PCT 70 – Lassen National Forest

Daily Miles: 21
Total Miles: 1305

Even though we got up a little later than normal this morning (6:00am), it was hard to get up. When we sleep inside, the room is dark and our bodies don’t benefit of the gradual light to help ease us into waking up. The alarm felt harsh, as we haven’t used an alarm on the trail for over a month.

We were all packed up and ready to head out just before 7:00. In addition to Gazelle, we walked out with Cocoa, who is a hiker that Gazelle was with for the past few days. He is from Southern California and seems like a really nice guy.

We knew we had a big climb out of town this morning…probably our biggest climb since hiking from Cajon Pass to Wrightwood back in Southern California. Luckily, since we were starting in the morning, we had cool temperatures and shade. We even had some nice breeze during the day. There was also an abundance of water on the trail today, so we didn’t need to carry extra on the climb.

We gained almost 5,000 feet of elevation over the course of thirteen miles. Sometimes the trail was rather steep, but luckily that seemed to just be short sections. Most of the trail was a nice steady grade which helped us to make good progress. When we finally got to the top of the climb close to 3:00pm, we celebrated with a tasty treat…and there was cell service so people checked their phones.

After the climb, the walking was really easy and we were able to make our desired miles pretty quickly. We were walking separately at that point and it seemed that everyone except for MountainMan missed the marker for 1,300 trail miles. Usually we like to take a photo at the notable markers, but this time we missed it.

Our campsite tonight is quite spacious and nice. It is just the four of us and a deer that has been lurking around. It is very still and cool as we head off to sleep.

Tomorrow will be a bit different of a day for us. Beardoh is going to get up early with Coco and hustle into the town of Chester in order to get to the library and use their computers. We have some work tasks to deal with and Beardoh is going to get those done. SweetPea is going to have a normal walking day with MountainMan and Gazelle. Then we should meet up with Beardoh at the end of the day to camp. Hopefully it all works out smoothly.