August 1 – August 7, 2022

Total Distance: 85.6 miles

Album of the Week: Aqualung / Jethro Tull (Prog Rock)

The second week out on the trail in Northern California was defined by fire, both wildfire and volcanic tuff from ancient lava flows, and how these events, recent and historic, have changed the environment and my perspective on nature and life. Each day presented long uphill and downhill climbs, more volcanic rock protrusions as the transition to the Cascades became more prominent, views of Lassen Peak to the north, and a ton of charcoal trees in every direction as the trail meandered through the Dixie Fire burn area.

But even among the sheer destruction of fire, which blazed so hot that metal signs were warped in some areas, life continues to cling and find a way. Many flowers and small bushes were growing even in the most ashen parts of the burn area, and in some places small pine tree saplings could be seen poking from the soot-stricken ground. And just like new life springing from the gray desolation, my hike felt like it had sprung from the grave as I gained more confidence in my body and hiking abilities this week.

Indeed, some hikers saw the poetic similarity as well and had bestowed the trail name of “Phoenix” upon me. Actually, the name suggestion came up last week courtesy of a hiker from Germany, but I didn’t want to accept such a symbolic name until I had regained my strength and felt that further injury was unlikely. Not only did it represent a “rebirth” of my hike and spirit for the trail, taking the name of the legendary bird also represented my tenacity and determination – usually a two-month long recuperation period would cause most people to give up on their hike, so the fact that I tried again surprised some people. For this reason, I am happy to accept the trail name of “Phoenix”. Like most good trail names, it precludes a good backstory, and unlike most trail names, it includes an element of personality to it as well. So starting at the end of this week, I am known as “Phoenix” on trail.

Day 15

camp near Lookout Rock (mile 1260.7) – camp above Belden (mile 1280.3)

After yesterday’s climb out of Middle Fork of the Feather River, I felt pretty exhausted. Not to mention that I didn’t sleep well at all. I felt like I needed a bit of a pick-me-up. So it was quite fortuitous that today was a much easier day than yesterday and had a lot of amazing moments. Indeed, in terms of purely hiking, this was easily my favorite day on trail thus far. And that includes the one week I hiked in the desert.

First of all, the trail left the burn area for the first half of the day – it was nice seeing large groves of live trees again. Then there was a moderate climb up to Spanish Peak, but the climb was shallow and – crucially – the trail followed an old single track most of the way up, meaning the tread of the trail was wide and flat.

Far too often the trail can become a narrow, uneven ledge with a steep slope on one side, which is not great for keeping your balance with a pack. This was especially true in the recent burn zone, though to the credit of the amazing trail crews who have worked on the trail, the fallen trees and washouts in the burn areas have almost completely been removed or repaired. Point being, it was nice to walk on level ground for a change.

Once the trail reached the top of Spanish Peak, the rest of the day was 10 miles of mellow walking near the top of a ridge with fantastic views into lake basins and to mountains in the distance. The sky was overcast the entire day, which made the views a bit more muted, but also made the climbs easier. Still, it was a very scenic day.

Near the end of the day, the trail did re-enter a burn area. This time I believe it to be the Dixie Fire burn. Unlike the Bear Fire, this burn scar contained large areas where everything was completely sterilized, leaving nothing but barren ground and charred logs.

I finished the day by locating probably the best campsite I have found so far. I pitched my tent on top of a shoulder of the ridge overlooking the valley containing Belden and surrounding valleys, right next to a rock outcropping that reminds me of the boulder clumps in Joshua Tree National Park. The view was expensive from here and really breathtaking.

Tomorrow I climb down into Belden, where I will get my final resupply from my parents and prepare for the climb out of the valley on the other side.

Day 16

camp above Belden (mile 1280.3) – Williams Cabin Site (mile 1292.7)

I awoke today to a glorious scene of the mountains with the early morning sun highlighting then perfectly. It was quite a stark difference to the same view yesterday evening when the sky was overcast and the sun barely peeking through.

The first 3 hours of the day were spent descending 4000 vertical feet from the ridge to Belden in the Feather River (north fork) valley. Overall the trail was easy and the views of the valley were superb. Along the way I met a women who was climbing up the trail as part of her training to climb Kilimanjaro. I must say that despite doing a lot of long climbs on the PCT, an adventure like climbing Kilimanjaro seems to be on another level. Much respect to anyone who trains to do those sorts of massive mountaineering feats.

