July 18

1718-1742

After breakfast at the local cafe (look at the difference between our plates.  I had incredible sweet cream lemon butter pancakes with homemade marionberry compote with a house made chorizo and veggie scramble while she had a dry savory crepe.  It is one of the best examples of order envy of the trail so far).

We are back on trail in Oregon. Though we missed many miles of trail, we still have the same view of Mt Shasta.  The PCT travels predominantly east to west at the point of the fire, so we are only 15 miles north of seiad valley. It really highlights just how meandering this pathway is.  

The trail takes us up on a few thousand feet climb, which is very typical when leaving town. This time we are up in the siskiyou mountains, a rare east to west mountain range. The Siskiyou trail, an early pioneer route from San Francisco to Portland headed through, and was named for this range. 

The area is loaded with  Elderberry groves, the largest we have ever seen.  Back home we collected elderberry at the end of the summer to use in various potions.  It gives us a taste of home, and makes us realize we are headed towards the final portion of this adventure.  There are a lot of piped springs to get water from. These require no treatment, since the water comes straight from underground, which is my favorite.

A prominent landmark we pass by is Pilot rock.  It is a large volcanic plug jutting up from the surrounding mountains.  Since 1942, 9 planes have crashed into Pilot rock.  

Years of DDT use and habitat lost placed peregrine falcons on the endangered list, but efforts by environmental groups to protect nesting territories and ban DDT have restored some of their numbers.  

At sunset we see a family of what look like coyotes. As we get closer we see that they are huge hares!  With their long legs and massive ears they Looks like an alien being, and completely out of place in a northwest forest.