A number of people during this journey and the planning leading up to it expressed interest in visiting me along the trail. Perhaps for a meal, a short hike when I cross a highway, or maybe even joining for a section. Since everyone is living busy lives, anyone who was able to visit would simply be a bonus to me! I was lucky enough through the first three months to have several opportunities for meals with friends and the wonderful Marquez family hosting me (and Ashley too) twice as I finished up SoCal.
But as I moved into the final week of the first half of this adventure, one friend was able to join me for a full week of trail time and ended up having a FULL PCT Thru hiker experience. I’ve known Erin for a couple decades now, friends from my first career job at the accounting firm Clark Nuber. We first went backpacking in the Goat Rocks not long after meeting, the intended apex of this PCT adventure in earlier September and have done a variety of mountain adventures since. She offered interest but then as schedules changed multiple times with snow and family events, she stuck with it. And we finally triangulated the days with less than a week’s notice and found her way to the Hat Creek Resort on the evening of June 12th! Right of the gate, there was PCT culture fun as the German hiker I met the night before had a cousin and friend also coming though Reno to join the trail where I had a week earlier in Chester. We were able to arrange for Erin to give them a ride from the Reno airport after she picked up the rental car, drop them off 50 trail miles south, power through a heavy thunderstorm and arrive by 9pm with a huge pizza and some bourbon to fuel up the night before our trail adventure! My gratitude cup was overflowing, this time more than ever!
The next morning, we rechecked our individual and common gear, got our food ready for a week on the trail and then before hitting the trail, I was able to FaceTime on the motel WiFi for Whitney’s 8th grade promotion ceremony at Issaquah Middle School! A huge thanks to Ashley for holding the phone up for over an hour so I could participate from afar (and so glad we celebrated with a sushi dinner with her a week earlier when I was home). I can’t believe my youngest child is heading for high school in the fall! We got started with a warm feeling as we headed for the trail late morning. We heard there was a MUST VISIT volcanic feature on the way, and we actually found two, adding spelunking in a spatter cone first, crawling on our hands and knees, and then walking underground in the ‘Subway’ cave, an epic feature that is 46F year round, cozy in the winter and cool on blistering hot summer days this area is known for. We did a loop through the gave, back to the little town of Old Station for some ice cream as the thunder started to roll again, and then advancing north along the huge escarpment above Hat Creek. We set up camp the first night near last light in this straight-up Garden of Eden. The two southernmost Cascade volcanoes (Lassen and Shasta) were with us on the horizon all week and were beautiful in the Alpenglow among the wildflowers and wildly lunch greenery from the winter and springs water-fueled growth booms. Yes, also a wide variety of insects, but back in my MSR two-person tent again from my first month on the trail, we were secure and bug-free for sleeping!
We embraced the Garden of Eden for a leisurely breakfast the next morning and then triple-checked the water sources. Despite the lushness right now, this section of trail is known for a 30+ mile stretch with only a volunteer-filled water tank along the way. FarOut informed us it was 60% full and there was a hat creek tributary often dry in June that was running strong. It was at this first water hole, with the usual PCT hiker gathering where Erin acquired her trail name, on her hiking Day 2: Lifesaver. I’d already refer to her as a lifesaver a few times, and then she had a spare ziplock bag, even colored purple to match one of the two Hungarian hikers packs who were in dire need of such a modest give. Hedgehog and (No) Dignity were so grateful and central to bestowing Erin’s official and very fitting trail name. We also chatted up Hot Lips and then Black Hole and Lifesaver continued up the trail, sauntering, enjoying lunch with a view of Lassen and arriving in the late afternoon at the fabled water tank. I had a longer-than-expected call with Ashley from this bit of coverage and we decided just to enjoy the evening’s social campsite. We also had read up on the extra-bad-batch of mosquitos ahead and decided to make tomorrow a shorter day, just 6 miles to camp higher up and out of the skeeter cloud.
We were in no hurry as a result the following morning and had our short 3 hour hike day. Another classic model of my approach to thru hiking where I prioritize beautiful campsites and embracing our terrain over maximizing the daily mileage. We arrived in the nearly bug-free camp by 2pm with a flat tent spot in the max view area. We relaxed, enjoyed some time writing and reflecting (top of my mind was that a year ago I was with my wife and daughters experiencing one of the top-5 most magical days of our lives, walking all night under the midnight twilight on the tiny island of Grimsey off the northern shore of Iceland). Time to reflect unfettered by modern world distractions is one of the most beautiful parts of the PCT experience, whether walking or in lingering times at camp. I added a sundowner stroll up the trail and then it was an early bedtime.
As promised, we descending into a hurricane of mosquitos, bad enough that I walked with my head net and rain shell even as the heat of the day picked up. This fourth day on the trail was multiple forms of classical PCT, the bugs, the surprising landscape, this time in the form of an African savanna with Shasta towering above like Kili, a working reservoir and dam just down stream from Burney Falls, and then a game time call to hitchhike into the town of Burney and have a night on the floor of a church gymnasium where we could shower and charge devices too! Such a part of the experience are these off trail gathering spots, places to catch up on tales with other hikers and experience the incredible kindness of people in towns along the way. Staying here was free, but we happily donated and were in awe of the volunteers. One guy spent some 12 hours of his Saturday checking people in, laundering towels, cleaning bathrooms, emptying the hiker trash garbage and more! WOW!
Our final leg was a short one to Burney Falls where we joined throngs of Father’s Day visitors and PCT hikers getting ready for the 80 mile push to Dunsmir on I5. I had wonderful calls too with both my daughters and my Dad back home where Ashley arranged a fun surprise for him.
We had one extra day before the flight home from Reno, so what to do? Hike some more! Since Erin hadn’t seen Lassen, we found this epic day hike, a dual feature in the park up the Cinder Cone and 8,300 ft Prospect Peak, done on another cold snap where it seriously snowed, on the last day of spring at the Hat Creek motel where we were staying, in a place that is often in the 90F’s this time of year!
What a grand adventure and so glad Erin could spend a week as a PCTourist!