Reading · Backcountry Brooke

This week on Brooke’s super late trail updates: wild blackberries, burned forests, giant tree blowdowns, and Kirkland signature snacks. The remainder of Northern California has been wonderful! There have been long burn areas from past wildfires, but also dense green trees as we near the Oregon border. We are quite antsy to reach Oregon and mentally reset from the state that seemingly never ends!

Day 92: 8/10/2025; mile 1443.7 - 1465.4

Today we slept in by accident and leisurely rolled out of camp by 8:15 am. The trail was fairly overgrown for much of the day, so at times we took detours on dirt roads that paralleled the PCT. On one of these roads we saw a gopher snake, which in a confused haze tried to slither directly towards us before turning away and leaving us alone.

Today we had majestic views of Mount Shasta all day. Everywhere we turned she loomed in the distance. Flo and Pablo caught up to us at a water source so we made a game plan for the day. Unfortunately, today turned out to be quite hot, most likely 90 degrees. It made us quite lethargic and slow moving, but we trekked on.

After refilling our water Dennis did something quite silly. He loved to stab things with his trekking poles and he accidentally stabbed a fallen wasp nest. I quickly got off trail and hiked up the hillside to avoid this. We didn’t make it as far as we would have liked, but we enjoyed the little bits of company from running into Flo and Pablo. My heels have reblistered due to the heat and dust, so the hiking was more painful than it has been in a while.

Day 93: 8/11/2025; mile 1465.4 - 1491

Today was the hottest day we’ve had on trail. It was over 100 degrees F, and it felt like we were roasting! The morning wasn’t too bad, we had a few miles of descending before reaching the McCloud River.

We had snacks here with Flo, Pablo, and Star before beginning a long ascent. The ascent was brutal only because of how hot it was, so I stopped in the shade nearly ever half a mile for a break. Finally I made it to a bridge where Dennis was waiting for me! There was a bit of trail magic in a container under the bridge and we jumped into the water for a swim.

We crushed the next climb before setting up our campsite right as the sun set.

Day 94: 8/12/2025; mile 1491- 1502.7

This morning I was eager to sleep in, but Dennis’s excitement to reach town got us rolling before 8 am. We keep camping a few miles behind Flo and Pablo, but they are not early risers so we typically run into them by the time we are ready for breakfast.

Lately Dennis and I have been in an overnight oats kick. Back in Lake Almanor we bought Talenti ice cream and have been doing the classic through hiker method of making food in our Talenti jars. Honestly it’s fantastic. I like overnight oats out here far more than hot ones in the morning. I pack our jars with two Quaker Oats packets, chia seeds, raisins, chocolate chips and peanut butter. We only had about 11 miles of hiking before we reached Castella, a town just west of Shasta. Dennis picked up his package from the Post Office and I had a major freak out because the store owner at Amariti Market couldn’t find my package.

After a bit of tears they realized it was under Dennis’s name and I was able to enjoy all of the goodies my family sent me 😍. After a few hours a kind state park worker agreed to drive us to Etna.

We were skipping the 80ish mile section to give us a bit more wiggle room to finish the trail on time. Once we arrived in Etna we set up camp in their public campground/park with Flo and Pablo before we explored town/did laundry/and got yummy food!

Day 95: 8/13/2025; mile 1601.2 - 1619.3

This morning we grabbed a cup of coffee before being by picked up by a ride we had coordinated to take us back to the trailhead. There were a few freshly burned sections of forest today and Dennis and I quickly got separated from our friends once we took our first rest.

We took two, two hour breaks from the heat and ended up falling a bit behind! We had a long stop at a lake where Dennis and I tried to find the hole in his sleeping pad.

There were even a bunch of salamanders swimming in the lake! Eventually we left in search of a campsite and found a perfect spot at the top of the ridge.

While Dennis and I were laying in our sleeping bags atop a ridge, the MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED. We were staring into the night sky looking at the stars when I went “Dennis, look!” It looked like a rocket ship, but was in fact the most incredible and long lasting shooting star I have ever seen. It seemed to have wisps of burning fire falling away from it as it shot across the night sky. It burned so bright and long that we had to stick our heads out of the tent to see where it would go!

Day 96: 8/14/2025; mile 1619.3 - 1636.2

Today we had a slow morning in the Marble Mountains. I hiked the first few miles with JP, a hiker we’d been hiking near for the past few weeks. He was extremely impressed and jealous by the meteor picture Dennis took! We chatted throughout the morning about foods we liked to cook and he told me he loves baking pies.

