Days 96-97

Day 96, 27 miles, endpoint PCT mile 1405

Six miles into our hike today we came across an exciting viewpoint. Not only could we see Mt. Lassen standing tall and formidable at over 10,000 feet, but even better, Mt. Shasta was standing even taller to the north at over 14,000 feet. Shasta is an incredible mountain--snow capped, and tall, it will be within our sights for weeks. But even more exciting to me is what is just past Shasta to the north: Oregon. As we have crept through Northern California this past week, I have been growing more and more impatient to get to Oregon. Now that we can see Shasta, I know we are getting close. We could also just barely make out some Oregon peaks in the background past Shasta. Yay!

After the viewpoint we entered the Hat Creek Rim, a long cliff overlooking a valley of fir trees. There was no creek that I could see--in fact, today was our long 34 mile waterless stretch. The trail was dusty and exposed; we were lucky we hit it on a cool day. Although it was sunny, it never got overpoweringly hot. The waterless obstacle was helped by two water caches set up by different people and filled with plenty of drinking water for hikers. The second one even had fresh watermelon!

Strangely enough, the temperature rose as the evening came on; it was hotter at 6pm than it was at 3pm. We decided to take a dinner break and cool down in the shade, before hiking a couple  more hours to our camps. We found a flat spot among the rocky lava beds of Lassen National Forest, hot and tired.

Tomorrow we have a ten mile hike to our hitching point to the town of Burney, CA. We already have a hotel reservation, and there is an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet in town. Can't wait to eat and sleep in a bed for the night!

Mt Lassen and Carla

Mt Shasta!  So close to Oregon!

"Cache 22", this water cache makes this stretch so much easier for hikers.

Camping on the laval fields on the southern most end of the Cascades.

Day 97, 10 miles, endpoint Burney, CA

Not much to report today other than we made it into town and are in a hotel! So exciting. This morning we had a little more then ten miles to reach Highway 299, the road to Burney. We marched along hard-to-traverse lava rocks and past fields of dried, yellowed grass. This section of Northern California definitely reminds me of the Southern California section: lower elevations, increased heat, windmills, and less of a wilderness feeling. Today we crossed several roads (some paved, others little used dirt tracks) and even went past a fish hatchery where people were standing on a bridge fishing. The trail doesn't exactly have that middle-of-nowhere quality to it.

At the highway several cars passed by our outstretched thumbs, giving me the feeling that we might be stuck on the road for awhile. I smiled and tried to look as non-threatening as possible, hoping for the best, but no luck. Finally, we got lucky when a car pulled up and dropped a couple of hikers off at the trail. The driver agreed to take us into town, joking that he was the hiker shuttle.

We picked up the bounce bucket and a couple other packages (one from home and a couple of Amazon and ebay purchases) from the post office and checked into our hotel, the charming Charm Motel. It was the usual routine of laundry, grocery shopping and showering, until we relaxed in the hotel room with pizza and beer.

Tomorrow we will get back on the trail and hike through Burney Falls State Park. From here the trail angles west; our path to Oregon is indirect and we have nearly 300 miles left in California.

This means showers and laundry.

You  can find a hikers hotel rooms by the shoes outside the door usually.