The Adventures of...: Days 94-95

Day 94, 26 miles, endpoint PCT mile 1347

Last night we had another unwelcome animal visit our campsite, and it kept us up most of the night. It started with my pack. I usually sleep with my pack in the tent; it goes under my feet since my air pad is only 3/4 length. Last night my pack was wet from carrying water up from the spring, however. The air already felt damp, and I didn't want to add to the moisture in tent, so I put my pack right next to the tent outside. Right next to the tent.

At around midnight we were woken up by loud footsteps, rustling bushes, broken sticks, and then, horrifyingly, the familiar jingling of the light and whistle that hang on my pack. I knew instantly something had my pack. I put on my glasses and fumbled for my headlamp in the dark. I looked out of the tent and sure enough, my pack was gone.

Josh and I jumped out of the tent and began running towards the direction we last heard the noises. My first thought was a bear, especially since we had seen one earlier in the evening. Luckily, 20 yards away we found my pack. We scanned the area with our headlamps and saw the culprit: a deer, hiding behind a tree. "That was weird," we said to each other. Back at the tent, I put a few large rocks on my pack. We tried to go back to sleep.

Within minutes the sound of crunching feet was back. The deer was about two feet from our tent. We clapped our hands and tried to scare it away, but it moseyed by, unperturbed. It circled around and came back, again cruising past so close I thought it might walk right into us. This stupid deer was definitely not afraid of people. After finally scaring it off with more yelling and light flashing, we went back to sleep.

An hour later the deer was back to terrorize us again. At 1:00am it crashed through our camping area as if it owned the place. We shined our headlamps at it and saw it had Josh's bandanna in its mouth. His bandanna was wet and had been hanging off one of the tent poles before the stupid deer nabbed it. Josh threw his shoes on and began a deer hunt. The deer took off, still holding onto the bandanna, with Josh running after it through the dark. I stayed in the tent and could see Josh's headlamp dancing in the woods several hundred feet away. After several minutes he returned; he was able to get it back, but not before running after the deer for awhile and throwing rocks near it to get it to drop the bandanna.

We hoped that would be the end of it, but no, at 2am, more loud noises. This time, the deer grabbed my trekking pole by the handle and began running away with it. Never in a million years would I have guessed an animal would be interested in a trekking pole. This was definitely a crazy, psycho deer, which is what I started calling it as I ran after it. The deer ditched the trekking pole after a bit, and I put the pole under the big rocks on my pack. We began to think it was maybe all a game to this deer.

We slept poorly after that, imagining the deer coming back at any moment. We weren't scared of the deer itself, but we were afraid of losing a piece of critical gear such as, oh, say, a backpack.

Morning came quickly and we had a lot of miles to get in. We unhappily left camp early and made the 13 miles to Highway 36 fairly quickly. From there we had an easy hitch in seven miles to the town of Chester. We did a quick grocery run, had lunch, and got another easy hitch back to the trail. I love it when things happen that way!

We were still able to get 26 miles in today, even with a town stop, so that keeps us on target for our goal of getting to Burney on Friday. Right now we are camped a couple of miles from Lassen National Park, so that will be cool to check out tomorrow! Hoping for a good night of sleep tonight with no animal invaders.

PCT midpoint!

First glimpse of Mt. Lassen, the start of the Cascades!

Carla soaking her swollen foot.

Day 95, 31 miles, endpoint PCT mile 1378

Today was our first 30+ mile day; our mission to get to Burney before the post office closes looks to be in good shape, now.

We spent most of the day in Lassen Volcanic National Park, walking past geysers and bubbling, boiling lakes. All of the national parks I have been to have been amazingly spectacular. I have to admit, Lassen was a bit of a let down. There wasn't anything incredibly scenic about it, but it is possible the PCT just doesn't go through the more scenic parts.

The trail today was mostly flat, followed by a long, gradual downhill, which helped us get our 30 miles in without too much trouble. After passing through a nice lake called Lower Twin Lake, we went through a long, open burn zone with views of Mt. Lassen.

At 30 miles in for the day we reached an RV park and campground, where we turned in to make dinner and fill up our waters. Actually, the main reason we went in was because there was a store and we were really hoping for a soda. Sadly, the store was closed, but we found Tank at a picnic table instead. We first met Tank when he and his parents stopped to pick me and Josh up when we were hitching back to the trail in South Lake Tahoe. His parents were visiting for a couple days and were nice enough to give us a ride. Since then we have been leapfrogging Tank every so often. Funny, Tank also stopped at the RV park looking for soda.

Tank, Josh and I had dinner at the picnic table going when a guy in a pickup truck pulled up to do laundry in the building next to us. Curious, he struck up a conversation with us, wanting to know everything about the trail. The best part, though, came when he offered us a soda! Cherry 7UP! It was amazing. Thank you!

Tomorrow we start a dreaded 34 mile waterless stretch. Yep. And I thought we were out of the desert. Ugh.