Nero day to Nero day(D-66: 1323.4 - 1331.3, D-67: 1331.3 - 1346.3, D-68: 1346.3 - 1375.3, D-69: 1375.3 - 1406.9, D-70: 1406.9 - 1427.8)
NOTE: Some of you may have noticed that my GPS tracker map has not updated for the last few days. Rest assured that I am still on the trail and am hiking & not slacking off. The Spot Gen 4 tracker stopped working and the company had to send a replacement as it was under warranty. Unfortunately they goofed up and sent it to somebody else. Anyway, they had to send another unit and that one is on its way to me. I should get it in the next 4-5 days and the tracker map will once again be online. Some of you noticed a check-in from San Ramon - that was just a test and can be ignored.
Day 66 was going into town day... yaaaaaay 😀. Somehow, getting into town or even to a small store is still very exciting to almost all thru-hikers, even if one had been in town just a couple of days ago. And if you are going to stay in town, it is doubly exciting. In this case, Chester was the town and we were staying overnight. Had to stay anyway, since my resupply box was at the post office and it was closed on Day 66 (Monday) as it was a Juneteenth federal holiday. Sent a text to a local trail angel for a morning ride and she quickly & positively responded. DriveThru (see pic below) picked up 6 of us (though I had requested a ride for only 2) at the trailhead, showed us around the town of Chester and then dropped us off near a restaurant. Her son had done the PCT thru-hike in 2019 and this was her way to pay-it-forward as well as to make thru-hikers feel welcome in Chester. These trail angels are amazing people!
Three of us went to have breakfast at the Kopper Kettle and at the end of it, found out that one of the other patrons in the restaurant had already paid for our breakfast! Never had that happen to me before 😀.
Other typical Nero day activities like grocery shopping, lots of eating, fixing gear, laundry etc. followed, as well as resupply box pick up at the PO the next day. Also sent a box of food each to the next 2 towns.
On Day 67 late morning, we headed back to the trailhead and very quickly got a ride from a young woman in her van, which she was in the process of converting it into a living space so that she could live in it. One of the reasons that she and her partner were doing the van-life thingy 'cos housing had become so expensive.
From the trailhead, it was a short hiking day as we could only go 15 miles and had to camp at the boundary of the Lassen National Park since all overnight camping within the Park required a bear canister. A bunch of hikers camped at the boundary as none of us were carrying a bear canister any longer.
Day 68 was hiking through the Lassen Volcanic National Park and we passed a couple of interesting sights.
Geyser video link Terminal Geyser - not exactly a shooting-in-the-air kind of geyser, but it does steam impressively
Obviously, the reeking smell of sulphur permeated these areas, though it was not for more than a few miles. The bigger issue was the burnt area that we were passing through - pretty much for all of Lassen National Park - and that was depressing as well as not ideal as the day was hot and there was absolutely no shade for miles.
Passed by a couple of lakes that were the only redeeming feature during the day of hiking through burnt areas.
At last, the day ended on a nice note when we camped near a trailhead that had a nice picnic table (pictured above) for having dinner, cold water spigots and even really clean & nice smelling pit toilets (not pictured) 🙂
Day 69 was a good illustration of "be careful of what you wish for". As you know the first part of the hike was in the desert and after a few weeks of that, I started wishing for the Seirras to start with cooler temps and no water concerns. Seirras was definitely that except that it was too much of both. It was very cold and almost everyday I had water & snow crossings that left my feet wet. Then I started thinking desert was not so bad and it would be nice to have some trail like that again. Well, my wish came true and the last couple of days, it has been a very dry trail and hikers have had to start planning for water and determine where the water sources are again. In fact, there was a 18 mile stretch without any water yesterday. And all of those 18 miles were on the mountain ridge without any shade & the temps were in the mid-80s F (30 C).
The only redeeming feature was that one could see snow -covered Mt Shasta in the far off distance.
Finally camped near a water stream and there were tons of mosquitoes 😏
Today (Day 70) was a planned Nero day. Had to get into Burney town to pick up resupply boxes and then head back to the trail. Got an early morning hitch from a 66-year-old fly fisherman from the Bay Area, whom we gladly treated to breakfast at Burney as he was able to join us. Got the resupply box and loaded up with food for the next 3-4 days and it was back on the trail. It was another hot day (high 80s), which was energy sapping. Limited water sources too. The next 4-5 days is going to be like this. Oh well!
Data:
D-66
D-67
D-68
D-69
D-70
Comments
I'm still surprised each time you speak about trail angels. Pickup and drop, free food, pay for breakfast - that's very open hearted community service. Almost Buddhist way. Humanity exists.