At the nearest water source I decided to wait for Dennis, and we took a long break in the shade to read our books. As you can see, about 1600 miles into this trail we are becoming quite tired and might need a few rest days soon. Today was mostly uneventful, we saw many deer and watched a pretty sunset.

Day 97: 8/15/2025; mile 1636.2 - 1655.3

Today was punctuated with trail magic, fresh out of the oven pie, and a young grill master. Dennis and I woke up to some crazy fearless deer wandering around our tent. As the FarOut comments said, these deer were practically doing parkour around our things while searching for salt to lick. The first mile of our descent was super steep and not part of the official trail, and there were tons of blow downs, trees covering the trail.

Our hike was more obstacle course than walking today! Dennis and I set off on a mission to reach the post office by 4pm and had a mostly downhill day to aid us. We followed Girder Creek for nearly the entire day, crossing bridges every couple of miles.

On the last bridge a cooler of trail magic greeted me! I scored the last cold soda which was great for boosting morale for the 6 mile road walk ahead of me.

We had been told that a trail angel’s house known as Brian’s place was a few miles along the road walk and boy was this a magical place!

There was a fridge full of cold beverages, pulled pork sandwiches, and about 8 hikers lounging on the porch alongside Brian. Brian works remotely and has been welcoming hikers for 13 years. Dennis and I took a joy ride on Brian’s ATV! One of the hikers, our friends JP, asked Brian if he could use his kitchen to make pie. A few people left on Brian’s ATV to pick blackberries, and JP set to work making pie dough. The final product was incredibly scrumptious.

Between 10 or so hikers we ate two pies in a matter of minutes. Dennis and I decided to wait at Brian’s because Dennis’s whole family was meeting us that evening to camp and backpack the next day with us. Maxim, Dennis’s younger brother grilled us steaks! Brian kindly offered Dennis and I showers as well as a night in his guest bedroom. Dennis’s parents wanted to camp and we wanted civilization, funny how the roles were switched. Everyone wants what they don’t frequently have!

Day 98: 8/16/2025; mile 1672.2 - 1684.8

Today we woke up to a grey sky and a light rain. We enjoyed a slow morning on Brian’s wraparound porch while we drank some coffee and downed Costco croissants. We had to say bye to Brian and then we were off!

Then we drove up a fire road that connected to the PCT so the Gavrilenko’s wouldn’t have a miserable backpacking experience.

We began our day on a ridge with beautiful misty views that reminded me of my visit to Olympic National Park.

I got to spend time hiking with all of the Gavrilenko’s and sharing my experience on the PCT. We stopped for a delicious lunch of salami, bread, and Parmesan before continuing on for the rest of our climb. Dennis’s brother taught me all the middle school slang I need to know, so I’ll definitely be aura farming soon. We had some fancy Mountain House lasagna, anything freeze dried is fancy in my mind! We finished the night with a celebratory last night of California campfire and cup of Rosé!

Day 99: 8/17/2025; mile 1684.8 - 1711.5

Today we hung around camp with the Gavrilenko’s until nearly 11 am before departing. We had breakfast and a fire where we played cards together.

We were only 8 miles away from the Oregon border, and we were super excited to make it to a new state! Just before the border there is an old cabin that has cots for hikers to rest in.l so we just had to stop by! We decided to take an adjacent road to the cabin and on the way were gifted some beers from some hunters to celebrate our entry to Oregon.

We learned that it was opening weekend for hunting season which made sooo much sense. We had been seeing men in camo all day! Finally we reached the cottage and were vortexed into taking a nap and resting at the little cabin for a few hours. Finally we got our act together and hiked the last 0.8 miles to the CA/OR border.

At this point we were pretty behind where we should be in a typical day, so we decided we would hike into the night to make up miles.

My mom has a close friend who lives in Ashland who offered to pick us up from trail and house us when we got to the Callahan lodge tomorrow, so we decided to pull a long night hike. We hiked until 2am, covered 27 miles by the end of the day, and saw a bunch of cool night creatures. We were exhausted by the time we pitched our tent!

Day 100 - 104: 8/18/2025 —> 8/22/2025 Ashland recovery

Today we only hiked 8 miles and boy did I power hike. I told Margaret (mom’s friend) that I would be at the trailhead by 10am, and that left pretty much no time for breaks. I didn’t realize how pooped Dennis was, but when Margaret offered us a place to stay for as long as we needed we graciously accepted. I won’t bore you with the details, but we ate many meals, watched lots of Netflix, walked around Lithia park, attended a mini concert, had free pizza with the SOBO’s, and geocached! We are so grateful to Margaret for hosting us for 4 nights of wonderful rest.