Day 68 – A weight off my shoulders
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 18 to right outside Lassen Volcanic National park because of those pesky little bears (mile 1343).
Since I walked so far yesterday, I could wake up late and still make it to town early! Best morning ever! I still woke up at 6:30, but I took my time packing up and wasn’t hiking until 7:15. The 3 miles were uneventful and I made it to the highway to hitch fairly quickly.
Within 5 minutes, a woman named Nancy had stopped to pick me up, but it wasn’t until my stuff was in the trunk that she realized that she had no room in the car! Well, I guess I’ll have to sit with the pups on my lap… Oh darn!
Nancy was great to talk to and drove me straight to the post office where my most important order of business needed to be addressed: my extra stuff. I sent one package to Mary from 2 Foot Adventures with my old shoes since they were replaced by the warranty, I sent a package to myself in Ashland with my town clothes and my actual journal since I wear my hiking clothes in towns now and I don’t need my journal until the ride home, and I sent a final package home to Seattle with everything I don’t think I need anymore. This includes: my wool base layer pants and shirt, my down jacket, my ice axe, my extra daily supplements and vitamins, my extra maps, my useful planning papers from Yogi’s book, my sunglasses, my sunscreen stick, my extra Nuun, and my sit pad. And accidentally both of my knives. 😬
As you might imagine, I felt like I was carrying nothing after the purge, so I did what any reasonable UL hiker would do and went to the grocery store (Note: I already had a ton of food). I only bought a few things to fill in some snack holes I had noticed, so when I got out of there I was still feeling pretty light. I also got myself a nice danish, donut, and muffin to hold me over until the all you can eat pizza buffet at 11AM.
I went to a few more shops to explore and look around, but didn’t buy anything, so I finally just went to the pizza place and hung out for an hour before the buffet. They do say the early bird gets the worm! I sat there until the pizza was ready, and then paid the ridiculously low price of $10.21 to eat as much pizza, salad, cheesy breadsticks, cinnamon breadsticks , and soda as I wanted. YESSSSSS!
Soon after I started eating, Taylor and the Swiss walked in and joined, so we had a nice reunion over lunch. Apparently, they camped with a bunch of feisty deer that decided that Taylor’s socks and trekking poles were dinner. This was the second report of feisty deer in the area that I had heard today, and the first time, they were so bad that the guy said he almost quit the trail! Wowzers! Those must have been some crazy deer (or he has other reasons that he wants to quit).
We ate all that we could and drank our money’s worth in soda, but since the wifi was out, they decided to go see about a hotel. We said our final goodbyes and parted ways, probably to never see each other again. I stayed at the pizza place until their wifi was fixed, and then I uploaded pictures to my blog until it was time for me to hitch out.
I walked along the highway for a little while to get past the local traffic, but along the way, a friendly man named Chuck stopped to give me a ride. I threw my stuff into the back of his truck next to his cute yellow lab named Ellie and then we were off to the trailhead!
There’s a saying on trail: “You never need something in your pack until two days after you get rid of it.” I’m pretty sure that the guy made it up as he was talking to me, but it was partially true for me today. Two days ago, I got rid of all of my paper maps. I have Guthooks, why do I need paper versions that I never look at? Well, it turns out that Guthooks isn’t the most reliable app and it no longer works on my phone. Glacier experienced the same thing. 😬 Thankfully, as useful as it is on trail, you rarely ACTUALLY need it, and the Halfmile app is mostly fine. If I ever find that I absolutely need a map, the other hikers on trail are my backups, so hopefully their phone/paper maps work!
Since I didn’t have Guthooks, I knew nothing about what was coming up except what signs told me and what I had remembered from conversations with hikers. My goal was to camp at Boundary Spring, a well-named spring that serves as the boundary between Lassen National Forest and Lassen Volcanic National Park. The national park now requires a bear canister for overnight visitors because some greedy little bears decided that hiker food was delicious. As such, I cannot camp in there. If I stayed at Boundary Spring tonight, though, I wouldn’t be breaking any rules by not having a bear canister! Hooray for no bear canister!
The walk to Boundary Spring was fairly easy and at only 15 miles, relatively short. The scenery was beautiful, with constant views of Mount Lassen as I walked towards the national park.
The trail also brought us through expansive meadows, whose flatness was a welcome sight compared to the trail’s usual up and down adventures.
I made it to Boundary Spring with no problem and found that others had had the same idea as mine andhere were pre-existing campspots all over the place. I guess no one has a bear can anymore! I chose the best spot and set up camp quickly, eager to look ahead and see what tomorrow and, more importantly, the next day had in store. Hopefully lots of fun!