Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Messenger Flats Campground to Acton KOA

Hiked from Messenger Flats to the Acton KOA today. 

Messenger flats was a pretty nice campground, although there is no water there, and most of the area is sloped, making tent site selection a challenge. 

Hiked about 6 miles to the Mill Creek ranger station, which doesn't seem to be an active ranger station anymore. The guy who lives there makes signs for the forest service and puts out water for hikers and a self service cooler with sodas and candy bars for hikers to purchase. 

The forest roads through this section are all closed to the public still, due to the Station fire in 2009. 

The winds from last night continued through the day, which was good, since the sun was out, and in any area where the wind was blocked, the temperature rose rapidly. A preview of the coming desert section, I suppose.


Ended the day at the Acton KOA, camped on grass under a tree, luxury for a PCT hiker.


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2021 Update:

Hiked from Messenger Flats to the Acton KOA today. 

The miles weren't huge today, but it was certainly warm, with little to no shade available thanks to the fire back in 2009.

Messenger flats was a pretty nice campground, although there is no water there, and most of the area is sloped, making tent site selection a challenge. 

Hiked about 6 miles to the Mill Creek ranger station, which doesn't seem to be an active ranger station anymore. The guy who lives there makes signs for the forest service and puts out water for hikers and a self service cooler with sodas and candy bars for hikers to purchase. 

There were probably 10 to 12 hikers hanging out here for a while, people coming and going for the hour or so that I was there, hanging out in the shade, eating and hydrating.

The forest roads through this section are all closed to the public still, due to the Station fire in 2009.  Nice for hikers, but a shame that the area isn't available for all the people who live in nearby and aren't likely to visit unless it's someplace car accessible.

The winds from last night continued through the day, which was good, since the sun was out, and in any area where the wind was blocked, the temperature rose rapidly. A preview of the coming desert section, I suppose.


Ended the day at the Acton KOA, camped on grass under a tree, luxury for a PCT hiker.

Lots of hikers here at the KOA. The little camp store does a brisk business selling microwave pizzas and burritos and sodas and ice cream to the hungry hikers.



Photos from today: https://www.b-photo.com/Travel/PCT-2016-Day-by-Day/May/May-17/

Mighty Mouse's blog for this area: http://www.timandgerri.com/blog---2016/day-41-mile-43044-44410

1 comment:

  1. The rocks in the second photo, that is not meant to be the trail, is it?

    ReplyDelete