July 19th

Morning Clouds

 
It is town day. We wake up to our wonderful view of Mt Shasta. Today’s view includes a horizontal cloud layer that is halfway between the top and the base. We can see the top of the mountain and the lower third with the cloud blocking the middle of the mountain. It is quite a nice scene. However, the silence of it all is broken with the sounds of logging trucks going up a dirt road in the distance. The area is an active logging area. We start hiking around 0830 and the trail soon enters the woods. We are mostly descending and moving at a good pace.

Happy Hikers

Half and Half is supposed to pick us up around 1100 so we have plenty of time to get to the trail head. We only have about 5 miles to get there. The morning has a coolness in the air so even though our elevation is getting low, the temperature is nice. The shade of the trees helps with this also. After a few miles, we hit the boundary of Castle Crags State Park. The Crags themselves are on the other side of the highway and we will be climbing up and around them in the next section. We make it the rest of the way to the trail head and arrive there at 1030.

Great Berries

There are lots of blackberry bushes in full berry glory, so we all have a snack of berries while we wait. Golfer is more gluttonous than the rest of us and goes deeper into the briars to keep feasting. When he is done, his fingers are purple and his socks are full of burs. Carol calls her mom while we are waiting for our ride

Unfortunately, this call has some bad news for us. Her father was in the hospital and has contracted an infection. He is not expected to make it through the night. This immediately changes our good mood and means we will have to end our hike here for this year. It is fortuitous that Half and Half was picking us up and then was going to drop us off in two days at the Castle Crags Trailhead. The fortuitous part is that our car is at his house in East Nicolaus, so we will have a ride back to it. This is definitely not the way we wanted to end our journey.

Half and Half shows up on time and after our hugs, we share the bad news. We drive over to our hotel in Dunsmuir and the manager lets us all cancel our second night’s rooms without any problems. Thank you to the Dunsmuir Inn and Suites for their kindness in an emergency situation. After we all shower and clean up, we hang out at a table on the hotel grounds. We have some wine and beer while we get more information on Carols Dad and start looking at how we will get to New Jersey. Shannon’s friend who is driving her home shows up later in the afternoon and we all go to the Dunsmuir Brewery Works for dinner. It is nice to be with good friends and have their support. They help us briefly take our minds off of the news and we manage to smile and laugh a bit. After dinner, we hang out at the hotel until dark. Her father is hanging on but they have taken the life support off of him. We go to bed but sleep does not come easy as we know we will be getting news some time tonight or early morning.
We get the phone call early in the morning that Richard Mayland passed in his sleep. Although he was in pain with many health problems his last year, his death was sudden and unexpected. He was a good man, father, grandpop, and husband. He was a Coast Guard Veteran, active in his American Legion Post, and will be missed by many. May he Rest in Peace as he has moved on to a better place. This is a sad way to end our journey but the trail will be here if and when we decide to return.