Feather River Soak

We woke up and ate, than walked over to Half and Half’s (Ed) tent to say good morning.

Half and Half in the A.M.

We chatted some and he asked if we heard the bear last night. We both had our earplugs in and did not hear a thing. Carol normally sleeps with ear plugs every night which leaves me to not use them and play guardian of the night sounds. Since Ed was nearby and I have been tired the last few days, I decided to sleep with ear plugs last night. Kind of glad as I slept well and did not hear any commotion. The bear did not come near our tents but apparently was making a lot of bear noises ripping up logs and such. We hung out with Ed for a while until we felt it was time for us to head out. A later start than usual at 0805 considering that we got up at 0600, but we were delaying the reunions end.

Early this morning, we did awaken to the sound of a truck nearby. As we hiked away from camp, we crossed a paved road that was being used by logging trucks.

Shady Forest

The morning walk was fairly pleasant as we stayed mostly in the shady forest of cedar and pine. We hiked 4.5 miles before taking our first break by another paved logging road. There was nice shade, a cool breeze, no bugs, and a large downed tree to sit against. The Fowler Peak Trailhead was just across the road and we will apparently be joining the Fowler Peak trail for a bit. While having our snacks a couple of logging trucks went cruising by at fast speeds. It would be scary to be coming the other way and confront one of these trucks on the narrow road. Having added some fuel to our tanks and watering the local fauna, we started out by looking both ways before crossing the road. The trail climbed up for a short while and then was mostly level walking along a ridge. A little over 3 miles later, we came to the Fowler Creek trail junction. Fowler Creek was .1 mile down a side trail and when I say down, I mean it here. It was a fairly steep descent to the creek and we probably should have left our packs at the top. I leaned my pack against a tree on the steep path and found a place on a rock by the creek to filter our water. Carol basically laid her pack against a log and her pad down across the trail. There were no bugs bothering us and it was nice and cool so we decided to have lunch on our slanty sloped spot.

Feeling Sluggish

While filtering water a slug crawled up onto my boot which I had put next to me. It seemed appropriate as that is the pace I felt I was doing the last two days. I then noticed a few more slugs enjoying this moist place. While enjoying our peanut butter and Nutella lunch, a few other hikers came by to get water. First was an older Australian couple, then Sonia, and lastly a Canadian kid. None of them came down with their packs, so apparently we are not the smart ones today. On the other hand, none of them got to eat in the shady Shangri La.

After lunch, we hiked up the steep side trail to the PCT and continued on. It was fairly easy going with the trail doing a slow descent for the next few miles.

Navigator and Pit Stop

We came upon an unpaved forest road with a sign announcing the trailhead for the Middle Fork of the Feather River. This began a long descent to the river. We did not take a break but did take a few pictures by the sign. We started the 2.6 mile trek to the river where we will be losing close to 2400 feet of elevation. We had already descended 700 feet from Fowler Creek. This whole section kind of reminded us of the descent two years ago into Cabazon. Only that one was more like 15 miles and 7000 feet with no shade or water. At least here we are well shaded by the steeply sloped forest. With no flat spots to rest on, we kept chugging down the trail until we came to the steel bridge crossing the river.

Feather River Bridge

We crossed the bridge to where the potential campsites were. Even though we arrived fairly earl at 3:30, there were quite a few people settling in. The older Australians were here, and as we moved adjacent to the river, a Canadian couple were also camped. We saw a nice spot but it looked like a group of three guys had their packs there. Carol talked to them and it turns out they were just getting water so we were able to lay claim to the spot. It was level, had a nice log bench nearby, as well as a great clothesline tree. This was good because at this low elevation, it was fairly warm and we planned on taking a dip in the water to refresh and clean both us and our clothes.

We set up our tent first as has become our habit, and then walked along the rocky shore around the bend out of sight of the other campers. When we got there, someone was in the water, fishing. Not a conventional fisherman as he had line wrapped around an aluminum can and a pine cone for a bobber.

Washing Our Clothes

We got in the water with our clothes to cool down as the other hiker fished. He eventually came over to us not having had any luck, and we talked a bit. His name was Parker and he was 28 years old from Maysville, Kentucky. His southern manners were apparent when he kept saying, yes maam with a slight southern drawl, to Carol. He had started the same place as us and was also going to try to get to Cascade Locks. He had never backpacked before and was using some nice loaner equipment from his girlfriend. Parker went back to his camp as we continued to try and turn the river muddy with our days of accumulated dirt and sweat. The water was surprisingly not very cold but was still very refreshing.

Camp and Clothesline Tree

We did eventually return to our camp and hang our wet clothes on the convenient tree line. Dinner was a Mountain House Lasagna which was very good. It is a no rainfly night due to the warmer temperature here and no rain in the forecast. Lying in the tent, the trees around us are extremely tall. Tomorrow, we have big climbs to get out of this valley or canyon and it is supposed to be a hot day. Hopefully we have shade and gain some elevation before it gets too warm. As we get ready to sleep, we hear another hiker walk by and set up camp near us. He is doing his best to be quiet. This is the price you pay when camping near water on this trail. It pretty much guarantees you company for the night.

The stats for today were 13.45 Miles Hiked with a blistering 2.6 MPH pace. It was blistering as I have developed a new blister, this one on the side of my right foot below the ankle. Our High point of the day was 6060 feet and we are now camped at 2935 feet. Time to rest.