Since we started later in the day, we didn’t make it to camp until 8pm. The terrain was generally easier than the last few days before Chester, which is hopefully a sign that the trail will even out a bit and avoid so many huge climbs. We were still waking though burn area, but there were long sections of live trees today too, indicating the patchiness of the fire in this northern section of the burn. There were also periodic views of Lassen Peak, inching ever closer.

After reaching the bottom, I cooled off my feet in the river and went on the short road walk to Belden resort. Belden is not so much a town as a small RV park / restaurant / bar / store combination in one main building. They also sold showers, which I gladly took advantage of after getting a cold beverage.

Ultimately, I met my parents at Belden around noon for my last “free” resupply. I say “free” because they had to drive 3 hours each direction through construction from their campsite to meet me, so they couldn’t really do any other activities today. Though this is part of the reason they had planned their camping trip in the first place, to assist me a bit on the hike. We grabbed lunch at the restaurant and caught up a bit, but eventually they had to leave, so we said our farewells for what may be several months, since it is fairly unlikely I will see them again on my hike. In any case I enjoyed the time we spent camping and hiking and discussing life over the last 2-3 weeks.

I was one of several hikers waiting in Belden for the heat of the day to pass before starting the often feared uphill on the north side of the valley. This climb is nearly 6000 vertical feet over 14 miles, so doing it on one day or in the middle of the day is not recommended. While waiting, I saw One Liner, a German fellow I had leapfrogged with since I began over a week ago, and Nirvana, a hiker I had met a couple days ago, along with some new faces.

I left Belden at slightly before 6pm, which sounds late, but it actually turned out to be the perfect time to start the climb because the sun was behind the mountain and temperatures manageable for most of the 6 miles / 2200 vertical feet that I hiked after leaving Belden. I arrived at camp at 8:45, meaning this was the first night in this section that I had to set up my tent in the dark. The majority of the climb follows the Chipps Creek valley, which houses a pretty massive creek that, provided great noise to fall asleep to tonight.

Tomorrow I get to tackle the remaining 3600 vertical feet of the climb from Belden. Wish me luck, it will be a doozy!

Day 17

Williams Cabin Site (mile 1292.7) – camp near Humboldt Peak (mile 1310.9)

Oh boy, the rest of the massive climb stared me in the face when I got up this morning. It was not a particularly big motivator to get going, but I knew it would be easier to get the climb done in the morning before the heat got out of control, so I began hiking around 7:15.

The climb was actually not as difficult as I thought it would be – it was just constant for a very long distance. Thankfully, a lot of the climb was forested, though some of the forest was burned, so there was usually shade to hide behind. Also thankfully, there was plentiful water. Chipps Creek and it’s tributary streams seemed to cross the trail about every 1/4 mile for the first 5 or 6 miles, and a lot of these streams and creeks were quite large with nice waterfalls and cascades.

About 2 miles from the top, there was a sign in the middle of a meadow that designated the end of the Sierra Nevada and the beginning of the Cascade range. So this was the “official” border, though to my eyes it wasn’t a very significant cutoff point for the two ranges. I’m sure there is some geological significance to why the ranges are divided along a particular line, but standing in that meadow, both sides looked the same to me. Though as I’ve said earlier on, there have been signs of the gradual transition to the Cascades over 100 miles south of here.

On the hillside a few miles from the top, I met a crew of trail workers cutting burnt logs in half and removing them from the trail. I graciously thanked them for their hard work, since the trail has been more or less easy to navigate through the burn sections because of the work of maintenance crews like them.

I reached the top after about 5 hours of hiking, and my feet were utterly exhausted. I ended up doing and additional 10 miles after the uphill, but every 2 or 3 miles I had to stop to massage my feet back into shape. My feet have been getting tired more quickly in general over the last few days, so I think they are looking forward to the stop in Chester in a couple days.

I camped along a ridge near Humboldt Peak (no relation to the Colorado 14er) surrounded by volcanic rock outcropping and with a magnificent view of Lassen Peak, the first of the major Cascade volcanoes, in the distance.

Once again, the local animals decided to play some fun on the unsuspecting PCT hiker. In the evening, while laying in my tent, I heard a low growl-like sound that I thought at first was a bear, but upon going outside and checking, it turned out to be some type of small raptor (I think they were nighthawks, since they were much smaller than normal hawks) diving and making a deep trilling sound while doing so. Sometimes they dive-bombed me or my tent, so the sound was startling. I’ve never seen this type of behavior before, and since it didn’t look like they were diving to hunt mice or anything like that, this may be some sort of courtship display. Very weird but unique phenomena.

