My husband, Robin, drove Colleen & I from Medford, Oregon down to Castella, Ca this morning to start our first backpacking trip of the summer. It's been really hot in Medford (105 the other day!) so we got an early start hoping to beat the heat. Robin dropped us at the trailhead at 9:45, it had rained here recently and was humid and warm as we found the trail and began hiking at mile 1506.5 by the PCT maps. These first days are short mileage days because we want to start slowly and get used to pack weight, shoes, heat etc. We also decided to enjoy ourselves v.s. going for mileage. This first day is 9.5 miles of up and down with elev. gain 2415 and loss 1204. As we started hiking we were immediately hot and wet with humidity and exertion so we discussed waiting out the heat mid day if necessary. We wet our bandanas at a small spring as we walked and eventually found ourselves on the back side of Castle Crags looking up at the magnificent granite spires. About 1:00 we stopped at a small stream under shady firs and a few aspen where we took off our shoes, lay down to rest and eat some lunch. We ended up staying for awhile to wait out the heat. Mosquitoes are out and Deet is our new friend! At 3:30 we loaded up and began hiking again, it had become overcast just before we started off which helped us quite a bit although it was still humid. The trail switch backed higher up the back of the crags until we found our camp spot at Burstarse Creek, at 6:30pm mile 1516 elev 3,486. This creek is almost dried up but for a small trickle that gives us just what we need for cooking, a bandana rinse, and water for tomorrow. I can imagine water racing down this boulder strewn creek bed when the spring snow is melting. Donning our mosquito head nets we got our tents up, and dinner made, mine was Thai noodles with dried veg & Colleen had Mt House spaghetti & meat. A few rain drops fell but never developed into anything serious. We were in bed at 8:30 having seen no other hikers at all today.
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