Day 62: mile 1284.3 - 1312.8
- Volcanoes
- "little venison"
- Powerful Calves & Thighs
No freight trains, and actually got a pretty good nights sleep. My feet and legs were still a bit sore when it was time to get up, and the thought of staying an extra day in Belden briefly crossed my mind. Briefly.
Mighty and I were back to the trailhead by 6:15, where we thanked Brenda Braaten for the hospitality, and started the climb out of Belden. It was about 5,000' of net elevation gain over 13 miles, but most of it was shaded by the morning shadows, making for pretty easy miles. Mighty also has a background in nutrition, and can talk about the subject more than I can, so we found plenty of conversation to make the climb go by even quicker.
Still finding some water out here
One of the few times we weren't in a tree tunnel
When we topped out we had a decent view of distant Lassen Peak, and could also make out another snow-capped mound wayyyyy in the distance. We think it's Mt. Shasta, and man is it a long ways out there. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Shasta over the coming weeks.
Lassen Peak - still a few days away
Early afternoon we hit another milestone - out 1300th mile. Tomorrow we'll be halfway! As we got back on the trail we looked up and saw a spotted fawn standing in the shadows watching us (probably asking its mom what these two-legged critters with those lumps on their backs were) before bounding off. We were trying to figure out if there was a venison equivalent to "veal" and settled on the term "little venison". Now every time I see a fawn I'm going to think of "little venison"...
Poses are more fun when someone can take your picture
In another bid to keep our minds from getting bored, we started playing with acronyms. This portion of the trail has white blazes nailed to many of the trees (which help keep us on trail, especially at unmarked junctions), and in a few cases hikers have taken sharpies and creatively decorated these blazes with PCT acronyms. We came up with quite a few (Cashmere was again hiking with us at this point) but some of my faves were: Powerful Calves & Thighs; Potentially Crazy Travelers; Pooping, Catholes, & Trowels; Physically Challenging Trek; and Personal Chaotic Thoughts. I'm sure we'll think of more in all of our spare time over the coming days 🤔
Still getting the flowers
Northward bound!
Day 63: mile 1312.8 - 1342.4
- My glass is half full
- Highway 36 trail magic
I fell asleep last night to the sound of deer. You could hear them snapping twigs as they walked through camp, and you could hear them chewing as they munched on grass and the shrubs around our tents. I didn't know deer were such noisy eaters.
We knocked out quite a few miles, and our biggest climb of the day (which wasn't saying much) before things got too hot. Once we got to the top of Butt Mountain (no, that isn't a typo...) we had great views of Lassen to the north, and could see forever to the south. The clear skies (no more smoke hanging around) meant we could see the Sierra Buttes, which are over 100 trail miles south of us.
The Sierra Buttes are the little pointy peaks wayyyy out there
Some bushwhacking required
We also hit another milestone this morning: the halfway point. While there is some discrepancy between the officially marked halfway point and the actual halfway point, they are still within about four miles, both of which we passed today. Whichever one you want to use, we now have more miles behind us than ahead of us. And that feels great. Some people seem to get dejected knowing that we are only half way, and while there is still a lot of hiking left to do, I prefer to take the "my glass is half full" approach. Or maybe a few drops more than half full by now 😊
1325 down, 1325 to go!
Then we dropped a bit in elevation, and things got HOT in a hurry. Just after noon we crossed Highway 36, and were met with coolers filled with cold fruit, and water. Just what these thru-hikers needed as a little boost to get through the rest of the day.
A few more ups and downs, a dip in the North Fork of the Feather River, and several snacks later, we had our tents pitched at the end of an almost-thirty-mile-day, setting ourselves up for a short walk to Drakesbad Guest Ranch tomorrow morning for their breakfast buffet. My life revolves around food...
Also, continuing the PCT acronym theme from yesterday, we randomly yelled out these ones throughout the day: Preposterously Curvy Trail; People Challenging Themselves; Patiently Covering Territory
Today's typical trail (I like alliteration)
Day 64.5: mile 1342.4 - 1347.5
- Alarm clocks
- Drakesbad Guest Ranch
To make sure we made it to breakfast, we set alarms for the first time in a while. Silly us. The birds had us awake and moving long before our alarms would have gone off. I love waking up to chirping birds. I just don't like being woken up by chirping birds. Picky, I know.
Boiling springs. We didn't go for a dip here
It was a quick five miles to Drakesbad, where we found Cashmere also waiting for breakfast. The guest ranch has a pretty sweet deal for hikers. They let us sit out on the porch (not inside with the paying guests, which is understandable) and we can get our food only after the guests have been served. Seems fair, since we aren't paying the hundreds of dollars per night to stay at the ranch. I'm pretty sure they lost money on us, because no way could my $12 credit card charge cover all the fruit I ate. And then there were the eggs, oatmeal, and toast...
Doin' what thru-hikers do best
In addition to feeding us and accepting resupply packages (mine was patiently waiting for me), they also had showers that hikers could use, and a pool that is fed by the hot springs in the valley. So a shower and a soak in the warm pool were in order. After relaxing a bit and chatting with some of the guests, Mighty and Cashmere started to get moving again, but I made the mistake (or not?) of sitting down in one of the shaded lawn chairs by the pool. My "half hour" nap turned into two hours really quick. This is the "vortex" that hikers talk about, which sucks you in to towns (if this can be called a "town") and makes it tough to leave. We'll see what happens...
Sometimes we have to rough it out here in the wilderness