[pct-l] Marble Mountains trip- Sec. Q

[Judson]

Back from my hike of section Q, the Marble Mountains Wilderness. I completed the 55 miles in 45 hours...ouch. 

To begin with, the trail is overall in great shape. I counted 53 blowdowns, none of which was particularly troublesome, but several that would be very tough for stock. They were most common on the descent to Grider Cr. CG, a section that was also (of course) quite brushy. After the 3rd footbridge, however, the trail had gotten some love and is in superb shape.

Water: none until Bear Cub Spring at 7.6, which is about 5 min. off route, well-signed, and has plenty of water. The first on-trail water is the crossing of Shelley Lake's outlet creek at 10.7 mi.
    From here, it was dry until the "creeklet with campsites" 0.4 mi. before Fisher Lake (14.1 mi.). The entire traverse from here to the junction with the old PCT has tons of water. 
    I didn't visit Cold Springs, which is off-route. Also, the maps show and discusses 2 junctions to this spring; I only saw the 2nd one, which was signed.
    Soft Water Spring had water, but it was only seeping, as indicated by the guide book. Also, the guide book shows the other end of the Shadow Lake Trail ending here; it does not. It meets the PCT 1/4 later at a crest saddle.
    Marble Valley and and the climb up to Big Rock Camp have plenty of water.
    The spring mentioned near the junction of the Rye Spur trail was a bit hard to get to due to heavy brush, but had water. After a couple of streams on the climb following Paradise Lake, there was nothing until Buckhorn Spring, which consisted of a small mud-bottomed pool with a very attractive campsite nearby.

Fire situation: I'm not sure what website would be good to check, but there are numerous fires on all sides of Seiad Valley. For me, it was smoky from Big Rock Camp on, with nearby fires visible as soon as I hit Big Ridge. I did not get to enjoy the aforementioned campsite at Buckhorn Spring because the ridgetop on the opposite side of the valley to the SW had burst into 100' tall flames at around 9pm on Saturday, with the wind blowing straight at me. The thought of that moving toward me in the night as I slept made me a little queasy, so I packed up my camp and hiked until 10:30 to put some distance between myself and those flames. The smoke was quite thick, and continued to be so through Sunday. The smoke has even reached Ashland, so it's safe to say that section R is affected by this as well. Today, Hwy. 96 was closed to traffic in varying locations, so if you're planning on someone picking you up or dropping you off at Seiad Valley, check ahead. 

Judson
Ashland