Well, all the hikers (including us) had to scramble at around 2am when a light sprinkle of rain blew through, totally unexpected. Bill simply draped our tarp over the net tent we were already in because of the mosquitoes, and  when we got up at 5 am,  all our stuff was dry. The only problem we had was the darkness–it was hard to see the trail when we tried to start hiking.  So we agreed “Looks like the days are getting shorter again–better bump our get-up time to 5:15.” 

By breakfast time we were at Stover Springs, where a number of hikers had camped. Many were planning to reach Drakesbad by afternoon, shower, swim and have dinner there. We had fun talking to Evan, Swipe and Tradeja while we were eating.  Evan said he was going to try to make it to Drakesbad for lunch.  I remembered what I’d thought about last night, but told myself, “Don’t be silly–it’s 15 more tough miles to Drakesbad (lots of steep hills and rough trail).  No way can I do that many miles on that kind of trail by 12 noon today.”  But then I thought,  “But I can at least try my best to hike fast, and see what happens.”

At first, much of the trail was in forest with little to see, but I really enjoyed the glimpses of Mt. Lassen above green meadows. A couple of ridges later, we’d reached the North Fork of the Feather River, where we caught up with several other hikers who were there relaxing. We stopped for a Snickers break, since it’s a very pretty, comfortable spot.  The other guys said they were going to loaf their way to Drakesbad and spend the night there.  We enjoyed the rest, but soon pushed on, and that’s when I said to myself, “Hmmm…if we could reach the park boundary by noon, Bill could “turn on the afterburners” and get to Drakesbad before the end of lunch at 1 pm.  He could get some food for himself and for me.”   

I told Bill about my idea.  He thought it was a bit crazy, but was willing to give it a try, so we both started hiking as fast as we could, and reached Lassen Park boundary by 11:45 am. Bill took off at top speed and was soon out of sight, while I hiked as fast as I could go (huff, puff!) up every hill and RAN on every downhill.  At Boiling Springs Lake, I did stop briefly to talk to a French family, who were already talking to another PCT hiker, Fuzzy Monkey.  The French family were absolutely amazed at the idea of what we were doing; they insisted on taking a picture with Fuzzy Monkey and I. 

Then I started to half-run on down the trail, past the weird blue-y green, steaming lake, and down through the woods towards Drakesbad.  At 1 pm, I was just across from it, on the other side of the meadow, and I trotted and ran as much as I could on the trail through the picnic area and then back up the road towards the resort.  I was absolutely exhausted.  Doing over 18 miles in one morning on rugged terrain was really tough!

I raced on, and just after I’d reached the first group of cabins, along came Ed, who runs the place, riding in his golf cart. “Welcome, wanderer!” he cheered, “Would you like some lunch?  Hop in!”  So I got a very welcome ride with him, right to the front door of the dining hall.  I found Bill happily chowing down already, and he said he’d only arrived 10 minutes before I did!  Turned out that it was EMPLOYEE lunch time, and there was plenty of food even after the guests had eaten.  I wasted no time in loading a plate and eating to my heart’s content.  Fuzzy Monkey soon arrived, so all three of us were having a great time.  The Drakesbad folks were awesomely nice to us.  The cost for our all-you-can-eat lunch was only $6.50 each.  Wow! 

 Bill and I totally pigged out and waddled back to the trail at 3 pm.  We took our time for the rest of the day.  Up to the top of Flatiron Ridge we went, then strolled along to Grassy Swale, which was as lovely and green as ever, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we had to put on headnets.  We stopped for a snack at Swan Lake, which was so full that it reached all the way to the trail.  Amazing!  We continued the climb to  Lower Twin Lake, where we planned to stop for water, but we were sad to see that the effect of the 2004 forest fire was still there. Not much has regrown.

At the lake, we caught up with the Israelis, who’d stopped to cook dinner before putting in a few more miles.  We got our water, then pushed on ourselves, with the plan of getting away from the lake, and hopefully away from the mosquitoes.  No such luck.  The buzzing little biters were everywhere.  So it was “Net tent tonight!”  I have to say again that I’m SO glad Bill figured out how to rig it with just a couple of trek poles, so we don’t have the bother of the tarp.  I crawled into the sleeping bag after taking a Motrin.  My back hip was hurting again today, but it’s probably my own fault–I was RUNNING down hills instead of just walking.  But oh man, it was worth it to get that awesome lunch!  

