PCT Section O: Bartle Gap to Ash Camp

In general, hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) require some advance planning, whether single-day or multi-day hikes.  However, this hike had a longer than usual planning timeline.  In November 2017 I did 4 day hikes in the same area (see here and here and here and here) in Shasta County, 2 each on either side of this one, with a friend.  We originally contemplated attempting this section as an additional day hike on that trip, but an assessment of the distance (25 miles) and available daylight (barely 10 hours between sunrise and sunset) resulted in a fairly quick decision to postpone until there would be more daylight.  With the same friend, I did the hike in late June, taking full advantage of the longer daylight around the summer solstice.

The decision to delay was a good one for other reasons than daylight.  In November we had hiked in either light rain or heavy cloud cover all 4 days, and we knew we were missing some spectacular views.  Indeed, the PCT description for one of the days mentioned arriving at a high point in the trail and seeing Mt Shasta revealed in all of her beauty, or something like that.  It was simultaneously amusing and sad that the view was into a thick cloud, and we had no idea of how close – or imposing – Mt Shasta would be from that location.  This time we had nice, clear weather and particularly enjoyed the many views of Mt Shasta, certainly the highlight of the day.

Mt Shasta

The hike was an ambitious one: the PCT distance between Bartle Gap and Ash Camp is 25 miles, and we were pretty sure we would have another mile-plus of hiking at the Bartle Gap access point.  This would essentially make it a full marathon distance, on hiking trails at moderate elevation, and of course without supported water stops.  During our planning, we began to refer to this hike as the “big-ass hike,” and I guess it was.

The GPS track image shows the route, with the orange dot at the east end showing where we started hiking.

GPS track

An unintended complication was that I had a few glitches with my GPS data.  I’m not sure what happened, though I’m aware that the unit occasionally loses satellites when there is heavy forest canopy and then reports erroneous positions.  In this case I suspect that I was under canopy for unusually long periods of time, simply due to the distance and terrain – and it never occurred to me to occasionally shut the unit down and re-acquire good satellite data.  As a result of erroneous positions being recorded, my unit over-reported the distance hiked by about a mile, causing some “are we there yet?” consternation toward the end of the hike.  I was able to do some corrections after the fact, and the data reported in the stats box for this post reflects the corrections.  I estimate that the total length of the hike was 26.4 miles, with 25.0 miles of “new” PCT filling in the gap between the previous hikes.

The hike was part of Section O, in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and was between PCT data book mile 1451.3 and mile 1476.0.  There is only a modest discrepancy between my corrected GPS mileage and the official PCT mileage.

A quick look at the elevation profile explains why we decided to hike south to north (actually, more like east to west in this section) rather than in the opposite direction.  We had just a moderate climb in the first 5 miles, with a long, but still moderate, descent over most of the last 12 miles.  The total elevation gain was about 2400 feet and the descent was about 5100 feet.  This means that the average grade was only about 5.4%, which is very comfortable – except perhaps on a 26-mile hike!  There really weren’t any steep sections; the one place on the elevation profile that looks steep is a GPS data glitch.

Elevation profile

As is part of our setup for a point-to-point PCT (or other) hike, we had stashed one of our cars the previous afternoon at the end of the hike, at Ash Camp.  On the day of the hike, we only needed to drive to the start and hike until we reached the stashed car.  We would decide at the end of the hike whether to immediately go somewhere close by to sleep, or retrieve the car left at Bartle Gap first.  We ended up doing the latter and then driving to the town of Burney to spend the night.  We started hiking just after 7:00 am, and I finished just before 6:30 pm.

At Bartle Gap, in November we’d needed to stash the car about 1.2 miles from the PCT due to a seasonal gate closure.  I had confirmed with the US Forest Service that the gate would be open.  However, the road we had walked down in November was so heavily rutted that we decided to drive up a nearby road, and we were able to drive right to the PCT.  It turned out that we traded a 1.2-mile uphill hike for a 1.4-mile easy hike that was actually a duplicate of the end of one of November’s hikes.  Before we even got to the “new” PCT miles we had seen our first view of Mt Shasta as well as other hills in the area, and we knew we would be enjoying nice views during much of the hike.  The wildflowers were also quite varied.

Much of this section of PCT passes through forested areas, not surprising since it’s in a National Forest, with manzanitas and a variety of other chaparral bushes along the way.  The wildflowers in the first few miles included penstemon (Penstemon sp), larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum and D variegatum are most common in the general area), thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), and cinquefoil (Potentilla sp).  There was quite a bit of the yellow lupine we’d seen during the previous week in other hikes on the PCT west of I-5.  This is Mt Eddy lupine (Lupinus croceus), which is endemic to California and found mainly in Shasta, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties.  This is a wildflower that is found in a relatively limited area but is rather common within that area.

