Northern California

We passed the half-way point for the PCT (1325 miles) and for our current section (4.5 weeks). We had big mileage days in Northern California, especially through Lassen National Park. A lot of burned forests from past fires, but we find them interesting and a bit spooky. Luckily the temperatures have been in the low to mid 80’s so we’re not suffering too much.

Our appetites are growing and we have only taken one zero (no miles hiked). We had two days when we hiked more than 27 miles and several days over 20 miles. I’m proud we can do this but I’m very much looking forward to spending some time in cities, notable Sierra City and South Lake Tahoe. Trail days are balanced by town days and vice versa. A restaurant meal would never taste as good without several days of trail food proceeding it. A bath would never be so comforting without five days of camp dirt.

​In the last two days, we descended 5,000 feet to reach Belden, CA, then climbed 4,000 feet in five miles to leave Belden. We woke up early this morning and started hiking at 4:30 in the dark. Soon we heard a new sound coming from behind us. A soft high-pitched short growl. Not an aggressive sound, more like: hey guys, why are you on my trail in the dark? We turned around to see the reflection of two eyes on the trail. Either a bobcat or a mountain lion. I won’t lie, it scared me. But then I thought logically—I had never heard of a PCT hiker being attacked by either on trail. And we continued, looking often at the trail behind us. Checking later on our phones, definitely a mountain lion. Again, John was happy to have the encounter, me not so much.