Which Way Is North?

PCT Mile 1,416.5, Burney Falls State Park to PCT Mile 1,434.4 Day Total: 17.9 miles I'm going to start with the end of the day. That was the most memorable part and not for any good reasons. Tonight after we set up the tent, we were making dinner as usual. Just as Stephen was taking the pot full of dinner (Spanish rice) off the stove, I saw a huge ant crawling up my hand and about to go into my sleeve, so I flung it. But I also, without realizing, gasped and that spooked Stephen, causing him to spill half of our precious dinner.  I felt like a doofus. It was an ant! We've been living outside for almost three months and I freaked out about an ant on my hand. Regardless, my freakout caused Stephen to spill dinner. We were in a bad situation. We were down half of our dinner of course, but more importantly, we also had a pile of Spanish rice on the ground in bear country. It was dark. Do we pack everything up and move? We decided to clean it up the best we co...

PCT Mile 1,391.1 to PCT Mile 1,416.5, Burney Falls State Park Day Total: 25.4 miles We filled up with enough water at the tank to make it the remaining 14 miles of this long dry stretch and walked more than five miles before stopping for a big breakfast under a juniper tree overlooking the valley. We had heard that we could see Mount Shasta from here, but the haze from wildfire smoke made it so we couldn't see the far side of the valley. We planned to get to Burney Falls State Park by the end of the day to pick up a resupply package we had sent ourselves. Knowing that the box had enough food for the next 80 miles, we knew we could eat everything we were carrying right now. What a fun challenge! Stephen had warned me before we started this trip that it would get to the point where we had to always ration food. That we would get to a point where we would, at any moment, want to eat everything we were carrying and we would spend every day fighting that urge. But today, we ...

PCT Mile 1,363.4 to PCT Mile 1391.1, Cache 22 on Hat Creek Rim Day Total: 27.7 miles Today was hands down the flattest day on the trail yet. We had some gradual downhill in the morning, mostly through pine forests. In the afternoon we climbed a tiny little incline to the infamous hot, dry Hat Creek Rim . It's a 30-mile waterless stretch that is mostly exposed and very hot. It was like being back in the desert. Fortunately, we had gotten word that the water tank halfway through the 30 mile stretch (which had been dry for the last month) had recently been filled. The highlight of the day was a short side trail to explore Subway Cave , a huge lava tube that we walked all the way through. It was pleasantly cool inside, like natural air conditioning. I could've taken a nap in there if it hadn't been so busy with hikers. In other news, Stephen has lost so much weight that the buckles on his hip belt are touching. When backpacking, most of the weight of our packs r...

PCT Mile 1,338.2 to PCT Mile 1,363.4, just outside of Lassen NP Day Total: 25.2 miles Today we walked all the way through Lassen Volcanic National Park ! We had seen Mount Lassen for several days towering over the other smaller mountains around it. I had been looking forward to the park for a while because some people say it's like a miniature Yellowstone. Today we got to see why. This year Lassen started requiring backpackers to have a bear canister and unfortunately we had sent ours to a friend 300 miles back after leaving Yosemite, because it wasn't required anymore. Our options were to have it mailed back to us, to camp in the national park campground four miles north of the park boundary, or to hike the 19.3 PCT miles through the park in one day. We chose the third option. It made for a pretty long day, but enjoyable nonetheless. The highlights were seeing Terminal Geyser and Boiling Lake. Terminal Geyser isn't really a geyser. It's a steam vent, but it...

PCT Mile 1,328.8, Chester to PCT Mile 1,338.2 Day Total: 9.4 miles I felt great after sleeping in late in a real bed. Stephen got up early and went to the laundromat to wash all of our clothes for the first time since Reno. He also stopped by the post office to pick up two very important packages – our new shoes! This is my fourth pair of trail runners on this hike. The most recent pair that I'm retiring today lasted nearly 600 miles and only started to look beat up in the last week. They felt great and hadn't given me any blisters or any problems at all, so I ordered the same model again. Stephen, on the other hand, did not have a great relationship with his last pair of shoes. They were out to get him, he says. Fingers crossed that his new shoes will solve all the problems. I took a warm bath, which felt luxurious and worked wonders for my aching legs. I sorted through some photos and got caught up on some blog entries. We ate lunch with another hiker named 45 ...

PCT Mile 1,298.0 to PCT Mile 1328.8, Chester Day Total: 30.8 miles What a day. Woof. Today was exciting and big, but I am totally and completely exhausted. We got up early and packed up in quickly. It was chilly and we enjoyed the first five miles of mostly downhill hiking in our jackets. We passed the 1,300 mile mark and stopped for a few photos, knowing that wasn't going to be the only major landmark we passed today. We got to Cold Springs, a water source about 100 yards off the trail, and filled up. I noticed on the map app that the next two springs were each .3 miles off the PCT, and then the one after that was .7. I know we've walked 1,300 miles, but adding .7 miles EACH WAY for water seemed insurmountable. So instead we decided to carry enough to go 22 miles to the next creek that crosses the trail. That much water is heavy, but we are heading into town tonight, so we aren't carrying much food. We decided it was worth saving that little distance. We wa...