California's Pacific Crest Trail
567 Miles
A transition takes place as you enter the Northern section of the PCT. You will leave behind the Sierra Nevada range and enter the Cascades.
The Cascades are a volcanic range that extends into British Columbia. They are part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire", active volcanoes that include Lassen Peak (active 1914 to1921) in California and Mount St. Helens (exploded in1980) in Washington.
North of Donner Summit to the North Fork of the Feather River you are still in the Sierras.
About the time you cross State Highway 70 just south of Lake Almanor you will enter the Cascades. Along the way you also encounter Highways 49 and 89.
The Cascades are rich in volcanic soil which in turn is rich in nutrients. The rainfall is also fairly high which help to generate nice forests and other plant life. There is plenty of logging in this area so you will find back roads that accommodate that industry. Our friend, the Black Bear, is here too along with deer, raccoon, marten, mink, badger, fox and bobcat.
At Highway 89 you will enter Lassen Volcanic Park. You can now enjoy viewing Lassen Peak (elev. 10,457') through this portion of the trail. But just north of the park, Mt. Shasta (elev. 14, 162') will soon be in view. The mountain will dominate the view to the north for quite a while. Due to the geographical conditions and local rainfall this next portion of the Cascades is relatively dry.
The trail will now turn in a westerly direction where it will be a bit greener and descend to the Sacramento River to an elevation of about 2, 130 feet. You will cross the river at Interstate 5 and enter Castle Crags State Park. The park is named for 6,000-feet tall glacier-polished crags nearby. All of you rock climbers will drull over it. The PCT goes right through the park located about 6 miles south of Dunsmuir.
From here you will gain altitude again as you head into the Trinity Alps. This area is managed by the Shasta-Trinity National Park and is situated in the Klamath range. These mountains nestle between the Cascades and the Pacific Coast Range. There are some permanent snow fields and in cold and in wet weather periods small glaciers will form.
The trail reaches about 7,600 feet elevation as it joins the Inland Cascade range and travels north toward the Marble Mountains.
This is a rather remote area and few hikers are to be found. This makes the area rather pristine, so let's leave it that way as we depart.
There is a range with the same name in the Mojave desert of Southern California, so do not confuse them when researching.
From here you descend to the Klamath River at about 1,400 feet, and then climb again to the Siskiyou Mountains. The PCT shifts a little East and will cross over the Siskiyou Summit at Interstate 5. This is the highest point on I5 at 4,310 feet and has some of the steepest grades in the entire US Interstate system.
You will now depart from California and enter Oregon. Please see Pacific Crest Trail, Oregon for the next section.
| Califonia PCT | ||
| Pacific Crest Trail Pt. 1 |