PCT:Butcherknife Creek to Squaw Valley Creek

PCT Trail Mile: 1467.1 - 1484.6

We never needed sunglasses today as it was overcast. It made for nice hiking and we did have our first sustained climb  of about 1500 feet.  This section of trail is overall pretty easy when 1500 feet is a big climb. 

 It’s beginning to sprinkle now as I finger type beside our little  fire next to Squaw Valley Creek.  

We left our cozy camp at Butcherknife creek around 9 am.  It has a spooky name doesn’t it?  We didn’t see any knives, but we did see large bear marks on a tree.  Glad I saw them in the morning and not last night.  The trail trended down from camp and the drainage was very steep.  All you see is trees and shrubs.  There were more old growth trees to admire and we think this odd tree with needles like a redwood is a yew. We saw quite a few in this drainage.  

We eventually came to the beautiful McCloud River and Ash Camp.    It made me wish I had a fly pole and a day of fishing. Not that I’m any good at fly fishing, but I’ve spent some really nice days in nature going upstream trying to present a fly to a hungry fish.   The McCloud is the river on the left in the first photo. The river on the right is Squaw Valley Creek and it’s a beauty too.  We are camped right above it at the nearby trailhead.  

There are lots of flat spaces at the trailhead  and one thing in short supply today were flat spaces.   These are some rugged mountains we hiked in today.   We would leave one drainage, climb over a ridge and enter another steep sided drainage.  We went through various zones depending on the elevation.  At our highest we were right under 4000 feet in elevation and the lowest elevation I believe was 2200.  Some areas were green and lush and others were dry oak scrub. 

Part of today’s fun was avoiding, or trying to avoid the poison oak.  We called it hot lava and tried not to get burned up.  Time will tell how well we did as  it nearly covered the trail in some areas. Flowers too were everywhere.    Here are a few of the ones we saw today.  

We are so appreciative that the people of our great nation took the time and resources to make and allow for trails such as this.  May these values of protecting wild places continue.   It is obvious that this trail was not easy to build nor to maintain and it is an absolute  blessing and honor to be here experiencing a pure and simple life surrounded by nature.