Day 18

camp near Humboldt Peak (mile 1310.9) – Soldier Creek (mile 1328)

Today was a bit of a lazy day in a lot of ways, but I wasn’t in much of a rush since I knew it wasn’t realistic to make it to my next resupply stop, Chester, by the end of the day. Even so, I ended up hiking over 17 miles by the end of the day, mostly because there were so few campsites in the burn area I was walking through.

To start my course of laziness, I began hiking a little after 8am today, which is quite late for me, since I usually try to start walking around 7:30. Then after only about a mile of walking, there was some unexpected trail magic at a remote road crossing. Ken, a middle school teacher and birdwatcher from the Chico area to the west, had set up his truck and provided all manner of refreshments, from cookies and baked goods to fresh fruit, boiled eggs, and cold drinks (including Kombucha!). Me, Nirvana, and Something Else spent about 40 minutes having “second breakfast” with Ken and discussing various things both PCT and non-PCT related. It was a nice break and morale boost, especially on a day when I have a specific destination or goal in mind. Thanks you for your generosity Ken!

Then I spent about 40 minutes on a high point on the ridge where I had some cell service calling around at hotels in Chester and getting a reservation for tomorrow night. I wanted to stay in Chester for two nights, but there was only availability on August 5th. On the night of August 6th, I will need to see if I can camp out somewhere in town.

The hiking today consisted of going up and down a ridge covered in cool volcanic rock outcroppings. There were a lot of great views of Lassen Peak from up on the ridge as the trail got progressively closer to the gigantic mountain.

Around 4pm, I arrived along with some other hikers at the halfway marker, which is a monument commemorating the halfway point of the PCT between Mexico and Canada. This means there is about 1325 miles south to Mexico and an equal distance of 1325 miles north to Canada. Of course, since I had to skip so much of the trail, this isn’t really the halfway point of my hike, but it is a cool landmark to take a picture with regardless!

Tonight was the first night where I was basically forced to camp under burned trees, for lack of any safer options for camping. It was eerie hearing branches cracking and falling every 30 or so minutes throughout the night, though I made sure that no large dead branches were directly over my tent. When doing a long-distance hike you certainly take a lot of measured risks, but camping under burned trees is one risk I would love to avoid in the future.

Day 19

Soldier Creek (mile 1328) – CA Highway 36 (mile 1331.3), hitch into Chester, CA

I knew this was going to be an easy day, since I only had about 3 miles to walk to Highway 36 to get a ride into Chester. So I woke up a bit later than normal once again, since I just wanted to get to Chester by lunch time.

The walking was mostly an easy finish to descending the hill from yesterday and a leisurely stroll across a meadow, very simple morning. A lot of the land coming up to the highway was private property owned by local ranches and Collins Pine, the local lumber company. The lumber company was doing a lot of work in the area near the highway clearing out dead trees, so there was a lot of heavy machinery and trucks about when I got to the highway around 9am.

The hitch into Chester should in theory be easy since there is a lot of traffic on Hwy 36, but maybe I was unlucky or looked a bit ruffles because it took me nearly 2 hours of holding my thumb out for someone to stop. The person who offered me a ride, an older fellow named Don, was a chance trail angel of sorts, because he had never heard of the PCT and thought the idea of hiking it was crazy. He was on his way to Reno, so Chester was on the way. After a short 10 minute drive, we arrived in Chester and Don dropped me off near my hotel. Moreso than a lot of other people I have gotten rides from, I especially appreciate Don’s help because he showed some kindness to a stranger despite having zero knowledge or preconceptions of the trail like a lot of locals in nearby towns.

Anyway, now in town, it was time to get to business with some chores – the first of which was finding a place for lunch. This proved quite easy because Pine Shack Frosty, the local burger and shake joint, was just down the street. This place has over 30 flavors of shakes, and all of the fruit flavored shakes have pieces of real fruit in them. Along with a burger and fries, I got a coconut pineapple shake. The shake was excellent, the burger was probably better than similar fast food style burger chains like Five Guys or In N Out, but the real standout were the fries. The fries were probably in the top ten fries I’ve had, they were very good.

After satisfying my craving for hot food, I went across the street to the laundromat to start cleaning my smelly, dirty, grimy clothes. While my clothes were washing, I worked a little on my blog post for week 2 (week 1 since restarting the PCT), and chatted with two fellow hikers also waiting on their laundry.

After laundry was grocery shopping at the local market, which surprisingly was a full supermarket called Holiday Market complete with a deli and bakery. It was quite easy to find a full resupply there, along with some fruits, vegetables, and hummus to snack on the next few days. I also got some more ibuprofen, which I have been taking each day to counteract any swelling or pain ahead of it getting out of control.

