Chester - Castella, CA (NoBo)

Mile 1328 - 1498

Our day off in Lone Pine, before taking the bus back to Chester (halfway point), was perfect.  Breakfast at Alabama Hills Cafe was awesome.  They also have fresh baked goods where I eyed a cinnamon roll as big as my head.  I ordered it to go.  The Dow Villa motel had a DVD player in our room with movies to borrow.  Loran came over and the three of us spent the afternoon in our air conditioned room watching movies.  Well,  they watched movies and I napped.  It was 100 degrees outside.  I'm sure we will have plenty of hiking days up North in this heat.  

The next morning we caught the bus for our long trip back to Chester.  12 hours and 3 buses later we arrived.  Shadow settled in the motel room while I went to buy some fresh fruit for snacks.  This morning we ate at the Kopper Kettle Diner where the owner remembered us from last time.  This time we are heading North and it feels so good to be moving in the right direction.  Chester is a small logging town with super friendly people.  The second truck that passed picked us up.  He was a retired school teacher driving a 1970's truck.  He stopped by his house to pick up his dog and tell his wife where he was going.  He was full of great information about the local area.  We arrived at the trailhead to meet another trail angel.  Her daughter had hiked the PCT a few years back and ever since she has been placing food and drinks along the trail for hikers.

I have no idea why, but our first day out of town always stinks.  We feel tired and a little sick.  The sick feeling reminds me of the TV show Survivor.  You know that the contestants that get a reward of "real" food get sick.  Maybe that's our problem or it could be lack of sleep while we are in town.  Between the TV, our phones, and the artificial light, we stay up late.  We have programmed our bodies to wake with the sun so sleeping in never seems to work.  Our later departure from this town allowed us to only hike 15 miles which was just fine with us.  We made it to the Lassen National Park boundary and camped by a creek.  We hope to get a good nights rest and use our training from the Sierras to put in some big miles as we continue heading toward Canada.

Is it too soon to say that I miss the Sierras?  We are hiking 7,000-9,000 feet lower in elevation.  Just low enough to be hot.  Our excitement about sending our bear boxes home was short lived as well.  The 2lbs we lost is now replaced with 6.3lbs of water.  Even more water weight tomorrow.  Most of the day was spent hiking in Lassen National Forest.  We passed Terminal Geyser that was continuously spewing steam.  Next was a pond of boiling grey mud.  

Between the fire in 2012 and the low snow year, Lassen has lost lots of trees along our trail.  A trail crew was hard at work clearing the way.  After lunch by a beautiful lake, Shadow and I loaded up with 3 liters of water each for a 12 mile dry section through a shadeless burn section.  It was hot, but we made it through feeling much better than the day before.  We camped at Hat Creek.  The creek was full of lava rocks and the water was cool.  Not icy cold like the Sierras.  I washed my feet off and started dinner.  Shadow came back up from the creek and told me to check for leaches.  Great...leaches...

One of the things I like the most about the PCT is that you can rinse out your sock before bed and by morning they are dry.  Today our goal was to tackle Hat Creek Rim.  A 30-mile waterless stretch through a burn area (no shade).  Nothing but sage and rattlesnakes.  Temperatures here were suppose to hit 100 degrees this week.  The Hat Creek Rim section is notorious on the PCT for being hot and dry.  We camped 8 miles from the 1,000 foot climb up to the rim.  There was a gas station and diner a half mile off so we went in for a late breakfast and grabbed some extra water bottles.  Shadow ordered french toast with strawberries and whipped cream.  The waitress came back with extra whipped cream.  I couldn't even see the toast.  He then topped it with raspberry syrup.   

The last few days the trail has had fine particles of ash and lava rocks.  The rocks hurt your feet and the ash gets everywhere!  Little puffs of red and orange ash clouds around our feet with each step.  Our plan was to hike till the heat of the day, find a shady spot and wait till the evening to walk more.  We found a nice spot with 3 trees and were enjoying the view down the valley.  The sun was hot.  We had noticed some clouds building, but didn't think it was going help us much.  We were wrong.  After about 30 minutes the sky was covered and we had nice shade with a breeze and decided to start walking again.  

We had heard there might be a water cache halfway through, but didn't want to rely on it.  There was a side trail that would take you back down to the valley with a creek.  We chose to refill our 4.5 liters (10lbs of water) of water there.  25 miles into our day we found the cache with water and a flat spot to sleep.  We have never been this dirty out here.  The orange ash/dirt is all over us and our stuff.  No extra water to wipe down tonight though.  I hope we don't have anymore long dry sections.  Carrying 10lbs of extra water makes a big difference on my morale.  

Today started out more like a National Geographic show about the Serengeti.  Tall dead grass with few trees looking over a cliff on onto an old lava bed.  I imagined a Cheetah lounging under a tree while a herd of Zebra roamed in the distance.  We finished the Hat Creek Rim walk and descended to the lava bed below.  Today was definitely not our favorite day on the PCT, however the temperature was nice and very little elevation change.  Just after lunch we came across some awesome trail magic. A couple that lives a quarter mile away has set up a makeshift hiker hangout.  Fully equipped with solar shower, propane grill, snacks, and drinks.  What more could you ask for?  We shipped ourselves a box to Burney Falls State Park, so after a couple sodas we pushed on the last 7 miles to the park.  It's July 3rd and people were everywhere.  Shadow and I sat our packs down and went inside to order food.  There were so many people curious about what we were doing.  I felt like an alien.  After resupplying from our mail drop, we walked to the hiker camping area while eating a soft serve chocolate ice cream cone.  Yum!

This morning we saw Burney Waterfall.   It was different than any other waterfall I've seen.  Some of the water comes from a creek above, but the rest comes through holes in the lava rock.  The falls look as though they should be in Hawaii and not N. California.  Today was a pretty boring day.  We are in logging country and the trail undulates up and down while sidling the mountain edge similar to the Appalachian Trail.  We crossed numerous dirt roads and miles of scarred forest.  Not a lot of photos taken today.

I tried to conserve water last night and didn't give the mac and cheese  noodles enough water so we had clammy noodles. 

Around 4am we woke to distant thunder and lightning.  As morning came so did the storm.  Unlike the storm the other day, this one had rain.  The temperature was warm and we didn't mind getting wet.  We needed a bath.  The thunder would roar and echo through the next valley.  There was no strong wind and was oddly peaceful walking under it.  By lunch the rain had stopped the the sun was beginning to show.  Today was a much better day than yesterday.  Today we followed a ridge line so we had some views rather than being stuck in the trees.  The best view was of Mt. Shasta.  Due to private land owner issues the trail makes a sweeping Western turn before you get to Shasta.  We will end up seeing this mountain for 300 miles as we circumnavigate.  

After 27 miles today we found ourselves at Butcherknife Creek.  Don't ask me about the name.  I have no idea, but it's perfectly nuzzled back in a hollow with a great flat spot.  

Today was another day in the trees.  Passing old logging roads.  We didn't complain too much because the trees gave us the shade from the heat.  Twice we stopped to dunk our shirts and hats in creek water to cool off.  Before lunch we descended down to McCloud River.  A beautiful milky turquoise color from glacial runoff.  We cruised through the rest of the day and made it 9 miles outside of town.