@ 40.1950, -121.4174
First light brought a morning visitor. I heard it a few hundred yards off, working up the valley, crunching sticks underfoot along the way. Only one animal in these forests is so careless about giving its position away.
When the crunching stopped about 25 yards from camp I shone a flashlight and saw two close-spaced gray-green eyes reflecting back at me, about 30 inches above the ground.
I rose to my knees still in my sleeping bag and said clearly and firmly “Go away”. And because there is no call to be rude to a morning bear: “Please”.
The bear stared at me a few more seconds and then ambled off, the outline of its round hindquarters dimly visible. I returned to my sleep for another 40 minutes, until it was light enough to make breakfast.
My exertions yesterday had not got me halfway up the valley; the top of the climb lay 6 miles and 2800 feet above.
The forest here has a damp nature and the trail was often a bit marshy due to the numerous springs. I even spotted a slug nibbling delicately on a fern, a true mark of a rain forest.
But the rain forest did not persist to the top of the ridge. Lizards replaced slugs and dust replaced damp ground. 
A trail philosopher had taken to writing inspirational messages on the trail markers. But adversity got the better of philosophy, as it so often does, and the epigrams became dark and bitter, ending with “The PCT should at least buy us dinner if it is going to fuck us this hard “.
I topped out after a truly grueling climb. Mt Lassen was visible some 20 miles off. Lassen is considered the southernmost of the Cascade peaks, last in the series volcanoes that comprise the Pacific Ring of Fire. I looked about me and noticed pumice rock on the trail for the first time and decided that this ridge was the borderline. I was now out of the Sierras, having hiked their length for some 650 miles, and into the Cascades at last.
So far, the Cascades excel the Sierra in depth of dust and scarcity of springs and streams. The Sierra were dusty too but at least I could jump in lakes and wade in creeks on a daily basis. Here, water sources are 5-10 miles apart, often down long steep side trails leading to barely trickling seeps. I’m reduced to wiping down with a few drops of water sprinkled on a bandanna, which mostly just smears around the caked on dust. I’m filthy and rarely feel anything other than grimy and hot and sweaty. I am glad to be in the Cascades but am absolutely ready for a town day tomorrow.
Lassen from the top of an infernally long climb
Quite the blowdown here
This sign conjured an image of ursine proctology that I found funny and so I am posting it even though I know it is dumb