It’s 15 miles to Old Station, and I started thinking, “Maybe we can make it to the Heitmans by lunch….”, then I slapped myself and said, “Don’t be an idiot!  You don’t need to do 15 miles before noon again!  Take it easy!”  So I’m going to lay my head down and remember to just enjoy the trail tomorrow!  And thankyou, Lord, that we are “home” in Lassen Park!  This is the place where Bill and I actually learned to backpack, many years ago!

Walk with Aragorn to Isengard: Find Pippin’s brooch, enter Rohan

The Williams family (Nancy & Terry & their nephew who was visiting) were up at 5am to be sure all of us “earlybird hikers” got at least some coffee, cereal and toast  before we hit the trail at 5:45. They are awesome folks! And the trail was awesome, too, pretty much all day, and that was good, because it’s only 24 miles to Belden, and our next resupply.

Back on the PCT, we did the nice comfortable climb up to Buck Summit, stopping for a second breakfast along the way.  There were no blowdowns on the trail–hooray!  I wouldn’t have wanted to hike this section a couple of months ago, though–it was obvious that there had been a lot of trees down, but the trail gorillas had recently (you could tell by the freshlooking woodchips, sawdust and cut logs) cleared them all out of the way, AND fixed the trail tread.  Thankyou, trail gorillas!!

Another great thing about the trail today was that it was so well-marked.  There were silver diamonds on the trees, main points labelled with signs (so you know where you are) and excellent signs at junctions.well-maintained trail tread and no big uphills. We were in forest a lot, but through the treetrunks we could see big canyons, huge dropoffs and dramatic cliffs. The treetrunks in this area are “painted” with fluorescent green lichen down to “snow level”, which looks like it’s about 10 or 12 feet deep.  Whew!  That’s a lot of snow!  Glad we didn’t have to deal with any of it! 

Clouds were building up in the east, and we could see rain falling in the distance, but it was the kind that doesn’t even hit the ground.  Around noon there were a few rumbles of thunder.  It was a very warm afternoon, and I was thinking “A bit of a shower would sure feel good, but I’ll take a pass on the lightning & thunder!”

By early afternoon we were out in the clear with a 360 degree view above timberline! Wow! We could see way down into the Feather River canyon, and we headed into the zillion switchbacks that take you down to Belden. I took a Vicodin and was able to sail down with no pain, only by the time we reached the bottom, my “downhilling muscles” were pretty fried.  What an amazing trail experience that is, though!  You start in what feels and looks like a high alpine zone with dramatic rocks, awesome views, scrubby trees and groundhugging plants, and by the time you’re down, it’s like you are in the green jungle, with (sigh) poison oak hanging over the trail.   The switchbacks at the top of the descent are pretty steep, but the lower you go, the longer and gentler they are.  At one point, the trail goes along a cliff, and it almost looks like you could jump off the trail right into the river, except that wouldn’t be a very good idea–it’s a LONG way down!

Finally we crossed the railroad tracks, and on our VERY tired feet, came walking into Belden Town resort.  Not bad, though–it had taken us from 6 am till 3:30 pm to do 24 miles!  We revived with lots of lemonade (3 tall glasses each!) and burgers at the much improved restaurant.  A kind motorcyclist let us use his cell phone to call the Braatens, and Mrs. B. said she’d come get us at 4:30.   Other hikers began drifting in; first to arrive was Noga, from Israel.  She looked exhausted, and collapsed on a bench in the shade to wait for her friends. 

Mrs. B picked us up, took us to Little Haven, and showed us the ropes…there’s a shower, but no laundry (other than rinsing socks) and no food (except for a bit in the morning, and whatever might be in the refrigerator.)  But when we went to the pile of resupply boxes to get ours, oh no!  Our box was not there!  We asked Mrs. B about it, and she said, “Oh, it’s at the post office.  If you’d called me a couple of days ago, I would have brought it here to the house.”  Megabummer!   The reason we sent it to Little Haven was to AVOID having to wait for the post office to be open.  And how in the world were we supposed to know to call her?  If we’d known, we could have called from Honker Pass.  We were very disappointed.  Our plan was to leave early tomorrow morning, but now we have to wait till at least 9 am, and then I still have to sort the food and put it in the packs.

So Bill and I claimed a couple of beds, I washed our socks and hung them out to dry on the deck, and then I scrounged in the fridge for dinner ideas.  I came up with some salami, yellow summer squash, and cheese, so I made a sort of stirfry concoction out of it.  Bill and I were the first hikers to arrive at Little Haven today, but by 6:30 there were a lot more.  The deck was full of hikers sorting their resupply boxes and trading stuff.  I actually got a couple of items that other hikers decided they didn’t want!  And since the river was just across the road, a group of young guys decided to go swimming.  We thought about going, too, but again, we were just too exhausted.  Bill spent most of his time just collapsed on the bed.

