July 23rd, 2022 by Jon
We woke up to an amazing sunrise over Mt. Shasta and Castle Crags. We got up, it was still just a pink glow behind the mountains, and had our bags mostly packed. We sat on some rocks to begin cooking breakfast as the sun came over the ridge. It was beautiful. We ate our breakfast before rolling out by 6:30. The trail took us up into the trees again after being on such an exposed ridge for so long. We wound through their dark expanse before coming out the other side and realizing we were on a ledge overlooking a valley on the other side of the rocks from where we were all day yesterday.
We walked along the ledge for a while. The trail was lined with small bushes and a few sparse trees every once in a while. The sun was still low enough that, in much of this section, we were in the shade. The trail cruised along, undulating over small bumps. Soon, the end of the ledge was upon us, so we went up on top of the ridge and continued along the top. We now had views of both sides of the ridge, although it was wide enough that the trail brought us back and forth across the top to go around the rock towers. We would get the view down one side for a while, and then we would have the other.
Missile and I took a break when Biscuit was ahead, and Singsong was slightly behind. The shade was nice, and I think about 15 hikers passed us. Around 8:30 pm last night, 10-15 hikers showed up at the site we camped at last night, and when that many hikers camp in one spot, there tends to be lots of leapfrogging all day, and it’s the worst in the morning until we get more spread out later in the day. Singsong caught up and kept going because she was in the zone. Soon, Missile and I left to go catch Biscuit and Singsong. The trail continued along the ridge for a while before getting onto a new chain of mountains across a large open space from the valley we had come up from. We walked through the forest past rock walls, then crossed a paved road, with a small trailhead just below where the trail crossed it. This is a very popular hiking area, and we haven’t gotten far enough away to not be around all these hiking areas. Plus, it’s the weekend, so we’re seeing lots of day hikers.
We kept walking along the trail and caught up to Singsong. We hiked together and began a 5-mile, very gentle climb. We went along a rocky ledge that overlooked some other valley we hadn’t seen yet today, and walked along the side of it for miles at a slight angle upward. Eventually, we came to a small spring that was bubbling out of the rocks and flowing across the trail. Biscuit and Missile were there taking a break, and so we joined them. After 10 minutes or so, we moved on and hiked towards the junction to Porcupine Lake. The trail was on another ledge for a while with a small ridge up to our left. Soon the junction came, and we hiked over the ridge to a flat basin with a good-sized lake. We ate lunch on a small cliff overlooking the lake and dozed a bit afterwards, recovering from our feast.
After lunch, we finished a two-mile climb, and from there we gently descended over the next 6 miles. We walked along some ridges with views of Shasta, along more rocky and grassy ledges, past many lakes down below, and a lake much closer to the trail before coming to a trail junction with a small creek running alongside it. We sat in the shade of a large pine tree there, filtering water as we took another break. From there, we hiked along the side of Mt. Eddy. There was actually a trail to the top from that junction we just left, but that is a hike for another time. We dropped along a small descent before turning and paralleling a road down below. It was coming up, and we were dropping down before we met at a trailhead with toilets. Always nice to pass those. We stopped in the shade for a while to cool down. It feels hot but not as bad as yesterday, so we don’t complain as much today as we did yesterday.
When we left the trailhead, we hiked along a small ridge before reaching a mountain that we hiked around the side of. On the far side, the trail became a ledge, and we could tell we were at the round end of a valley where we could even make out the trail running along the whole bowl. The trail was quite flat, and after a few miles of walking in lush forest, we came to a stream where Missile and Biscuit were filtering water. We were dry camping yet again, but there is water fairly close after camp, so thankfully, we don’t need much. We continued hiking along a rocky ledge before coming to a rocky outcropping where we could see a lake down below in the bowl we had just hiked around, and the top 5% of Mt. Shasta leaking over the ridge line.
We ate dinner and chatted for a while before it actually began to get cold. It hasn’t done that in ages, so we retired to our tents at 8:00 and headed to bed.
These are incredibly beautiful photos!