Mt Eddy lupine

There were some western columbine (Aquilegia formosa), some of which were visited by swallowtail butterflies.  Near Moosehead Creek I noted some meadow rue (Thalictrum fendleri) as well as tiger lilies (Lilium pardalinum).  These pretty lilies are fairly small, just over 1 inch in diameter.

Tiger lily near Moosehead Creek

Not far away, near a streamlet, there was a cluster of a small, pretty white flower that I later identified as bride’s bonnet (Clintonia uniflora).  In the close-up my finger serves as a field ruler for measuring size.  As indicated by the Latin name, there is just one blossom per plant.

Bride’s bonnet

There were also a few scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata).

Scarlet gilia

Before long I saw a few brightly-colored mountain pride (Penstemon newberryi) and some pretty face (Triteleia ixioides).  After about 4 miles of hiking, the trail emerged from forest into open chaparral.  The trail would alternate between these habitats, providing welcome new vistas throughout the hike.  In this first open area there were nice views in the general direction of CA-89 to the north; I think Mt Shasta was out of view behind nearby Lone Pine Ridge.

View of hills north of the PCT

In the next section of trail I noted a couple of interesting new wildflowers.  The first was cobwebby paintbrush (Castilleja arachnoidea).

Cobwebby paintbrush

And the other was rose meadowsweet (Spiraea splendens).  The Latin species name splendens translates to splendid – usually, as in this case, an apt description.

Rose meadowsweet

I stopped at the top of the first small rise, after about 4.2 miles and a little under 2 hours of hiking, for my first break.  My friend, who hikes faster than I do uphill and does not stop for nearly as many photos, was ahead of me.  We carried walkie talkies and were able to touch bases regarding progress, points of interest, and breaks.

In this area the trail passes through fairly dense forest, where I noted some type of catchfly or campion (Silene sp).  As I rounded a small promontory north of Mushroom Rock I was pleased to have a really nice view of Mt Shasta.  Almost simultaneously my friend got on her walkie talkie to tell me she was taking her first break.  I mentioned the view and she advised me that there was an even better one where she’d stopped.  On my way to that view I paused to see if I could get a picture of a pretty swallowtail butterfly that was resting on a plant.  It was an anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicon), displaying the beautiful coloration in its wings.

Anise swallowtail resting on a plant

When I got to the viewpoint, just west of Mushroom Rock, I took the picture at the beginning of this post: a truly majestic view of Mt Shasta, with a low forested ridge in the foreground and a forest road traversing the lower part of the ridge.

The PCT continues west along a ridgetop, with continued views of Mt Shasta interspersed with more wildflowers, such as paintbrush (probably wavy-leaf paintbrush [Castilleja applegatei], based on local prevalence) and a second type of phacelia (Phacelia sp).  There were quite a few tundra asters (Oreostemma alpigenum) and, as I paused for photos, one was visited by a Sierra checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona sierra).

Tundra aster with Sierra checkerspot

About 1.3 mile past the Shasta viewpoint the PCT reaches the highest point in this section, about 6150 feet elevation, passing close to a small local unnamed peak.  From this area there were pretty views to the south across several rows of hills.

View south near the high point of this section

The trail descends about 500 feet in the next mile.  Near the end of the descent, which featured more views of Mt Shasta, I was a bit startled to find a patch of Torrey’s blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia torreyi), with blossoms barely 1/4 inch in size.

Torrey’s blue-eyed Mary

Nearby there were some more penstemon, most likely blue penstemon (Penstemon azureus).

After the descent the trail follows along a ridge, gently rolling up and down for the next several miles.  For part of this distance the trail is slightly on the south side of the ridge, affording marvelous views across the steep drop-off.

View of steep south side of ridge

In this section of trail there were more wildflowers, including western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) (or possibly Sierra wallflower [Erysimum perenne]), ceanothus (Ceanothus sp), yet another type of phacelia, more western columbine, some unidentified yellow composites (sometimes called UYC’s), and upland yellow violet (Viola praemorsa ssp linguifolia).  A bit later the trail went back into forest, and around 10.5 miles from the start of the hike passed through a particularly overgrown section.    At one point the trail was practically choked with shoulder-high ferns, mentioned here simply because it was rather unusual.

Periodically there were open views to the south, and I realized that I could see Lassen Peak, some 50 miles away.  Lassen, with a peak elevation of 10,457 feet, is distinguished by the areas of snow and ice nearly covering its top.

Lassen Peak

About a mile later I found a beautiful Washington lily (Lilium washingtonianum ssp washingtonianum), one of my favorite wildflowers, still in the area with open views to the south.  The main blossom seemed to be enjoying the expansive view, which continued for miles; because the blossom was facing away from the trail and the dropoff was rather steep, it was tricky to photograph.  This elegant flower was named after Martha Washington.

Washington lily

I passed a cluster of sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) that was notable because there was paintbrush and penstemon growing within the cluster, making for a colorful yellow-red-blue mix.

