Tough Goodbyes and Fresh Starts
Mile 1344.9
Sitting in my tent after my first day back on trail in nine days. I spent the last week with Erich, and it was utter bliss. I’m trying not to think about it, because I get a knot in my throat.
Today I left the trailhead alone after saying goodbye to Erich. Girl Scout, Stakes, and Workshop were up ahead of me as I made my way toward the border of Lassen Volcanic National Park. We’ll be hiking through Lassen for about a day, and we’ve heard there’s a 5-mile stretch of sketchy snow to navigate. Ellen made it to the campground about 20 miles from the trailhead which positions her to go through the snow tomorrow. Stakes, Workshop, and myself are camped about 7 miles behind in a small grove of green trees in the middle of a barren burn area.
Today started out with a burn area which was slightly depressing. It turned to beautiful green, mossy forest after a while and was just gorgeous. At the end of the day the burn zone returned, and then we got caught in a rain and hail storm. So much of my stuff is now soaking wet, and I’m starting to think more seriously about getting a bigger tent. It would be so much easier to deal with rain and wet gear if I could spread out a bit more.
We had a nice long lunch together today, just hanging out and chatting and enjoying the weather. It feels so nice to be in the forest.
Tomorrow we either need to hike about 23.5 miles to get through Lassen (camping is not allowed inside the park boundary if you don’t have a bear canister for your food), or potentially only hike like 6.5 to get to a campground that has bear boxes. My Garmin says it’s supposed to thunderstorm again tomorrow, so I’m not sure what I’ll do. Maybe just play the weather by ear and decide as I go along.
Mile 1351.3
Currently in my third hail and thunderstorm of the PCT. This one is probably the scariest. I’m already in my tent, thank goodness, but the thunder was SO LOUD, probably the loudest I’ve ever heard. There’s a puddle forming outside of my tent, and I’m worried I may be set up in an area where water will try to come through. The hail is hitting my tent so hard that droplets are raining down on me inside my tent. My Garmin says it’s meant to stop raining later this evening, but that will be when it’s already dark. I can feel my shirt is starting to get damp. I left my pack outside in my tent vestibule, but that didn’t protect it enough and it’s completely soaked and splattered with mud.
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The rain is letting up and it stopped hailing, but I’m sure it’ll be raining for the next few hours... I think I may need to move my tent but honestly not sure where I would go, and if I go out now I’ll get soaking wet, and moving my tent in these conditions I’ll risk the contents of my tent also getting soaked, rather than just damp. I’m hoping it’ll only continue raining for another hour or so.
We are supposed to have our food in the bear boxes that are at this campground, but most of us were planning on eating more this evening, so we still have all of our food in our tents with us.
NorCal has been beautiful so far and I’m really loving the forests and terrain, but the last few days of thunderstorms have been tough. There’s a chance of thunderstorm in the evening tomorrow, and honestly it wouldn’t be so annoying if we didn’t have to worry about Lassen NP not having more camping options and the snow that’s up ahead...
In other news, I woke up this morning and decided to only hike the 6.5 miles to the campground. Everything was wet from the storm the night before, so I didn’t leave camp until 10:30am to try to give things time to dry out, and for it to warm up outside.
After hiking a couple miles or so, I ran into Stakes who was taking a break. We ended up hiking the rest of the day together, and even took the time to go see the Terminal Geyser and did the short loop trail around Boiling Lake. It’s cool to hike through a national park with things like this to side trek to.
We got to camp around 4:30pm, and it was so nice to have a day where I’d slept in, I hiked leisurely and with a friend, and was able to do side quests to see really cool things.
At camp now with Workshop and Stakes and had a great time eating an early dinner/late lunch at the picnic tables before the thunderstorm hit and we all ran to our tents.
I’m worried about Stakes because his stomach hasn’t been working with him, so he actually may need to press his Garmin SOS button to be evacuated out of here. Luckily we are at a campground that will be relatively easy for help to access. I think he plans to somehow get to either Burney or Shasta and spend some time there getting better. I feel so bad that he’s been having these issues while on trail. I’m really sad to see him go. Hopefully I can meet back up with him when he rejoins the trail.
Digging a trench around my tent to protect it from water
Mile 1368.3
All kinds of things happened today.
This morning Stakes pressed SOS on his Garmin in order to be evacuated. He continued to be sick all night and couldn’t keep anything in his body. He woke up and was extremely weak and dehydrated.
After waiting several hours, an ambulance finally arrived to pick him up. They took him to the small ER back in Chester, but he let me know on Garmin message they didn’t have the capabilities to run the tests he needs to figure out if it’s Giardia or another type of parasite. Luckily he found a Trail Angel to stay with in Chester and has a ride to Redding tomorrow where he can get better medical care.
I feel SO BAD for him. He’s felt ill for quite a while and now has to deal with another night of not being better. He thinks he may have giardia, and I’d say the likelihood is high. But we’ll just have to see when the tests come back. I know he’s absolutely exhausted from the last week of terrible sleep and being sick all night. He’s very strong, and I know he’ll be ok, but I feel so terrible that he has to go through this...
Workshop and I left camp around 9:15am after Stakes was in good hands with the paramedics. It felt really weird leaving him, but I knew he would be ok once medical care was there. Part of me feels like I should have gone with him, but I also know that may not have helped.