Finally, with most of my chores completed, I went to my hotel room, took a much needed shower, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, eating hummus, and drinking beer (there were no breweries in town, so I opted to purchase some beer instead. I needed to celebrate my birthday after-the-fact somehow!)

Day 20

Zero day in Chester, CA

Hooray for my first zero! No walking required today! Well, apart from the walking around town to finish chores and get food and whatnot. Thankfully, I finished most of my chores yesterday, so I could mostly relax and explore the town.

It should be noted that, when driving through, Chester is not much to look at. It’s mostly a strip of old, rundown buildings with some newer, charming businesses sprinkled here and there. It’s also not super walkable, unlike some smaller trail towns. One pretty awesome part of Chester is the town park, though, and it was here I decided to spend a good deal of the afternoon today while I waited for my second hotel room to be ready (I decided to fork out the money for a 2nd night in a hotel instead of trying to find someplace to set up my tent).

While at the park, I saw one hiker who I shared a beer with, but they didn’t hang out for long. Then, an amazing man called Larry came over and ate lunch at the table I was sitting at while inquiring about my journey. Larry was a speaker at the local church, and while I am not religious, I could tell that Larry was definitely on the side of using his religion for improving lives instead of controlling them. He was intrigued about the trail and how the fire area was to walk through – the Lake Almanor area was affected hard by the Dixie Fire, so it was interesting to hear the perspective of a local who lived through that ordeal last summer. Thank you Larry for keeping me company and sharing your story with me!

For dinner today I decided to try out a Chinese place in town called Happy Garden. This was definitely the correct decision because Happy Garden had some of the best Chinese food I had had for the $10-$20 price range. The quality was honestly surprising for such a small rural town, but I am glad that I could have such an excellent meal before I headed back onto trail.

Day 21

CA Highway 36 (mile 1331.3), hitch out of Chester, CA – Boundary Spring (mile 1346.3)

After enjoying the provided breakfast at the hotel including we eggs, sausage, gravy, and fresh fruit, I took one last shower, packed everything up into my backpack once more, and exited the hotel to begin the search for a ride back to the trail.

As I began trying to hitchhike, I ran into another hiker also trying to hitch, Dusty. She had a group she was hiking with but was trying to hitch separately since hitching in a large group is difficult. After about 15 minutes of trying to hitch, Dusty called a local trail angel and asked if she could provide a ride back to the trail. The trail angel, known as Ten Essentials, could provide a ride to me, Dusty, and the other four in her group, but we would have to wait about an hour and a half. No big deal. We waited at a local Dutch-owned coffee shop that served excellent coffee, tea, and pastries. I got a chai tea and a piece of quiche for an early lunch. I also chatted a bit more with Dusty, who happens to be a teacher in Merced, CA, right outside Yosemite.

Once Ten Essentials (interesting trail name) was ready for us, we piled into her SUV, with packs on our laps to make room for everyone. After the 10 minute drive to the trailhead, we talked a bit more to our trail angel and then said thank you and farewell and headed on our way. By the time we started hiking, it was a little after noon.

The goal for today was to make it 15 miles to Boundary Spring, which is right outside the entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park and has multiple campsites nearby. Why was it important to get to this spring today? To setup the hiking for tomorrow as efficiently as possible. Lassen NP is one of a few areas on trail that, due to high use, requires bear canisters while camping inside the park. Most hikers do not carry their bear canisters this far north, though, since the last place that requires them before this is the Desolation Wilderness over 200 miles south of here. If you don’t have a bear canister, you are required to hike the entire 19.5 miles through the national park in a single day, so it is important to get as close as possible the night before.

I ended up hiking a bit with Dusty’s group, which included another guy from California, a guy from Virginia, a dude from England, and a girl from Australia. Though they were good company, especially Dusty, it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to become a permanent part of their group. Overall this isn’t a problem since I enjoy hiking to my own schedule and pace, but it is an example of how even out on the trail, especially this far into the journey, people tend towards tribalism and excluding those they don’t know, which is a bit saddening.

Since we started later in the day, we didn’t make it to camp until 8pm. The terrain was generally easier than the last few days before Chester, which is hopefully a sign that the trail will even out a bit and avoid so many huge climbs. We were still waking though burn area, but there were long sections of live trees today too, indicating the patchiness of the fire in this northern section of the burn. There were also periodic views of Lassen Peak, inching ever closer.