Mt Shasta City was nice. A bit like a cross between Carmel and Berkeley, with the addition of Lemurians, leylines, crystals, and the fans thereof. It’s the kind of town where they have good coffee, beer, and outdoor outfitters, but also shops advertising something called “The 13th Mayan Skull”.
I got a phone here, but not phone service, so I can install all my navigation apps, and use them in offline mode. This is the mode you’re normally in on the trail, so the lack of phone service is not as much of a problem as you might guess.
We also had lunch at the brewery in Dunsmuir, where I had a tuna melt that surprised me by being an excellent ahi steak sandwich with melted cheese, instead of the mush of canned tuna and mayonnaise that I expect when I order a tuna melt. They also served baby pickles that were sweet and crunchy, and I’ve been thinking about them since. The beer, on the other hand, was forgettable, except that they brought out the sampler cups in muffin pans.
When it came time to get back on the trail, we went under Highway 5, and immediately took a wrong turn up a dusty hill, so steep I had to crawl with my town-clean hands. After realizing there was no trail at the top and heading back down, we made our way up the PCT proper, and soon found ourselves at the 1500-mile marker.
Something about the 1500-mile marker made it seem more feasible to finish the whole thing. We were finishing big chunks of the total PCT mileage — we just needed to knock out a few more.
This part of the trail was unusual, however. First, it contained the only park sign I’ve seen so far that was only in kilometers.
It was also unusual in that it was very steep and exposed, and the temperature was the same as when we crossed the Mojave on the aqueduct walk. But there were no Sno-Cones in sight, this time. Not much water, either.
But, the climb very gradually exposed us to the Castle Crags.
