Halfway!

Day 81

Top of climb to meadow one mile before HWY 36

30 miles plus .6 to water

Camped at mile 1330.3

When we set out this morning, our plan was to hike about 20 miles, then go into town tomorrow and stay the night. So once we got service, I called a hotel to book a place to stay in Chester. Unfortunately, it was all booked up so we had to rethink our plan. We need food, showers, and eventually laundry. So we instead decided to do 30 miles today and hitch into and out of Chester in one day tomorrow and hike the 14 miles to the border of Lassen National Park. Lassen has a bear can requirement to camp in its borders which kind of throws off normal mileage days around it. But it is good they protect the bears there. Chester has a laundromat and showers in the middle of town so perhaps we will do those errands after getting groceries tomorrow.

It was interesting to see the fire damage as we walked through a large section of the forest today. Many plants have begun coming back such as the manzanita bushes, some wildflowers, and mushrooms on the trees. Around the water sources is where these flowers come back to life the fastest. Many of the rocks seem brittle and break easily as if they have been chard. The dirt is a mix of very fine sand and ash so it gets all over everything and I feel very dirty til the end of the day when I try to wash off at the last water source of the day. I’m grateful this section has already opened back up to hikers and for the hard work of trail crews that have already cut through a lot of the downed trees.

Today also marked the halfway point of the trail! There is a concrete marker to commemorate this and it felt surreal to arrive there. Perhaps because we have been counting down the miles to this point and maybe also because Northern California still feels about 1,000 miles long. We are halfway and still in California with a couple hundred miles to the Oregon border I believe. Our hiking group had been to the monument earlier in the day since they are ahead of us and we were sad not to be at this big achievement with them. But Kevin and I celebrated arriving here just the same.

When we arrived to camp, we were super proud of ourselves for making it through our first 30 mile day on the PCT! My feet are a bit sore but I still feel strong and hopefully can hobble out of the tent in the morning still!