[pct-l] western section R

[David Hough reading PCT-L]

Last week I dayhiked over three days
from about a mile south of Grider Creek Campground
to Reeves Ranch Spring road.    Not in that order or direction, but I'm trying
to report in northbound through hiker perspective.

** Sun 20 Jun - sec Q - 
in and out hike north from Grider Creek Campground until I
got discouraged after about 1.25 miles and turned around.    Grider Creek
is big but not convenient to get to.  No Name Creek
was running.    Deadfall trees were not a problem but the brush was
extremely thick, though it was not hard to follow the trail.   Lots of poison
oak.

Through hikers that night, camped at the Mid-River RV Park, asked if I 
intended to go south on the PCT from Grider Creek Campground, and said don't
do it.     I'd already had enough.
There were around half a dozen through hikers each day.

A difference between a one-way hike and an in-and-out hike is that on the
one-way you can always tell yourself that that last brush or log was bad 
but you're past it and will never see it again and things might get 
better from now on - so you have an incentive to keep going.    

On an in-and-out you know that
you WILL have to go through that last brush or log again and the next one
might be worse - so you have an incentive to give up and turn around.

** Sun 20 Jun - sec Q -
section hiking the 6 mile road walk from Grider Creek Campground to
Mid-River RV Park in Seiad Valley.   
The PCTA website correctly advises
about relentless big rig traffic on highway 96, hauling logs and road repair
material.     I figured there'd be less or none on Sunday, and I was right.
Since the temperature was around 100, two cars were set up 
to leapfrog every couple of miles,
and had drinks stored in each so no packs required.

The RV Park welcomed tent camping at through-hiker rates ($15/day) but
parking vehicles along the highway.

Amazingly the store next door was open until 7pm and had not run out of ice yet
nor of craft beer (Caldera and Fall River).

** Mon 21 Jun - sec R -
Cook and Green Pass to Seiad Valley, reported backwards.
Hwy 96 is pretty calm toward dusk even on weekdays.   Once you reach the
trail, it's quite clean and passable for equestrians as far as Fern Spring,
which is flowing at about 4 liters/minute.

After that, it gets really ugly really fast, although perhaps not as bad as 
Grider Canyon.   With a mile there are 36" equestrian showstopper, 
hiker crawl-under trees on steep brushy hillsides with lots of poison oak,
interspersed with short stretches of perfectly clear trail.   From CS1661
to lower Devil's Peak is the worst brush - a jungle of blue ceanothus.
When you lose the trail, carefully backtrack to where you see it again and
look more carefully.    But if you made it through Grider Canyon it should
be surmountable.
Generally speaking, when you hit burned areas in Q and R, 
you hit dense brush and
many down logs - and abundant wildflowers.

Coming the other direction, Lookout Spring was a godsend.
"BINK: My favorite PCT spring." - yogi's book
It's not the fastest or the coldest or the most convenient, but on a 100
degree day I took its piped output
on faith and drank 2 liters untreated - I hadn't brought
water purification since I thought I was carrying enough water.
It's in an improbable lovely fern nook and was dripping about 1 liter/minute.

>From here to Cook and Green Pass there were signs of equestrian use and
no showstopper trees or intolerable brush.

The through hikers from the RV Park the night before made it UP to Kangaroo
Springs in 7 hours, starting at 5am; I made it DOWN over the same ground
in the same time.    They said they got water at Kangaroo; I could see the
ponds of the springs from the trail but didn't get close.    Lily Pad lake
looked pretty but stagnant.    WA1668 is supposed to be seasonal but was 
running well, near the road crossing.    I looked down at Echo Lake from
the saddle but neither the lake nor the "trail" down looked attractive.
>From there to Cook and Green Pass there were about half a dozen trees down,
none absolutely impassible to stock, but together enough to suggest that
equestrians might prefer the road that runs below the trail.
There was seasonal water running across the trail about a mile before Cook
and Green Pass, but the Cook and Green Spring is probably preferable -
I didn't check it.

** Tue 22 Jun - sec R -
Reeves Ranch Spring road 47N63 to Cook and Green Pass, reported backwards

I ran into the same through hikers from the RV park Sunday night, as well
as others from Monday night.    At the hairpin turn on the crest,
the road is about 5' from the PCT and there is a little space for parking.
Nearby is a monument to a hiker or cowboy who perished nearby in October
many years ago.

For the most part this was easy hiking compared to the day before.
Equestions would find showstopper trees on the ascent from Cook and Green
to Copper Butte, but the rest of the trail is in great shape with manageable
trees and brush and amazing flowers.   No water on the trail, and I
didn't go off trail to check the springs.

David Hough