Over the next few miles the trail undulates up and down several times, 100 to 200 feet at a time, passing just south of Pigeon Hill and with continuing pretty views to the south.  Where the PCT makes its closest approach to Grizzly Peak there is a nice view off the side of the ridge down Devil’s Canyon, which has a small stream at its bottom.  The trail curves to the left and begins the final 1-mile, 300-foot climb (between mile 15 and 16 on the elevation profile).  Although she’s too small to see clearly in the picture, my friend was barely visible making her way up the trail.  So of course I radioed her and told her I was catching up!

Final PCT climb of the day, near Grizzly Peak

At the top of the climb the PCT crosses a dirt road that goes to Grizzly Peak, less than half a mile away.  I caught up to my friend and we enjoyed a long re-fuel break.  Once the climb was complete, at 16 miles, the remainder of the hike would be primarily downhill, and my friend was expecting that I would hike faster than she did.

We hiked together for a short distance, until we were past a small, confusing complex of dirt roads leading to Grizzly Peak.  Near one of these roads there were signs advising a PCT detour due to a short, perhaps 10-meter, stretch of trail that had washed out.  We found the first sign to be a little confusing, so we ended up going through the washout.  We passed a sign indicating Deer Creek Spring – I imagine that these signs for usually-reliable water sources are helpful for through-hikers.

After a bit I got my downhill rhythm going, and the PCT now passed mainly through forest.  There were a few new wildflowers, mainly what I call mystery flowers since I didn’t get good enough pictures to make an identification.  Perhaps I was rushing a bit, or perhaps I was challenged to hold my camera steady in the deeper shade of the forest.

Forested PCT on the final, long downhill stretch

For the next few miles the trail runs parallel to Deer Creek.  Though there weren’t many wildflowers, the ones I noticed, such as wild ginger (Asarum hartwegii), tiger lily, and pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) (or Blake’s prince’s pine) thrive in this shaded and/or moist habitat.

Pipsissewa near Deer Creek

During this long stretch of heavily shaded forest my GPS had at least three episodes of losing track of satellites and reporting erroneous position and/or elevation data.  About 22 miles from the trailhead the PCT turns from southwest to north.  In this area Hawkins Creek collects Sheep Creek, Deer Creek, and Butcherknife Creek on the way to the McCloud River, and there are several creek crossings.

In this area I found a monkeyflower, which I’ve been unable to identify.  The most likely candidates are Layne’s (Diplacus layneae, formerly Mimulus layneae), Brewer’s (Erythranthe breweri, formerly Mimulus breweri), and Torrey’s (Diplacus torreyi, formerly Mimulus toreyi) monkeyflower.

Monkeyflower

The most significant creek crossing was at Butcherknife Creek, about 23 miles from the start.  The creek bank was lined with umbrella plant (Darmera peltata), with distinctive umbrella-like leaves.

Butcherknife Creek

Near some of the creek crossings there was also some California spikenard (Aralia californica), another moisture-loving plant with large, hand-sized leaves.  And I found a single Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa).  The presence of several past-prime blossoms made me wonder if the plant was late in its blooming phase.

Pacific bleeding heart

As it happened, I was planning a final short break when I saw the bleeding heart.  From this point I kind of powered my way as well as I could the remaining 3.5 miles to our waiting car at Ash Camp.  There is a small campground there, at the confluence of Hawkins Creek and the McCloud River just past where Centipede Creek joins Hawkins Creek.  As it turns out, instead of using the campground as the hike endpoint (as we had done on the previous hike), the Centipede Gulch Trailhead was less than 0.2 mile further up the forest road we’d traveled from the main highway.

Although I felt pretty good during the last several miles – I think I did a good job managing my nutrition, water, rest, and energy level – I found myself doing a little math problem and then setting a goal for myself.  I thought it would be interesting if I could finish this marathon-length hike, with its attendant challenges of terrain, base elevation, elevation gain/loss, carrying pack/water/food, rest stops, and photo stops in twice my personal best power-walked marathon time.  Of course, this multiplier was quite arbitrary and had no basis in data or experience.  Nevertheless I was pleased that I finished about 30 minutes ahead of twice my personal record marathon time.

The route back to the main road, CA-89 near the small town of McCloud, passes along the west side of Lake McCloud, which is a reservoir resulting from a PG&E-built dam on the McCloud River.  The water surface was serene in the early evening light, and we were grateful we had finished the hike with nearly two hours of daylight to spare.

Lake McCloud

Nevertheless, as we congratulated each other on completing this much-anticipated big-ass hike we agreed that we wouldn’t attempt such a long day hike in the future.  There were two other especially big hikes I had previously completed: One was Mt Whitney in a day, and the other was a supported hike on the Bay Area Ridge Trail called Ridge Trail Cruz.  Using my method of estimating “hike effort” all three hikes were at least 30 effort miles: significantly more than I’m prepared to hike on a typical day.  But when the conditions are right, as they were in these three cases, the effort is worthwhile.