Miles hiked: 29.2.
There was a deer (or maybe multiple) walking around my camp several times over the night, and for some reason each time I heard it I thought it might be something else and had to try and shine my light through the bug mesh to have a look. Always deer. No bears or beer vendors.
I'm still figuring out the details of getting my stuff in the new pack, so even with the 5 o'clock wake up I still wasn't walking until almost 6.
The trail climbed gradually up through forest with not a ton to look at besides tree trunks. Even first thing in the morning, there seems to be less bird song than just a week ago; it's all fledglings out and about and dads have no time to defend territories, I guess.
Suddenly there was a sharp break in the forest where a high voltage power line cuts across the hills heading southish. As I walked out into this opening an expansive view south opened up. I could see a bit to the east, as far as Lassen and he Hat Creek Rim. Straight south I could see down the front slope of the Sierra foothills, and just to the west the Sacramento Valley spread out looking nice and hot and with the Sutter Buttes down there a ways and a blanket of smog. Then further west was the coast range, tallest in the north and tapering down to the south to disappear in the smog some distance before that final cleft in the range where the Sacramento River flows through. Looking at the Coast Range and knowing where it leads left me feeling a bit homesick as I walked on.
Looking back southeast.
In just another mile or so though, there was a whole new view. I created over a south-jutting finger ridge then poked out of the forest again and in spite of myself loudly said "Wow!" to no one in particular. We hadn't seen Mt Shasta since dropping off Hat Creek Rim, and then it was still distant and obscure in the haze. But now it was right there and huge and tall and massive and right there! I could also see west beyond Shasta, with the impressive Castle Crags marking the cleft where Interstate 5 lives, and way out beyond that some brilliant white mountains with dark caps that I'm pretty sure must be the Marbles. I was surprised at how close I-5 looked, since there are still around 50 trail miles to get there.
The rest of the day sort of repeated those alternating views as the trail followed a generally east-west ridge: trudge trudge trudge through white fir forest, then pop out into an opening on the south side of the ridge and see the Lassen-Valley-Coast Range view as we circled around the northern head of the Sac Valley. Or pop out on the north side of the ridge and see Shasta, closer and larger and more clear each time. This ridge S-turned around the steep heads of canyons cutting off to the north and south, and this apparently is where a lot of the extra miles to I-5 come from. We are really into the working timber land now, and there were a lot of clear cuts and thinned stands and log roads in sight both near and far.
The pack felt good all day long. It rides a bit differently than the old one, sitting higher on my hips and back. After getting used to this I came to like it; I think it makes faster walking a bit more comfortable and allows a bit freer movement between my hips and upper body. This may be mostly due to the frame size being a bit smaller than the previous pack, but may also be a design feature. The side pockets aren't quite as big and stretchy on the new pack, but this is made up form the big hip belt pockets and a bigger back mesh pocket. Overall the day 1 experience is quite positive.
At the end of the day I got the water I needed to camp then walked a bit farther looking for a place to camp win a good view south. But all the flat open areas are covered in thick chaparral, and I ended up just crunching a hundred feet or so off trail and finding a log road with no fresh tracks and a bit of a flat spot off to the side. I was a bit surprised to have done nearly 30 miles by around 6:30. My feet and legs feel really good too. Nice to have easy soft trail and wind up on the ridge keeping temps in the mid-80's.
Made a big curry lentil soup dinner with a bunch of cheese to cut the too many jalapeños and the rest of the salami I got from Burney Falls because it was starting to get a bit slimy. During dinner the skeeters seemed like they might get bad so I took a break (which I needed anyway 'cause the dinner was too big for one sitting) to set up the bug net. In the process of doing this, since I'd gotten to camp plenty early and had some time to kill, I flung what seemed like a tablespoon of dirt into my eye. Got that taken care of then got into the bug net and finished dinner and stretched and went about my business having a pretty relaxing evening.
Birds:
Brown Creeper
Steller's Jay
Band-tailed Pigeon
Oregon Junco
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Flicker
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Hairy Woodpecker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Mountain Chickadee
MacGillivray's Warbler
Turkey Vulture
Band-tailed Pigeon
Green-tailed Towhee
Rock Wren
American Robin
Sooty Grouse
Wrentit
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