Chester - Sierra City (SoBo)

Mile 1328 - 1195

After a filling breakfast at the local Chester diner.  We finally headed out to the trail.  A local painter gave us a ride and said that normally there would still be 5 feet of snow on the ground.  Luckily for us there was nothing.  5 miles in we pass a North-Bound (NoBo) hiker.  He has been jumping around too due to the snow.  He thought we may be too early to try South-Bound (SoBo).  I guess we will see.  Our little SoBo bubble has grown to 9.  

It was hard to find our rhythm today.  7 days of food and 2 liters of water is heavy!  It's weird to read the map and water report backwards.  The landscape is different here.  Lots of tall trees for shade and piles of lava rock.  We have heard of PCT hikers getting rained on 4 times in 2600 miles.  Not us.  Overcast with on and off sprinkles all day.  I'm starting to feel like I'm on the AT again.  We are even seeing Morel mushrooms booming. 

We passed the halfway mark today.  Doesn't mean much to us, because technically we are only 800 miles or so into the hike.  

We arrived at camp just as it started raining.  It rained through the night and a few times during the day.  Today really felt like we were on the AT.  Overgrown trail, rocks, and lots of water.  This area must have had some severe winter weather, because there were lots of trees blown down or broken.  The trail was more of an obstacle course, climbing over and under giant logs.  

The excitement of the day was our big decent into Belden, CA.  All the way down to 2,000feet!  I know we will pay for it with a big up tomorrow.  The lower altitude brought flowers and warmer temperatures.  It also brought mosquitoes and poison oak.  The dogwoods are in bloom along with the wild Irises.  The landscape is not what we expected here.  It looks more like Tennessee than Northern California.  The gorge we descended today had steep hillsides with a river below.

We made it to Belden in time to have a burger the resort.  The resort was squished between the road, river, and railroad tracks.  Instead of paying to camp there after dinner, we walked another mile down the road and camp at the trailhead for free.  A few other hikers joined us.

A long 4,000foot climb out gave us a great look at the gorge below.  Lunch had a great view as well. High above mountain lakes and looking up at large granite cliffs.

We have been trying to slow down and take it easy since we started South.  We don't want to rush back into the snow.  The problem is that we had been hiking 20 miles a day above 10,000feet.  Now we are hiking 20 miles a day at 6,000feet.  It's 3pm and we've been 20 miles.  That's a little too much time to be hanging out at camp...with the mosquitos.  

Today was a pretty mellow day.  The trail took us down to the Middle Fork of the Feather River.  We were surprised to see this metal arched footbridge 100feet above the water.  It would have been a great place to stop for the night, but too early in the day and based on the amount of scat we have been seeing on the trail, lets us know we are getting into bear country.  That mean no camping at popular trail spots.  

The afternoon was spent climbing back up from the river.  A climb that used to exhaust us, now didn't even call for a break halfway up.  I spotted a flat spot in some soft green ground covering for the tent. Just before dinner Beavers, a hiker we took the bus with from Lone Pine, walked by.   He stopped to have dinner with us before moving on.  Then walks up another group that we left Chester with.  Turns out they were camping across the way and heard us.  THEN!  A lady walks by wearing normal-people clothes.  She asks if we were hiking with an "old man".  Shadow said that he was the only "old man" around.  Turns out her husband was camping with the other group.  He mentioned in his last blog entry that his knee was hurting.  Her and their sons tracked him down using his personal locator beacon.  She drove 4 hours from her home searching forest roads until she got close.  I joked that I thought we were in the middle of nowhere.  She said, "I assure you that you ARE in the middle of nowhere."  Her husband then came over with a bag full of ripe cherries and cartons of chocolate milk!  Perfect Trail Magic

This morning we woke to an owl finishing his nightly calls.  An easy and relaxed 20 mile day.  I'm starting to get use to these days.  No rushing our breaks or lunch stops.  We came across a day hiker that was very excited to see us.  The first thing she said to us was, "Can I take your picture?"  This situation happens more often than you would think.  It reminds me of Shadow and I going to the side shows at the Wilson County Fair.  Shadow paid 50 cents to see the snake-lady and laughed so hard she even started laughing.  I paid to see the miniature lady for 50 cents.  Once inside she tried to bully me to take her picture for another buck.  Don't misunderstand me.  I'm not saying I should get paid for my photo.  I'm just saying that one of those snacks you have in your day hiker daypack would work just fine.  I would even do a little trick for a warm soda...like a circus monkey.

It only took 1 day to get our hiking legs back and seems like it has taken 4 days to get our full hiker hunger back.

This afternoon we hiked through lots of old mining hills.  You can see where they moved lots of Earth.  Mounding it as they dug for gold.  The trees are slowly taking back the roads and piles of slag.   

Tonight we found a semi-level campsite with wild spearmint growing.  Our tent smells minty fresh.  Finger crossed that smell deodorizes our clothes too.

Today was an awesome day.  We slept like babies in our bed of natures deodorant.  We woke 25 miles North of Sierra City, CA.  An easy 25 miles.  Even though we had been in the woods for 6 days, we weren't ready to go to town.  The landscape was too beautiful.  This short section through Lakes Basin Recreational Area in Plumas National Forest was breathtaking.  If anyone is looking for a great place to hike, camp, mountain bike, and fish this is the place.  They even left the old mining roads open for Jeeps and those who don't like to hike and camp. 

We skirted hilltops on ridges with one great view after another.  Numerous mountain meadow lakes below and of course the Sierra Buttes in the distance.  Shadow has a book on his kindle about the PCT.  I read about the Sierra Butte Fire Tower at the top on the Butte and told Shadow that we couldn't miss this lookout at the top of the highest point.  

A little after lunch we started up the fire tower trail.  1,800 vertical feet above the PCT was where we faced the 4 tier metal staircase up to the top.  Shadow chickened out, but I went.  A beautiful clear day with a view all the way down to the Sierra Mountains.