Tuesday, July 12:
We started our last day with breakfast again at the Seiad Cafe. What the locals had told us was true, their food was good (and the locals were very friendly too).
We drove up to Cook and Green Pass (last night's end point) expecting a longer but easier hike today. And it was. Warm uphill for three miles and only 1,300 feet would lead us to a long ridge that we would then follow north for many miles:
On the north-bound ridge the hiking was really easy and, in several clear areas, the views were forever:
We saw a mix of old and new style PCT signs (here's a really old old-style):
Looking back south along the ridge we hiked including and past White and Black Mountains (Red Butte, which we passed yesterday shown too):
We saw Shasta, of course:
We made good time, although more damned fallen trees required occasional work-arounds:
Tricia did her "selfies:"
And then, near the end of the long ridge we came to one clear area and I saw what I'd hoped for all day. I'd been looking south in the area to the right (from our perspective) of Shasta. Most of the day there was a big part of the Marble Mountains right where I thought I should look. Then, finally, we came out of some forest and we could clearly see Mount Shasta and (relatively) tiny little Black Butte to its right. And there, just right of Black Butte, was Lassen Peak, barely visible. I gotta think that this is the last view of Lassen that we will get from the PCT (and I remember how excited I was last summer to get my first view of it from the south!):
The rest of the hike was also easy. We found a long series of unique trail ducks (given their size I'd almost call them cairns) marking the last couple miles of trail:
Vicki met us at Wards Fork Gap in the early evening:
Six dirt roads come together at Wards Fork Gap. Most of them can be seen in this shot, which, more critically, also shows the PCT (near a tiny sign between the two dirt roads leading away from us in this shot):
We walked that section of PCT several feet out and, even though we could almost smell Oregon, we called it a day and started on our (now long) way home. We had a great time and we're looking forward to getting back in early August for at least one more 2016 trip.
