PCT Day 84: Clear Creek Trailhead

Miles Hiked: 4.7 (zero PCT miles)

PCT Mileage: 1501.3

This morning I woke up early despite it being a town day. I didn’t sleep well and I was excited to go do all my town chores. I took a refreshing shower and packed up all my gear. Everyone else woke up as I was getting ready. I left the campsite to go do town chores on my own while my battery bank charged at the campground and Diva did all the laundry. First I went to the Yak Shake for a delicious Thai peanut breakfast sandwich. Next I was on a mission to go to the post office and pick up a box my sister sent me. It was a package of candy and a new hat. It was a bright blue five panel hat and I absolutely loved it. Not something I would have picked up for myself but I loved it. After the post office I was walking to the gear shop to check it out but it was closed. I ran into a guy named Queen Cheese who recognized me as Jenga’s friend. I ended up eating a second breakfast with Queen Cheese and his whole trail family at the Black Bear Cafe. I had a blackberry stuffed french toast. It was delicious. I saw they had a cinnamon roll french toast on the menu which is why I wanted to eat there in the first place. If you recall I was obsessed with a cinnamon roll french toast I had in Lincoln Montana on the CDT and I was so excited to see it on a menu again. Unfortunately they were out of Cinnamon rolls to make it but luckily I found out that it is a chain restaurant so I can try to go to another location!

After my second breakfast, I resupplied at Ray’s. I bought two pounds of bean and cheese freezer burritos! Then I went to subway to get a veggie sandwich and Rite Aid for protein powder. Finally the gear shop was open and I purchased a tank top I’m really excited to wear and picked up a water badder for Diva. Eventually I was back at the campground after a morning of walking all over town. Probably about three miles or more. I got in the pool, put together my resupply and then walked to the Indian buffet for lunch. Afterwards I walked into most of the gift shops in town buying post cards before going back to the gear shop to pick up the helmets I had reserved.

Once we all had our helmets, we got everyone who was doing Mount Shasta with us together at a milkshake place. This included Diva, Midnight, Galleleio and Boom who we met two days ago. I was anxious to start hitch hiking and get to the trailhead. The trailhead is an hour drive from town and some of it involves dirt roads. I expected it would take us multiple hitches and a few hours to get where we needed to go. We tried hitching in front of the natural grocery store unsuccessfully for a half an hour. A lot of locals were really nice and would talk to us. A girl named Nina offered to give us a ride in her van if we paid for gas. We were totally willing! We had already tried to Uber and called the local taxi service with no luck. Luckily we were all able to pile into Nina’s Van she lives in and she drove us almost all the way to the trailhead! The ride was quite bumpy when we were on the dirt road. We all have her money for gas before hiking up the road two miles to the trailhead. I hiked with Boom and we talked about lots of hiking things. We was a SOBO on the AT in 2019.

We all got to the trailhead around 7:30pm where we filled out permits and got poop bags since you can’t poop on Mount Shasta. You have to carry your poop out. It was late but I was happy to be on the trail. Feeling excited and nervous for the hike tomorrow! We hiked another 2.5 miles up to Base Camp. It was steep but the views were pretty as the sun went down. It stayed light out pretty late and I didn’t have to get out a headlamp until well after we got to camp. It also wasn’t cold outside either! What a miracle! Everyone was feeling so excited and happy to be about to climb Shasta tomorrow. It’s a side quest I had been thinking about for a little bit but I didn’t want to do it alone. I talked Trail Diva and Midnight into it and I was so thankful they wanted to do it! Trail Diva gave me the first and only hug she will probably ever give me on a trail when I’m super dirty today.

Happy Trails!

-Early Bird