[pct-l] Snow from Sierra City to Castle Crags and beyond...

[dnlcyclone at aol.com]

Just in case anyone is interested, the trail from Sierra City northbound is mostly snowbound.  We made it to Kennedy Meadows on May 28th, flipped back and finished the San Jacintos by June 6th, and on June 14th flipped up to Sierra City.  The road up to Gold Lakes Basin had just been cleared the day before.  At that point we decided to head up to Castle Crags and try and see how far we could get heading south toward Sierra City.  The trail was in great condition from Interstate 5 to Ash Camground, but ran into a lot of people who said that the trail was completely snowbound for 35 miles at elevations above 5000 feet!  For some, that may not be an issue, but several people mentioned that they had to self-arrest on numerous occasions and commented that they would definitely not attempt it again.  Creek crossings are also incredibly high in between Sierra City and Shasta.  We visited the Shasta-Trinity NF Ranger Station today in Mount Shasta and were told that the PCT is closed from just beyond Castle Crags State Park going north.  For the hardier souls, give it a go, but for those of us who need to hike on clean trail, it's going to be a while.  We're going to rent a car and hike the Lost Coast for a while and see if we can wait this snow out.  Cheers to all hikers this year...we all picked a good year to give it a go!

David, Rachel & Hazel Liechty aka "The 3 Bears"