Sun. Sept. 18      Miles today: 25.3          Total so far: 2,258.6        No. CA Section N        Miles to go: 381!

Brrr!  It was COLD last night!  And very windy, too!  I was hoping the wind would blow away the clouds–and it did! It was a beautiful clear morning, and an almost-full moon made getting up easy.  A little while after we started walking, we heard a gunshot–hope it was on target!  When we stopped for breakfast, Bill was able to eat all of his without having to choke it down.  He saai he was feeling better, and he was certainly able to hike a bit faster today.  We heard more gunshots as we did the big circumnavigation of the Ruffa Ranch valley and began to climb Butt Mountain.  It has an ugly name, but fabulous views of Mt. Lassen, and far to the west we could se the Sacramento Valley.  To the south was big, blue Lake Almanor.  Wow!

We finally reached the summit, and even though it was 9:30 am, there was still frost on the plants, and Bill and I were still in our woolies.  Brrrr.  Then came the descent, and that was a challenge!  The trail was so overgrown, especially with the tall kind of manzanita, that we had to push and bully our way through the tough branches.  Ow!  I don’t know how the hikers in shorts can handle this.  I love my long pants–I wouldn’t want MY legs all scraped and scratched.  We were a little worried, though, because tall manzanita is a favorite place for deer to hide, and we hoped NOT to be mistaken for deer!  Bill has a RED pack, so he was sort of OK.  I tied my red bandana on top of my pack, and we did some praying for God’s protection from over zealous, trigger-happy hunters!  We are not down on hunters–we think that what they do is just fine–but sometimes an inexperienced hunter can make mistakes.  We don’t want to be a part of anyone’s mistakes!

We finally reached our next water supply at Soldier Creek, a wonderful, clean, cold spring.  And what was really fun, somebody had made a mini-waterwheel that when it’s properly rigged, will run off the spring flow.  Very cute!  A long, dusty forest walk after that took us to Hwy. 36, whizzing with cars and trucks.  Technically, this is the halfway point on a Mexico-Canada hike, and lots of thruhikers hitch-hike from here into the town of Chester to celebrate.  But we just plain wanted to finish, and celebrate THEN!  So we scurried across the highway and began walking through a very pretty forest. 

But the afternoon was quite warm, and Bill started fading fast in the heat.  He was very tired and said his stomach was upset and he needed to walk slowly.  So we strolled along toward Stover Spring.  Along the way we passed what’s left (a ditch) of a water delivery system built in the 1870’s to bring water down for hydraulic mining.  Amazing that it is still there!

Stover Spring area had many campers–all hunters.  We passed it by and headed for the climb up Stover Mountain.  It’s not a steep climb–very easy going–which was good, because poor Bill was really dragging.  He did manage to eat a little bit of supper, though, and we began going down toward the Feather River.  I hoped that the downhill would help Bill hike, but at 6:30, Bill sat down and said, “I can’t go on.  I feel awful.”  So (feeling very frustrated, because I’d hoped Bill would be on the mend, not relapsing) I scouted around for a campsite.  When I found one, Bill went straight into his sleeping bag, looking very pale and sick. 

Since it was so early, I had time to read the Bible for awhile, and I asked the Lord for some encouragement.  And He reminded me of the Scripture song (based on Isaiah 40:31) that says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.  They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint–teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord to WAIT.”  I asked the Lord to help me trust Him and not be impatient OR anxious about Bill, and about whether we could finish our PCT hike in time.