PCT: Day 126

I was on trail by 5:15 this morning partly because I wanted to put in a big day and partly because the afternoon highs have been around 90F for a few days.  I entered Lassen Volcanic National Park a little over a mile in and hiked through it for the next 20 miles.  It started off in a burn with standing trees and transitioned into an older burn with few standing trees and lots of sun exposure.  Despite the scale of the burn there were still some streams, meadows, and lakes that were in good shape.

I had intended to stop in Lassen for a lunch break, but there weren’t any great shade spots.  Once I came out of the park I was a few miles from the next water source, Hat Creek, and headed there for lunch.  I’d done almost 25 miles at this point and took a long lunch and also soaked in the creek for a few minutes to rinse today’s collection of ash and dirt from my legs.

I started hiking again around 3pm in a miserable heat.  My goal was to make it another 7 miles to the convenience store in Old Station where I’d get something cold to drink.  It’s been warm enough lately that drinking something cold is a bit of a novelty.  Most of the water sources are only cool,  not cold, at this point, and it doesn’t take long after collecting it for it to warm up.  There’s nothing like being hot and thirsty and only having warm water to drink. 

I ran into a couple other hikers at the store, including Notorious who I met at trail magic yesterday and leap frogged this morning.  He’s one of the few people, or maybe the only one, that seems to be hiking asany miles as I am.  He shared an extra ice cream sandwich while we chatted and let the evening cool.  I headed back out around 7pm and covered another 2 miles, making 34 total, before I found a campsite.  I felt good after the break and wanted to go further but was about to go uphill and wasn’t sure if I’d find another site anytime soon.