Getting off trail wasn't easy before our wedding, and if anything it was much harder to get back on trail afterwards. Basking in the glow of the love of all of our family and friends could only last so long. After three days on trail, it feels like a dream. We're writing from the Burney Mountain Guest Ranch, an oasis in the 100+ degree heat where the proprietor Linda greets hikers with a cup of homemade strawberry ice cream. A different kind of heaven.
In our rush to return our rental car in time to catch the bus from Susanville to Chester, we made a mistake we would only identify once we were eating lunch happily at the Thirsty Trout in Chester. We had left cheese in the fridge of our hotel room in Reno. While this would be frustrating normally, the cheese -- being leftover Cowgirl Creamery cheese from our wedding -- somehow symbolized the last bit of our wedding that would come with us on the trail. And now it was gone. This probably set us back an hour or two in our attempt to start hiking. We were too sad. Besides we now needed to buy replacement cheese.
This is a well, weird, section of trail both as our first section post-wedding and by itself. Northern California is weird. We saw a thermal geyser and a boiling lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park, the subway cave (an cave created by an old lava flow that's a delightful 46 degrees inside), and a fish hatchery, all within 80 miles. We are also now completely in the State of Jefferson. If you haven't heard of the State of Jefferson before you're not alone, we hadn't either until this year. You can read more about it here. The short version: they want their independence as a new state given neglect from California and Oregon. It's a unique part of the West.
Jenny's first geyser
Boiling lake, stay back!
Swimming hole
Subway cave
The last 80 miles are known to be hot and dry, notably around Hat Creek Rim where there is a 29 mile dry stretch. By the end of day three on the trail my new bright blue shorts were caked with dirt, Jenny's pedicure was holding strong but ringed in black, and our legs were nothing short of disgusting. We were able to go for a swim in Lower Twin Lake before the real heat and limited shade kicked in, where we first met Spice and Cap -- part of the trash pick up team. They pick up any trash they find on the trail and throw it out. It's amazing. It's not that Jenny and I don't do our own part, we do, but if we're on day 1 of a 7 day section we're probably not going to pick up broken glass. They do. Heroes. Last note on the heat: while we are now done with the driest stretch, we are on day 3 of a 10 day heat wave in Northern California. The heat is in triple digits for this period. Last night, it was so hot we couldn't sleep in our sleeping bags for the first time on our hike.
It's hot out there, gotta take advantage of any shade
On the rim
Looking back at the rim
Fields of gold
Pedicure is still holding up
Lava field
Luckily, we ran into some awesome trail magic, all of it yesterday on the hottest, driest and most exposed part of the section on Hat Creek Rim. We ran into a couple from Oakland who had hiked the trail in 2013 -- JIT (Just In Time) and Crossover -- who gave us ice cold sodas twice: once at the top of a climb up to the rim, and once halfway to the Forest Road 22N where there is sometimes a water cache. Yesterday, we were even luckier: Coppertone was there. Coppertone hiked the trail in 2006 when 300 people started the trail. In contrast, more than 3,000 people started the trail this year. Coppertone is famous for following the heart of the pack from Deep Creek in the desert, all the way north towards Canada. He splits his time between going on hikes and enjoying the outdoors, and serving up rootbeer floats for hikers. Oh, and he's retired. We hadn't met Coppertone until yesterday. And it was as amazing as it sounds and then some. He had camper chairs, rootbeer floats and fruit. We wanted to stay forever.
Trail magic! Pounding sodas
Instead, we kept walking. One of the more amazing parts of this section is how well our bodies have held up. We walked 29 miles a day for two days in a row, which is pretty much the pace we had left off at.
Next up: Burney Falls itself, and the walk to Shasta. From the top of Hat Creek Rim we could see both Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta and we're excited to get closer to Shasta in the coming weeks.
Near the trout hatchery
Something out of Frozen
Mt Lassen
No comments:
Post a Comment