7/20/14 Sunday Devils On The Trail! 7/21/14 Monday. Thunderclouds All Around Us

7/20/14  15 miles

We were up early, 4 am, and quietly packed so we didn't wake the others camped nearby.  By 5 am we were road walking the 1 mile to the trail which started steeply up from the roadside.  We had to keep watch out for poison oak growing at this low elevation on the trail.  It was coolish in the early morning but promised to get hot soon.  We made pretty steady progress on the 9 mile uphill section.  We were passed by our friends from the RV Park after about 6 miles.  Finally we wound around Lower, Middle and Upper Devil's Peaks getting a great view of the Klamath River and Seiad Valley below. 

You can see the river and community far below, we were way down there just this morning.

Two of the Devils' Peaks.

We carried 3 liters of water each because we'd been told the springs may be dry and it turns out we were glad we did.  If they weren't dry then they were barely trickling with mucky water. We topped the steep section and found a semi shady spot for a break, we laid out our tents to dry since we'd camped on damp grass last night. 

This section was dry and rocky, we're traveling at the southern edge of the Red Buttes that lie just along the California/ Oregon border. 

In the right corner is Peggy & her umbrella.  (When we did laundry at the RV Park her hat shrunk horribly and a pair of my nylon socks melted! Her umbrella came in really handy for 2.5 days!)

We went over this saddle down into the basin beneath Kangaroo Peak. 

This is Kangaroo Spring, a shallow puddle that could be used if you had to.  It had dead bugs on the surface but the water felt cool and it could be filtered.  We were happy using our 3 liters from the RV Park. 

I keep getting my shirt, bandana & head wet whenever I could to stay cool.  It was getting pretty hot out.   

This area around a seep was bright with flowers. 

Lilly Pad Lake 

Just after lunch I started hearing a noise from Peggy's pack.  Had she left her phone on? Any electronic gadgets running?  It sounded like...a bee buzzing.  She decided to leave it alone until we unpacked that evening, but whenever we stopped we could both hear her pack buzzing.  After lots of ups and downs in elevation we had only a few more miles to go until we reached camp. 

Walking below the Red Buttes.

The deep red soil was so pretty. 

We met these 3 day hikers who told us they'd left a cooler of trail magic at the Cook and Green Summit where we would camp.  They knew the way to encourage us! 

Lava rock appeared across the trail. 

This is Cook and Green summit and the access road.

Soon we were drinking Ginger Ale, eating an apple and setting our packs down in the shade.  Patches, a young woman we met in Seiad Valley, and her parents, who had flown to Oregon from Boston to meet up with her, were at the Summit.  They offered us fruit, water and good conversation.  I told them Robin would be meeting us at the Oregon border on Tuesday and may have trail magic too if they were to meet up with him.  

Patches continued her walk north and her parents went back to Ashland to their Hotel.   The next order of business was finding the bee, Peggy opened her pack carefully and began taking items out,  still we heard buzzing.  She decided to open her tent stuff sack, now the buzz increased and I saw the big black & yellow bee.  It had gotten caught in the tent when we draped them over bushes to dry earlier in the day. (her tent zipper has been broken for weeks so the bee was easily caught in the open folds)  She released the poor thing, it did a practice flight and took off for parts unknown!     After reading, relaxing and setting up our camp we got dinner made and prepared our selves for sleep.  Tomorrow is another climb up from the road to the surrounding mountain tops.

7/21/14. 15 miles

This morning is a 3 mile 1,000 foot climb out of Cook and Green Summit.  We started off at 6am noticing the cloud cover and some dark thunderheads in the distance. Again we took 3 liters each because the water sources are unpredictable in this drought. We got great back views and could see the 3 Devils which we climbed yesterday.  

This is Mt Shasta to the east, the clouds are gathering.

We stopped at Beardog Spring to top off our water supply  it was surrounded by wildflowers in a small meadow.

The day was spent hiking up and then down in about equal measure. Looking down into steep valleys and hearing the cowbells of cattle grazing below.

We had a long lunch in this meadow, watching the clouds build.

The sign says H2O with an arrow leading to Alex Hole Spring.  I enjoy the way hikers take care of each other with notes telling one another what's available. 

The Green Tunnel.

We came around a mountain and I looked up, seeing men silhouetted

against the afternoon clouds.  They waved & yelled to me "How far have you come?"  I thought a second and gave them Peggy's mileage "About 1300 miles". "Wow! Congratulations, safe hiking!" They said and waved us on.  Later I saw a forest service Fire truck on the road and I think the men may have been out scouting fires from the peaks. 

Our camp was big and flat near Mud Springs where we got a liter of water by filtering from a tiny pool in a mosquitoe clogged meadow!  

  Mud Springs campsite, our last camp before the Oregon border.

We made an early dinner and got our camp set up because it looked and felt like rain. I made yellow curried lentils, green beans, red peppers and quinoa. Two young men hiked through on their way to the border 7.2 miles north. They were anxious to be in another state, California has seemed to last forever! Both of us would like a break from hiking and look forward to a rest in Medford.  I'm concerned that my 10 day previous rest didn't support me longer, I'm back to feeling really tired again.