We had a two mile climb and then descended into a 5-mile stretch of snow and river crossings. We’d been warned about this stretch from others up ahead of us, and had our GPS maps ready because the trail was basically nonexistent. There was so much snowmelt, you couldn’t even find the trail. It was either under water, washed away (so everything just looked like forest floor, no trail remnants) or it was under snow.
At one point there was a large river to cross, and from comments on our navigation app we knew there was a large log we could cross on. We made our way over to take a look at it, and it seemed a bit nerve wracking but honestly really doable. We also had our micro spikes on which actually helps a lot with grip on logs. Workshop went first, and there was a small group of hikers who had just crossed before us that were cheering us on. After I watched Workshop get across, it was my turn. While balancing on the log and making my way, it was easy to get dizzy. I would look down at my feet to keep them centered, but having the water rushing underneath me going perpendicular to where I was walking made my eyes cross. I had to stay super concentrated to stop my brain from getting scrambled. I also chanted “You can do anything” in my head as I took each step, which felt cheesy but honestly helped me make it to the other side. It was a long few hours in these types of conditions, but we finally made it out.
We stopped for lunch at Lower Twin Lake, but then got moving after about an hour because thunder clouds were forming. Luckily we only got mildly rained on, and no hail this time - thank God.
Hiked until about 6:45pm, and the last few miles of the day my feet and legs were really ready to be done. I’m thinking of only hiking the 10 miles to Old Station tomorrow and then spending the night there. I could work on my blog and have some alone time. There’s also not a great place to camp unless I go 16-17 miles which I would just rather not do... I’ve really been enjoying taking things easy, so I don’t really want to push myself for no reason. I have no one to meet up with, I have no one waiting on me, so I might as well do what feels good. Seems silly to spend a night in Old Station after just being in Chester, but after the last few days being how they were (saying goodbye to Erich, thunderstorms each night/evening, Stakes being sick and having to say goodbye to him too, trail family splitting up, walking through endless burn areas), I’d like to take a night to decompress.
Mile 1378.4
Today I woke up slowly and decided I would hike to Old Station and spend the night. I wasn’t feeling all that well, had a headache and felt low on energy. I was also interested in meeting up with Zip and Noodz who I knew were only a day behind me.
I packed up camp while listening to some music and then started making my way toward town, 10 miles down the trail. It was such a beautiful hike. Forested and rolling on soft trail that welcomed me with open arms after spending 3 days in a burn zone and 2 months in the desert. Tall pines with fluffy, lime green lichen towered above me, reminiscent of something Willy Wonka would have concocted in his world of pure imagination.
I got to town and stayed at a ranch-style motel. In town there was no service, and the motel didn’t offer wifi, so I felt a bit stranded even though I was in civilization. I’d actually had more cell service up on the trail that morning. I was able to bootleg the wifi from the front office in order to download some YouTube videos, and then retreated to my room to lie down. I just wanted to be horizontal.
Mile 1386.6
This morning I slept in and just watched YouTube videos while eating Cheeto Puffs for breakfast. It’s great being an adult sometimes.
I left the motel right at 11am and headed straight for the only cafe in town for some lunch. Luckily the cafe had wifi, and I was able to catch up with a few people including my dad, who I hadn’t chatted on the phone with in a while.
I made my way to trail to meet up with Ziploc and Super Noodz who were waiting for me at their lunch spot at Subway Cave, a lava tube you’re able to walk all the way through. After hugging and catching up, we all made our way through the cave.
Being on trail together again was so nice, I missed these guys a lot. They feel like family. We went about 8 miles (they’d already done like 9 to get to Old Station) and set up camp. It was such a nice evening joking around and enjoying each other’s company.
Mile 1401.2
For some reason today I’ve been having a weird mental day. It honestly was a lovely day, and I enjoyed all the company I had and the views and the terrain, but mentally things just felt tough.
I think my visit with Erich actually made me more homesick than I was before. It was also so nice to just exist in a house together and have some normalcy, so now that I’m back on trail and I haven’t really had the restart I was expecting, it makes me yearn for the comfort and love of home.
I also think that losing Stakes has been hitting me hard. It felt like we were pretty aligned in what we were hoping for in this next chapter of the trail, and with him having to leave I feel like I’m “on my own”. I knew our trail family would likely break apart when we got to NorCal, but I had hoped I’d be able to partner with him for at least a little while. I heard from him earlier today and he seems to be doing better, but still figuring out what’s going on. He may have a parasite, and I’m doubting I’ll be able to catch up with him if he decides to restart trail from Shasta, several town stops ahead.
Another thing contributing to my low mental state was that I was really looking forward to just doing whatever felt right to me in NorCal. Doing whatever I wanted to do. The problem is when you’re having a hard day mentally and the thing you want is to go home, the freedom you gave yourself to choose whatever you want starts to wonder why you can’t choose that. It’s a weird dissonance.
I was able to text with Erich earlier this evening and he said:
“It's okay that it's hard today. Let it be hard, let it be okay that it's hard. You got to hold on to your original goals with all your might because they feel small on days like today. You went out there to prove that you could do it. To challenge yourself. To see the beauty of the U.S. on the PCT. To do something some people only imagine and only few attempt. You aren't done yet.”
Miles completed: 772.2
