The heat is on

We found ourselves still hiking in a burn scar when we left Chester. It wasn’t anything new to us, as we made our way towards the boundary of Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The one thing that is hard with all the burn scars on the PCT is to find a camp spot. The problem isn’t finding a flat spot, the real problem is to find something that isn’t right next to a bunch of dead trees that could crash down on you. Luckily right on the boundary, there were a few spots that looked kind of safe and as we drifted into a deep slumber, unknown to us another fire had started north from us.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

In the early hours of the morning, we headed through Lassen National Park. The goal was to get through in one push as we didn’t have our bear canisters anymore. The sun scorched down on us, and knowing that water sources were limited we cameled up at the lake. The news of the new fire reached us as we got cellphone reception. The Shelly Fire as they called it was burning west from Etna, but at this point it didn’t look that bad yet.

As the day was coming to an end, we cooled down in a river just a few miles from Old Station where we would pick up our resupply box the next day. The post office at Old Station offers some really cool history of the Pacific Crest Trail, as their trail registers date back to the 70’s. Was really nice to scroll back through entries and wonder how the trail looked 40 years ago.

We spent our day on the ranger cabins deck. Finding comfort in the shade, the forecast wasn’t looking great for the upcoming section. The temperatures for the next week would be around 108 Fahrenheit or 42 Celsius. We planned to hike the next section late in the evening, but before we would head out we visited the lava tubes where the temps would be a nice cool 45 Fahrenheit or for my fellow Europeans 8 degrees Celsius.

Burney falls

As we embarked from Old Station we got our first glimpse of Mt. Shasta, a beautiful 14,000+ foot peak just north of us. It was beautiful to see a snowy peak again, just something with big mountains that make me smile.

The heatwave that hit Northern California definitely took it out of us. We still managed to hike 25+ miles per day, which ment waking up early, having a long siesta during the afternoon and then hiking into the night. Our sleep schedules got destroyed by this routine and as we made our way north, the Shelly Fire grew bigger and a little bit of fear lingered into our minds.

Hiking in a heat wave is already hard enough, so I won’t lie that when you learn that a large section of the trail is closed because of a wildfire, well it really puts your spirit down. But the truth is that there are some things that we cannot control and one of those things is the fires. Unfortunately, they are very common on the West Coast of the US and very little we can do about them.

We spent a day in Shasta, eating town food, doing our chores and figuring out a way to skip the fire. An easy bus ride to Yreka and then getting a lift from a trail angel to Seiad Valley. It was weird skipping a large section and realizing that the Oregon border was only two days ahead of us.

Seiad Valley

The day before we hit the border we got to ascend 8000+ feet in a 28-mile stretch. California was sending us off with some tough love or so it seemed. But just before the border, we came across a little cabin where Duckie’s dad and mom offered us trail magic and told us the story behind the cabin. . Fed, hydrated and motivated we walked the last miles to the border. We smiled, screamed and laughed. California was done, Oregon was welcoming us, and Canada was waiting.

Thank you California, you were beautiful