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by Ed Jarrett | As Christians, our goal should be Christlikeness – becoming like Jesus in all we say and do. But that is not something that happens automatically when we come to faith. It requires an intentional and ongoing effort on our part. So, what do we need to do? And what is the most important step in the...

#Bible Study Tools #Ed Jarrett #What Is the Most Important Step in Becoming More Like Jesus?#biblestudytools.com

Are you a taker or a giver? A consumer or a builder?... Are other believers stronger and more secure in their faith because of you? Are you making a positive difference in the lives of others? This charge to encourage and build up is not given just to pastors and teachers; it is given to all believers. Encourage one another and be a builder. Don’t be satisfied with being just a consumer. Invest in the lives of your fellow believers. After all, the health of the church is dependent on the working of each of its members, including you (Eph. 4:16).

Ed Jarrett

#focr #focr edition 6 #edify #quote #ed jarrett

koloroj summer ID - Vous vous ennuyez un peu en vacance? Qu'à cela ne tienne ....Construisez le plus haut château de sable du monde...un peu comme Ed Jarrett... précision le château mesure 11 mètre de haut..le record précédent ...bah c'était déjà notre ami Ed qui le détenait...Allez pas de temps à perdre prenez vos pelles!!!

#koloroj #summer #château de sable #Ed Jarrett

"The Rim"

An analysis of the stories and photos that I receive and post from the length of the PCT would reveal that there is an very uneven distribution. As one might expect, the stories and images concentrate around the first several hundred miles of the trail (north or south), the High Sierra, and the last hundred miles of so before the Canadian border. I have had nothing in over 200 posts that focused on the Hat Creek Rim until now.

As Ed Jarrett explains, the Hat Creek Rim is the 'Rodney Dangerfield' of the PCT . . . it gets little respect . . . and as Ed concludes, it should be more appreciated. This is Ed's report from this rarely featured portion of the PCT.

By Ed 'Eeyore' Jarrett

For as long as I have been preparing for the PCT this year, I have been hearing about the Hat Creek Rim; and seldom has it been encouraging. Many areas are discussed as beautiful, scenic or boring. But the "Rim" is challenging, hot and dry. So a part of me has been dreading this section for several months now, and even more so as I have traveled through hot and dry sections of the trail. And even once I started to hike, and especially as I got closer to the Rim, north bound hikers, if they mentioned the Rim, did so in terms that suggested it was something to survive rather than to enjoy. Even the day I left Burney Falls to head for the Rim, I encountered an older couple that described the Rim as the worst spot on the trail.

From what I have been able to read, the Rim was formed a million or so years ago along a fault line. Rather than having the two sides of the fault slide horizontally, or pull apart/s ubduct, the two parts slide vertically. The westerly side of the fault dropped down as much as 1000 feet in places for at least the 20 miles that the trail follows, and apparently several miles beyond. The result is about what you would expect to see on a cartoon or disaster movie where suddenly the ground breaks in half and one side is thrust up into the air, leaving a shear vertical cliff. The difference here is that one side fell rather than being thrust up; there is a million years of rubble at the base of the cliff, raising up nearly half the distance of the drop area; and the fault line is somewhat jagged and stepped in places. The whole thing is pretty tough to describe, but is pretty cool to see.

The big challenge with the Rim is that the ground is so porus that any surface water just seeps through; down to a creek that flows some 1000 feet below the surface. The Rim is dry! But not as dry as one might think. There are at least two ponds on top that are close to the northern portion of the trail, one of which you pass within 50 feet of. But these ponds are in cattle country and look like something you would use only if you could boil, filter and chemically treat; and then only as a last resort. The area is fairly heavily vegetated, which suggests that there is at least a limited amount of moisture available to maintain the growth of drought resistant plants, and animals. The one thing missing when I went though was much in the way of flying bugs, which were only rarely encountered. While the country was pretty alien to a western Washington mossy-back like me, it was beautiful in its own way.

