Rose happily agree to get me out of town for a while, and graciously met me and Dora at Old Station then we dropped of a resupply box in Chester and continued the long drive to Bucks Lake road near Quincy.
We got here by about 3, the temp was good, so I decided to try and climb the 1700 foot hill, and camp
Neat sign showing the landmarks ahead
Might be Gold Lake. Really pretty area not burnt out yet
Love my signs. Not lost yet. Even though it all uphill, very nicely graded and smooth sailing so far.
No easy camp spots but found a semi flat spot and settled in by 6. Very happy to have that 4 mile uphill done.
Slept good, and started hiking by 6:10. Lovely trail and lake views until we reached the burn area.
This is the 1st view north bound PCT’s get of Mt Lassen. It will dominate the next 100’miles for them.
Some Great Lakes (might be the 3 lakes)
Love my signs
Inviting, but cold.
Now we hit the burn area from the Dixie fire. Only mosquitoes and poison oak survived
Neat little water spot. Pct volunteers put the rocks in so my toes don’t get moist
And here are a couple of my hero’s.
Some flowers do spring up even in the burn areas
The drop.
Yup. I go down then tomorrow I go back up. About 5k vertical. At least the trail is nicely graded, but poisen oak up ahead
They said “No Snow”. Just 1 small troublesome traverse.
Our PCT maintenance friends put these collectors in. Very helpful.
That was a tough ass drop. 5k down,
Mostly exposed. And it was getting hot at the end
Made it to Belden. No rooms, but I can camp here, eat, hydrate, use their AC till closing, and charge my devises. And the wings were pretty good!
Needed a lot of breaks on the way down, but feel pretty good right now
Tomorrow starts off with a 5k climb, so I will start early to avoid the heat.
Tom hikes the PCT 