Saturday and Sunday, 28 & 29-June-2020

 

Saturday:

Mike and I were talking, and realized that we don’t actually live that far apart. Kind of concerning that it took us 5 years to realize that… but you know how engineer are with details. Sometimes we miss the obvious ones, right? Like this one.

We met in the middle – almost exactly, actually. I’d been introduced to Mt. Eddy about a year ago, as a beautiful secluded backpacking trip that was pretty mild, but also had amazing views of Shasta… and since it was super close to halfway, it was a perfect place for Mike and I to meet up, hike up, and catch up.

So we met up at Blackbear diner, ate probably too much food, and then drove out to the trailhead. Found parking spots in the packed lot, packed up, and headed in.

I mean, okay. This is backpacking. The story can basically be “we walked for a while, then rested, then walked some more, then set up camp”… the fun of the trip is in the views (see photos) and the conversation (no audio logs available). I can’t really describe the pictures, since they’re each worth roughly a thousand words, and I don’t really want to transcribe the conversation.

I can tell you that it was excellent, though. Good walking, feeling good and strong, and great conversation. The elevation definitely did get to us a bit (we were around 8,000ft), but it wasn’t too rough. We persevered, and hiked onward.

The interesting part came when we reached Deadfall Lake, and realized that most of those cars at the trailhead were backpackers, also staying at Deadfall Lake. All of whom arrived earlier than we did, and claimed spots before we arrived. Which made finding out own spot pretty challenging, to say the least. Seriously – it took us something like an hour and a half to hike in… and then nearly another hour to actually find the campsite.

When we did find it though, it was pretty quality. A flat area on a slight hill, trees and brushes to break the wind, and a great view of the sun setting over the Northern California mountains.

 

 

Sunday:

I woke up first, and busied myself with filtering water, making coffee, and heating up breakfast. It wasn’t that early, but still early enough that the warm morning light was filtering through the trees, and the air was still beautifully crisp. It was a strange transition from the previous day – when we got lunch at the diner, it was 91 degrees in town. When we’d parked, my car read 68 degrees… and I’d guess it was in the 50s when we woke up. Not bad for summer, yeah?

The day got colder, though.

As we ascended toward the summit of Eddy, it kept getting colder and colder. The wind started up too, bringing some pretty heavy cloud cover along with it. We went pretty far before finally calling it – When we got to the ridgeline that leads up to the summit, and saw that the whole summit block was in a massive cloud bank, we officially pulled the plug and decided to head back to camp. The wind definitely wasn’t helping either – both of us were hiking in our jackets at that point, during the last weekend of June. Dang, man.

Anyways, the rest of the trip was beautifully clean and simple. We trekked back, packed up our gear, had a snack, and then headed back to the cars. More photos, more conversation, and more enjoying being away from everything for a little while.

We did stop into a nice diner in Yreka on the way back, but aside from that it was a pretty straight-forward route home. A long drive, to be sure, but absolutely worth every minute.