Day 60 (July 8th)
Mile 1332.4 – mile 1347.7
Today: 15.3 miles
Total PCT: 892.4 miles
We are camped at the edge of Lassen Volcanic National Park. A bear canister is required to camp within the park boundaries, so we chose to camp just outside and we will hike through the park tomorrow. Because of these logistics, we had a nice short day today! We slept in (’till 7:30!), had a bit of a slow morning, and then went out for lunch before heading back to trail.
After leaving the restaurant, we got a hitch quite quickly with the same man who drove Thunder into town yesterday. He only had space for 3 in his open-top jeep, so he drove Corpse, Thunder and I and offered to also go back and pick up Salty and another hiker afterwards! So kind!
Back on trail, we continued to hike through the remnants of the Dixie fire, which we have been hiking through for about 5 days now. The burns are so heartbreaking to walk through– thousands of dead, burnt trees. Every hitch we take mentions the fires and evacuations and hopes that this year will be better. The burns are also problematic on a purely logistical level– they provide no shade, bridges and other infrastructure also burned, and the dead trees are dangerous to camp near. It was with relief that we hiked back into living forest.
About 6 miles from camp, we crossed a river that was deep enough to wade into, so we all went for a little dip. Even only 9 miles into our hiking day, we were already filthy and appreciated a rinse. Tonight we are camping on a grassy hill with several other hikers. Though we were hounded by mosquitoes, we still sat down to enjoy our evening meal together.
Day 61 (July 9th)
Mile 1347.7 – mile 1370.8
Today: 23.1 miles
Total PCT: 915.5 miles
If I didn’t know the smell of sunshine on burned wood, I surely do now. Hiking through Lassen Volcanic National Park felt like a vacation. It was flat, beautiful, and included several exciting side trails to geysers and sulphur lakes. But sadly, the park did burn in the Dixie fire, and there were few living trees still standing in the park. The smell of burnt trees is a melancholy smell, but I do think it will always remind me of the adventures we are having here in NorCal.
Once we got hiking this morning, we quickly came to our first side quest! We hiked down a short side trail to see Terminal Geyser– a 1.5 meter high geyser surrounded by a geothermal steam vent. It was so cool to pass by such.a unique sight on trail. A few miles later we came to Boiling Lake, a sulphuric lake with geothermic vents on one side, causing the water to boil. Here we dropped out packs and enjoyed a 20 minute side trail around the lake to get a closer look at the boiling. After these too touristic stops, we started our true day of hiking, stopping for lunch and a swim at a wonderful little lake.
As we sat enjoying our lunch we watched dozens of dragonfly niaids crawl out of the lake and begin their metamorphosis into dragonflies. Looking closely at the grass at the edges of the lake we could see several delicate, newly emerged dragonflies, come to help eat the mosquitos that plague us. It was a really cool lunch spot– and a wonderful swimming spot. It was so nice to move my body in a different way than hiking. Splashing around in the water really made it feel like summer.
As we are our lunch, we were joined by our new friend, Lost and Found (from France). It is so nice to continue to meet new people on trail! Lost and Found and a lot of the folks we are meeting these days actually have managed a continuous hike from Mexico to here through the Sierras. Most of them started in March or early April and hiked through the Sierras during the relatively safe ‘Secret Season’, when the way was still frozen and the river crossings weren’t rushing with record snow melt.
After lunch we had an exposed hike through land that was once forest with beautiful views of Mount Lassen in the distance. The trees had mostly burned away to nothing but black sparkling ash that filled my shoes and coated my legs. When I arrived at where we had decided to camp at 6pm it felt like it had been a short easy day, despite nearly 12 hours since I had started hiking in the morning. The long, restorative lunch break, the scenery, and the touristic side trails were all amazing parts of my day. At camp we had three friends join us– all from Germany and Austria (Cowboy, Magic Hobbit, and Yavol)! We joked that the official language for our dinner conversation should be German with 4 native German speakers and only 2 native English speakers!
This was a really wonderful day and I hope that NorCal continues to give us lots of new friends and beautiful places to swim!
Day 62 (July 10th)
Mile 1370.8 – mile 1394.7
Today: 23.9 miles
Total PCT: 939.4 miles
Lately I have been thinking about how lucky I am. I am so lucky to be on trail. So lucky to have an amazing partner and family supporting me. So lucky to have met such an awesome group of people to hike with. And so lucky to have incredible friends who will go out of their way on their roadtrip to see me. My friends Quinn, Cam, Zoe and Connor from Ontario, were wonderful trail angels for me and my friends today! They are road tripping the west coast right now, and (luckily for me) the timing worked out for them to drive right up to my campsite for the night for a visit! It was so lovely to see familiar faces! The last time I saw Cam and Quinn was before their big move out west in the summer of 2021(?). It was really such a pleasure to see them!
It was a big group of hikers at camp today– maybe about ten of us! But our trail angels had enough beer for everyone and also shared some fruit and veggies! Us hiker were all drawn to this spot because it is the first water after a 16 mile water carry. We had a very dry, exposed, but wonderfully flat hike this afternoon. The morning was much greener and took us through some very interesting volcanic landscapes. About 8 miles into our day we took a short side trip into Old Station to hike through a lava tube– the remnants of volcanoes from thousands of years ago.
Just a few days ago, I was starting to feel like trail life had gotten a bit monotonous, but in the past few days I have gotten to swim, explore interesting geology, meet new people and reconnect with old friends. The trail really does provide! My heart is full.
As a bonus, here are some cool pictures of a beetle I found in Old Station!
Day 63 (July 11th)
Mile 1394.7 – mile 1412.4
Today: 17.7 miles
Total PCT: 957.1 miles
The trail has been so flat lately- but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy! Yesterday it was over 40 degrees Celsius and the trail was covered in ankle breaking walks for much of our 17.7 miles. Still, we were motivated by an evening in town, so we woke up early and hustled all morning– arriving in the little town of Burney by just after noon. So much time to do chores!
Our first stop was lunch and I got a Beyond Burger– Hallelujah! I’ve been really feeling like I need the protein, so I was super happy with this meal. Next we headed to the Word of Life Church which has a reputation for hosting hikers. They were amazing! They let hikers sleep in their gymnasium, provide town clothes for while we’re doing laundry, let us shower in their facilities– they even made mac and cheese for everyone and gave us free Italian sodas! It’s been a magical place. The gym had a few private classrooms upstairs, so the Tramily plus our friend Lost and Found (from France) claimed one of those rooms. Then we had wonderful hot showers (with shampoo and conditioner!) and donned our town clothes to go do laundry and groceries.
I made myself some perogies in the church kitchen, and then we and about six other hikers all headed out to the local dive bar/ bowling alley. We wanted to bowl, but there was a league going on, so we just had a drink and enjoyed each other’s company. It’s a lot more fun to have ten hikers in one place when we have all showered!