According to the guidebook there is a 30-mile stretch along there trail where there are no natural water sources. And that is true. At the north end of this stretch are the lakes and streams around the Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery. And at the south end is Old Station and the Subway Cave. In order to make it through this stretch you need to either carry 30 miles worth of water, depend on water caches, or have someone periodically meet you with water.

There were a surprising number of water caches along this stretch. My favorite was actually between the hatchery and Burney Falls. The Wild Bird Cache included a picnic table and several comfortable cloth foldup chairs, a large well stocked cooler, water, a trash can, and a camera and trail register where you could take your own picture and leave a note. This one was easily the best cache I have seen so far. Second to it, and arguably much more needed, was the 22 Cache. This one was actually mid way along the ridge and also included water, a cooler of drinks, chairs, a trash bag and a register. And it included a three sided shelter composed of dry brush stacked up to provide some shade. I didn't count the water jugs piled up there, but it was literally a large pile of clear gallon jugs. In addition, I encountered 4 other smaller caches of 4 to 20 gallons of water, some dry and some stocked.

My strategy was to take it slow, meet up with Mrs Eeyore a couple of times to get more water and rest, and just make the best of this difficult stretch. I left Highway 299 near Burney Falls about 7 AM and headed south, meeting lots of thru's along the way. I paused briefly to visit with folks at the Wild Bird Cache and then went on. I was surprised when I came to the fish hatchery area. I had not expected to find so much water in the area. But since I had plenty of water, and Mrs Eeyore was waiting ahead, I went on. I got up to the Cassel Road sometime after 2 and we drove back to the picnic tables at the hatchery for lunch and drinks and then back to Burney for a milkshake. And, yes, I know that I am spoiled.

I left the car again about 4:45 and headed south again, planning on putting in a few more hours before calling it a night. About 4 hours later I found myself at road 22 in near dark conditions and setup for the night, actually sleeping on the ground because I had been assured there were not enough trees to hang from; which was almost true. The trip along the northern half of the rim had been one of my favorite places this year. Yes, it was dry and hot, but no drier or hotter than other stretches in the Marbles or Trinities further north. The scenery and views were breath taking, the sun setting over the western horizon was glorious, and I was able to tackle it refreshed and fueled with a milk shake. It was kind of a magical time for me, when all of my fears for this section of the trail vanished into joy.

The trail south initially follows the edge fairly closely but eventually heads away from it to go around a couple of large canyons. I was hurrying along this stretch, trying to get back to the rim before sunset, when this large black figure moved out into the trail in front of me. In all my years of hiking, large black figures only mean one thing, a bear. But now it means one of two things, with cows being added to that short list. Old Bossy was apparently as startled to see me as I was to see her. She quickly trotted up the trail a piece and then off the trail where she turned and watched me go by. I encountered several of her sisters in the next few minutes and, fortunately, their reactions were all the same. They would look hard at me for a moment, and just when I was sure they would charge, they would turn tail and run away.

At one point Gussy and Bessie were walking the trail ahead of me, and after a few minutes I realized I was gaining on them. I was trying to figure out how to get around them (tap them on the shoulder with a trekking pole and ask permission to come around), when Gussy heard my poles clicking behind her, looked back and then charged past Bessie. So Bessie looked back to see what all the excitement was about and saw a large predator with hamburger on his breath and also charged off trail and into a small gossip group (is 6 a herd) who all became equally excited and started dashing around. I almost fell onto the trail laughing to think that I was responsible for a mini stampede. I'll never watch a cattle drive in a movie the same way again.

Until the moon came up, the stars were amazing. I have seldom seen the night sky so lit up. And that was good because I didn't sleep well. Shifting from a hammock to the ground was not a pleasant experience. I know I will have to overcome that if I am going to be able to finish this trail, but this first night was not a good start.

I was up and walking as soon as it was light enough to see the trail. A mile or so south of road 22 the trees quit, pretty suddenly. Still lots of brush, but hardly any trees; apparently there was a fire here in the not too distant past. A few miles further south the trail intersects a small dirt road where I met Mrs Eeyore for breakfast and then went on following the trail as it generally followed the edge of the rim around the encroaching canyons.