It’s a very warm night, and even with the windows open, almost too sultry to sleep well.  But I love listening to the sound of trains going by on the other side of the river!  I did pray, though, that all will go well with getting our box tomorrow.  Bill and I agreed that when we do the PCT again, we will skip Little Haven and send our resupply box to Belden Town Resort. That way, we don’t have to deal with the post office at all! 

Walk to Rauros: The Argonath

Today was “blowdown day,” I think. We were having to deal with downed trees all morning, and it got pretty tedious!   Some were stepovers, some were climbovers, some were duckunders and some huge ones were even crawl-unders. But the forests are beautiful here– some very dark and solemn, some more open and sunny. The trees pretty much blocked most views, but we did get a few glimpses of Mt. Lassen’s tip peeking over a ridge in the distance.  And there were butterflies everywhere–so pretty!  We also saw a mama quail and her babies running down the trail.

Vicodin is making it possible for me to hike. All I needed to take for the entire day was one Vicodin and one Motrin.  To say that I am grateful for being able to hike with no pain would be a huge understatement!  I could do all sorts of contortions getting through the blowdowns, with no pain problems.  But the real test came when we began the long downhill to the Feather River.  It’s fun to watch the plant communities change as the trail switchbacks down.  We got great water at a nice spring along the trail, near the river.  We splished and splashed ourselves a bit, too–it was a very hot and actually rather humid day.  Both Bill and I were sweating like crazy–I had sweat literally running down my face, which is a rare experience for me.  When we reached the river, there was “Sneezer”, just coming up from a swim!   We thought about doing the same, but worrying about the need for more miles made us decide to pass up the opportunity.

The push up ‘n out of the Feather River canyon is very long.  We stopped partway up, at Bear Creek, and made some lunch.  I decided to rename it “Ladybug Creek”, because there were thousands of the cute little bugs all over the place!  Sneezer came along and joined us for awhile.  He says he’s planning to go to some trail angels at Buck Lake tonight.  We plan to just keep going.  After lunch, we headed up some more, but hallelujah, there’d been a trail gorilla crew at work, and the trail was GREAT–no more blowdowns, nice tread, and bushes all trimmed back.  And then (about midafternoon) we met Yeahbut and Elderly Ellen, heading SOBO!  They said they had stayed at the Buck Lake trail angels, and that it was awesome and we should go there.  We were still determined to push on, however.

Just before the side trail to Lookout Rock, there was an “ad” posted, inviting all PCT thruhikers to come on down to “Honker Pass” once they reached the road.  It described all the amenities there, and sounded great, but we were still determined–“We need miles!”  Finally we were down near the road, and stopped for a supper of crackers and cheese.  Then we hoisted our packs, prepared to get in another 4 miles or so before stopping for the night.  But at the road, to our astonishment, we were greeted by a very friendly guy who knew our names!  “Third Monty and White Beard!” he cheered when he saw us.  “I’ve been waiting for you!”  What???  We didn’t even know this guy!  It turned out that he’d just given Sneezer a ride down to the Honker Pass trail angel, and Sneezer told him we were not far behind.  We hesitated– a little– but finally the lure of food, showers and laundry was too strong.

Note from Alexa: Careful, that’s how Jill & Eustace ended up almost being Giant menu items!

I had been puzzling over my map, trying to find a “Honker Pass” in the area, but it turned out that’s just the name of a summer home owned by the Williams family.  It was a wonderful place–nice house with a HUGE deck full of lounging hikers, food everywhere,  little kids to play with, 6 very friendly dogs and the even more friendly Williams family.  Grandma Williams is keeping a log book of hikers–she sits with each of us and does a little interview and takes a photo.  Awww!  First item of , though was SHOWERS, to wash off the sweat of the day!  

Dinner was a feast, including BBQ ribs, and once you ate all the meat off a rib, you could just toss it to the dogs, and they would devour it–crunch, munch!   And there was a fresh fruit salad of peaches and blackberries, plus loads of other great food.  Once it got dark, there were piles of “mattresses” and all you had to do was pick one out, lay it on the deck, and bed down for the night.  It looked like a PCT hiker slumber party.  There was a campfire, too, and happy hikers everywhere.  I am very glad we decided to come here–sure, we could have gotten a few more miles, but this is just too awesome to miss.  I am so glad I could have a whole day of hiking with no pain, AND another first– NO SNOW on the trail today!   Hooray!  

Walk to Rauros: Near high Emyn Muil, Orcs catch up and attack at night