I’ve finally accepted that we are going to have to jump around the fire when we get to Belden. Just accepted, not liking it in the least. What that means is that we will skip 130 miles of trail to get to Soda Springs where we’ll hike 60 miles down to Echo Lake (South Lake Tahoe). When we return to California to hike the Sierra, we’ll just have to start at Belden and hike 60 miles of trail again. It doesn’t really change anything because we’d have to come back no matter what.
Since we are really only hiking another 80 miles of PCT this year, the pressure to get in miles is greatly reduced. We’ve already made plane reservations for October 21 and we’re only hiking 310 miles (including 170 miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail) between now and then. Once again, we find ourselves with ample leisure time while we hike because we cannot finish.
We’ve already reached a compromise with Charcoal B and Struggles. Since we don’t have a bear canister, there is only one camp we can legally stay at in Lassen National Park…Warner Valley Camp. It has picnic tables, trash cans, running water, and clean pit latrines with toilet paper provided…Hiker Nirvana! The only problem is that it’s almost 23 trail miles ahead—more than any of us are willing or able to do. The compromise is this: hike to the closest campsite to the boundary of the National Park and camp tonight (8.9 miles total from Rim Rock). Tomorrow we will have to hike 16.9 miles to the camp, but we’ll be less than a mile from Drakesbad Ranch in the park. If we can get a deal, we’ll Nero in and spend the night. If not, we’ll Nero into Chester in a couple of days and take a zero there. We don’t have to be to Belden until the 10th.
All this amounts to the fact that we’ve got a short day today with enough time to eat at JJ’s Cafe before we head out. This makes JJ’s our most frequented restaurant on the West Coast. Between last year and this year, we have probably eaten there almost a dozen times. The most impressive part of this is that they are only open from 8-2 daily. There is absolutely no place in Old Station to have an evening meal.
We’ve been accepted by the locals. We know everyone by name and even know who’s getting some and who isn’t. All we have to do to fit in is nod big when complaining about “those damn big city liberals who want to take our guns” talk begins. I don’t bother to point out than NO ONE on the left has ever mentioned confiscating guns nor has a single gun been confiscated. I don’t want to blow our cover.
After breakfast, we return to our cabin to pack up and get the 2.5 mile road walk out of the way. Charcoal and Struggles beat us out of the room by a good 20 minutes, but we know we can walk a bit faster if we push ourselves. We should be able to (and do) catch up to them before we make it to the Post Office. The side trail to return to the PCT goes right by another “resort” area so we stop in for drinks and a snack. Why not, we’ve already walked almost 1/3 of what we need to hike today.
In the 6 actual miles of trail we hike today, we gain 1000’ of elevation. Over 6 miles, you don’t even realize you’re walking uphill. We stopped for a couple of breaks just to snack and get water at the only spot on the trail that has water. We had intended to carry extra water the final 2.5 miles to camp, but I noticed Hat Creek is only about 1/2 mile downhill from our camp. I hate to carry water if I can avoid it. We’ll have plenty of time to bushwhack down to the water before dark.
Bunny and I would get out front a bit then wait to make sure everything was ok behind us. We haven’t hiked with Charcoal and Struggles for right at a year. We were far enough ahead that we could barely hear them talking when Struggles started yelling. We turned around and heard, what we thought was a tree falling. I started to run back towards them thinking a tree had fallen on Charcoal. After a step or two, I could make out what Struggles was yelling…”Bear! Bear!”
I saw a couple of cubs climbing a tree right behind us. That was the sound I thought was a falling tree. Struggles indicated that the momma had run to the left, but the cubs were headed up the trail to us. They didn’t hear or see the cubs climb the tree and were headed towards us to make sure we were ok. I yelled back to them to move faster. They were standing right under the cubs, not a safe place to be if momma returns and thinks the cubs are being threatened. Charcoal looked up when I yelled and saw the cubs coming back down. They hurried towards us as the cubs hit the ground running.
A few minutes later, we ran into a couple of women on horseback. They stopped and talked a bit and told us they had turned around because they saw a bear ahead. They were not excited when we told them there were bears behind us as well. They wanted to get back to Hat Creek Ranch and go home without having a bear incident. We were excited hoping that we’d get a better picture of a Bear than what we had managed in the last encounter.
A bear portrait wasn’t in the plans for us today. We made it the rest of the way to our camp without incident. We only saw two piles of Bear scat, and they were both dried out. There are notes in Guthook indicating there are numerous bear sightings in Lassen NP and one campground is even closed down because of too much bear activity in the area. Our chances of a good picture are not past us, yet.
Bunny and I set up our tent and unpacked. Charcoal and Struggles arrived just as I was going to begin the water search. Instead, I waited for them to set up their tent before Charcoal and I went searching. Our maps showed an old roadbed beside our campsite which should lead down to the creek. This was completely overgrown by manzanita so we’d have to backtrack a bit. I thought this was going to be a bigger pain than I had hoped. After a bit of backtracking, we did find the old roadbed and got water without too much hardship, unless our wives ask and then we had to battle the holy trinity to get water: bear, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes. We don’t mind, we’re backpacking men. That’s what we do.
EFG