By early afternoon I was approaching the end of the rim trail and passing through an area that had burned and been replanted. I am uncertain of the logic of some of the plantings though. The newly planted trees were in the middle of a cleared circle, and sometimes that circle encompassed the trail itself. I saw quite a number of seedings that were literally planted right at the edge of the trail. As those Ponderosa Pines grow they will force the trail to shift to one side or the other.

All in all this was a very enjoyable stretch of trail and is one to actually look forward to, so long as one is prepared for the conditions. It helps to have your own personal support team to help, but it is quite possible to have a successful and enjoyable trek along the Rim without that support, so long as you are prepared for what is coming.

#Hat Creek Rim #Ed Jarrett #Subway Cave #CA Section N

A Gnat Encounter

Porcupine Lake, a little gem high on the Trinity Divide

Ed "Eeyore" Jarrett is currently southbound from Seiad Valley to Donner Pass and then will flip up to Washington and hit Rainy Pass to Stevens Pass toward the end of August. This is a submission from the trail. Check out Ed's blog: http://aclayjar.blogspot.com/

We have posted Ed's writing before and hope we will again. We have had stories about marauding bears, salt-starved deer, killer toads, aggressive rattlesnakes . . . but never, until now, gnats.

I hiked through the Castle Crags area in northern California last night and this morning. The Crags are pretty awesome and the surrounding Trinity Alps mountains were pretty cool to walk around in. But as the trail descended towards the trail head at I-5 I had an encounter, or series of encounters, that took my mind completely off the beauty that surrounded me.

I had expected that identifying and avoiding poison oak would be the biggest challenge on the way down. But not even close. Trying to stay sane while hiking through gnat swarms became my biggest problem. It's not as though there were millions of them, or even thousands. But for about 10 miles they were a pretty constant companion. I lost track of how many gnats with a death wish I spit out or swallowed. And I know I hit at least a hundred while fanning the air in front of my face.

Now a gnat weighs about a milligram. And there are 1000 milligrams in a gram, 454,000 milligrams in a pound, and 79,450,000 milligrams in me. That means that I am 79,450,000 times bigger than a gnat. So why should a gnat, or even a dozen gnats swarming around my face bother me? It's not as though they could carry me away or drain me of all my blood. I can't even recall feeling a gnat bite before.

But after 10 miles, or nearly 5 hours, of these little critters dancing around in front of my face looking for opportunities to be ingested or inhaled, or just to take a bath in the sweat streaming down my face, I was ready to flee screaming down the trail. Every time I would let down my guard to concentrate on hopping across the rocks in a stream, they would take advantage of the opportunity and attack in renewed numbers. When the poison oak was thickest on the trails edges, they were there to distract me. I kept telling myself "they have no brain; they are not out to get me". But it was a losing cause. I was slowly but surely going insane.

And then, just as suddenly as they had started, they were gone. Now, just as soon as I finish my psychiatric treatment, I can get back onto the trail.

#Ed Jarrett #Castle Crags #Porcupine Lake #Trinity Divide #CA Section P

Having lived in Portland for almost five years, Kelsey Bowen reported that "it's easy for the 'winter gloom' to set in. So come the first clear, albeit freezing, day I had to get out and hike. I had heard that the icicles on Eagle Creek were gorgeous so my friend Molly and I decided to check it out, thinking that there was no way we could get to Tunnel Falls. We were extremely lucky that many of the iciest bits were starting to thaw and that the most dangerous parts were not frozen over. We ended up making it to the falls - hiking it very slowly and getting back to the car in the dark but it was well worth it and never too treacherous!"

This photo and the adjacent set of photos give a sense of winter along upper Eagle Creek. For those of you unfamiliar with the magic of Eagle Creek, I would refer you to Ed Jarrett's earlier post "Walking Eagle Creek and Tunnel Falls". Ed's story includes a number of summertime photos of Eagle Creek. However, the one that I have included with Kelsey's is a Deems Burton photo that provides a sense of summer and winter contrast.

#Eagle Creek #Ed Jarrett #Kelsey Bowen #Deems Burton #OR Section G