecting the trail at the moment although there is lots of smoke around. There are lots of fire fighters and volunteers in the valley.

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Days 104 - 109 (Aug 5 - 10): Miles 1506 - 1606

We had a great breakfast at Lily's on Sunday morning. John, the guy that gave us a lift into town, also happened to work there. He offerred to give us a ride out of town after his shift ended and we accepted gratefully!

So to pass some time, Rian, Sedartha and myself went to the theatre again (the 3rd time for me and Rian). We then played some pool and had a few beers at the vet's club. John arrived to drive us out in his caddilac and soon we were in Castella and getting ready to start hiking. We only hiked about two or so miles up a road that ends just below the pct.

On Monday morning I followed Sedartha up to the trail. He stepped on a nest of yellow jackets and got stung several times. He warned me just in time and I walked around it. Later that day Rian told me that he got stung a few times as well, so he must have followed the same route.

That Monday morning I also saw a couple of bear cubs and their mother above the trail. I heard them before I saw them because the cubs had already noticed me and crashed through the brush to climb a tree. Mother bear stood guard close by the tree and I made sure to keep my distance.

The rest of this week has been fairly quiet and the walking was fairly easy most of the way. My shin splint is slowly healing and Rian has pretty much recovered from his stomach bug.

On Thursday night we camped next to Paynes lake and had some great views of the cliffs across the lake.

We had an easy 6 miles to Etna summit on Friday and even though the road was very quiet we got rides to Etna town fairly quickly.

Rian met his folks and Kayla, his girlfriend, in town. Kayla will be hiking a section of the trail from here with Rian. We got rooms at a motel and went to the local pub later that day. They brew their own ales, so we ordered the tasters option and tried each one!

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Days 102 - 103 (Aug 3 - 4): Another 2 zeros!

So we ended up staying in town another 2 days. I was trying to heal my shin splint while Rian was struggling with what is possibly giardia.

We went to the theatre twice but other than that we just lay around the motel watching the olympics.

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Days 98 - 101 (July 30 - August 2): Miles 1423 - 1506

The section to Interstate 5 was pretty easy but hot at times. We met up with a family and there dog that are thru hiking. Their son is 7 years old and he hikes pretty fast! For the first time in my life I experienced a shin splint on my right leg. My shin was pretty swolen. A girl called Actionpack gave me a wrap to put on and Rian showed me how to tape my shin up. That helped a bit but I'll need some rest to get the swelling down.

We got down to the I 5 on Wednesday and it took about 30 mins to get a hitch into Mt. Shasta. Rian actually made a sign on my tyvek ground sheet and just he finished a dude in a 88 Cadillac pulled over and picked us up. In town we caught up with Brian and Gnu and had a few beers with them. The Base Camp gear shop has a large yard at the back where they alowed some of us to camp.

We are having a zero here today and plan to see the new batman movie at the cinema. Shasta is a pretty cool town!

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Days 93 - 97 (July 24 - 29): Miles 1335 - 1423

I had a zero in Chester on Tuesday and it seems like my fever is gone now. Rian hung out most of the day and then headed out.

I left on Wednesday morning and after some misguided info from a local I hiked straight out of Chester with the plan to cut back onto the PCT a bit higher up the trail. I ended walking along some forest service and private dirt roads, did some bush wacking and had to ford the north branch of the Feather river. I got to another road where I was lucky to be picked up by a friendly local who dropped me off at a trail head a bit further up the trail. I got to Drakesbad in the afternoon where I caught up with Rian and Brian. I passed a cool fumarole and boiling lake! The pool there is fed by the hot springs and we soaked there for a while before having some dinner up at the ranch. There were quite a few other hikers there.

Brian left early on Thursday but Rian and myself hit the breakfast first. We reached Old Station late that evening.

On Friday morning we ate breakfast at JJ's cafe. I had the tall stack of pancakes and it was huge! First time in my life that I couldn't finish a meal of pancakes! I took a doggy bag and had some later that morning.

So we hung out at the subway cave just outside Old Station and hiked out at about 8pm with the plan to beat the heat on the dry and exposed Hat Creek Rim. We hiked all night and at about 7am the next morning we found some oak trees where we passed out untill late that afternoon. That afternoon we hiked on passed the fish hatchery and camped about 5 miles outside Burney Falls. At Baum lake we saw lots of Ospreys and a few Pelicans. We watched for a while as the Ospreys caught fish in the lake. That night I saw my first Bald Eagle as well. It swooped by above our camp site as the last rays of sun caught it in flight! It was beautiful!

We arrived at Burney Falls on Sunday morning and chilled out and had some snacks before heading down to check out the falls. We hiked out late afternoon to avoid the heat of the day.

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Days 91 - 92 (July 22 - 23): Miles 1290 - 1335

So the we got to Chester on Monday. I have still been feeling a bit unwell the last two days but started feeling better on Monday afternoon.

I saw my third bear as well. A young bear with light brown color - it started crashing through the trees and down the hill before I even noticed it. They can move pretty fast!

At highway 36 Sleeping Bare was waiting for his son Nugio. He gave us a quick ride into town. We have been lucky to have had him around so many times when we needed a lift!

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