What a difference the sunshine makes! We were nine days on this last stretch from Quincy to Chester and Mother Nature ensured it was a completely different experience from our first week. The sun was shining. The birds were singing, and all the critters that hide in the storms were out playing. In short, it was a wonderful trek.

After a very long weekend in Quincy that left us wondering if we were still hikers, a previous hiker and trail angel gave us a ride back out to the trail. With the promise from NOAA of good weather, we were set to try this whole hiking thing again.

We hit the trail the day before our 4th wedding anniversary, placing us in one of the most beautiful locations to celebrate the next day – the Middle Fork Feather River (see top image). Strog tried to take a dip, as the river has good swimming potential. He got wet up to his undies before declaring it too cold to actually swim in yet, but it was great for “icing” knees and achy feet!

We took a long break by the river and restated our vows to each other. Of course, this day couldn’t go too perfectly: a ferocious bug dive-bombed me while I was trying to take a picture on the banks of the river. Subsequently, our phone was accidentally baptized in the Feather River. With a bit of water dripping out of the speaker holes, the screen went blue, then white, and the phone refused to restart a minute later. Luckily, that night, after a few hours of drying out time, the phone magically started back up with no apparent issues (we now call the phone Lazarus).

We also had a few nighttime scares that we now think were completely unfounded, but we can’t figure out what happened. The first one had Strog waking me up at 2:30am with these exact words (shaking me), “Meghan, there is something really big out there. It is probably a bear.” Oh, thanks. Let me just change my undies. There was not a single sound the rest of the night, and we’re not entirely sure if Strog was dreaming some of it. However, the next night, before either of us was asleep, we heard the same kind of sound Strog had described – a few very distinct branch cracking footsteps sounding like a heavy animal (I’m running out of undies at this point) followed by nothing. No approaching sounds, no receding sounds, just silence. Some think it might have been a deer, but we’re skeptical of that since there were no bush rustling or hoof-beat sounds. Let us know if you have a theory on this one!

And really, bears aren’t that scary. What was scary about the possibility of a bear lurking around is that we’ve been sleeping with the food in our tent rather than hung out on a tree. This is not on purpose. Really, we have every intention of hanging our food, and we’ve tried to on multiple occasions. But in order to hang the food, one needs a good branch in the right location at the right height to support the food and keep it safe from animals. And the forests we’ve been going through are sorely lacking in those kinds of branches. In fact, the night of the second branch-snapping footsteps, we tried to hang our food, finding a branch that was almost pretty good. We got the rope over the branch and the food bag attached. My words, “Honey, stand back a bit in case the branch breaks,” came just a second too late. Strog hoisted the food bag to a great cracking sound, and down came the branch that was going to hold our food! Thankfully it fell to the side of Strog with the only ill effects being his momentary terrified surprise. But you get the idea of the hanging issues. Thus, the food bag has been in our tent each night, under our feet… and, fingers crossed, out of the mouths of bears.

Bear scares aside, and save for a few interested bees (I’m not a fan of flying, stinging critters) and a billion interested mosquitoes (Strog’s least favorite flying critter), our fears and annoyances have stayed at a minimum. So I’ll return to a few descriptions of the more awesome parts of this past week.

We’ve had some incredible views as we’ve hiked – of Mt. Lassen and volcanic formations as we’ve hiked along ridges, of beautiful forests with creeks and springs running throughout them, of incredible sunsets camping on an open ridge, and of the clouds that at times felt so close we could touch them as they rushed by us. Beauty was everywhere, and we were warm and dry enough to thoroughly appreciate it.

We were also able to fully appreciate the trail crews who come through and clear the trail for hikers each year. You see, we’re pretty sure they have not yet made it through the section of trail that’s a 14 mi, 4500 ft climb from Belden to the crest. It was very overgrown with bushes and many downed trees and places where a shorter person had to really scramble to get up some of the trail and over some of the trees. Upon completing that climb, we camped with a couple thru-hikers who declared it the most difficult section of trail they’ve hiked so far. And they’ve hiked around 900 miles so far.

And this brings me to one of the things we appreciate most on this trail – other hikers. In the first few days of our hike, with storm after storm hitting us, we did not see a single other soul. This past week, however, we haven’t gone a day without meeting people, and we’ve had some truly awesome experiences. For instance, during our tough climb out of Belden we reached a section of trail that was so overgrown with bushes we had no idea which direction to go. It was at that moment, in the middle of all those bushes that someone called out, “The trail’s over here!” Another hiker, coming the opposite direction, hit the same dilemma and was waiting to see where we popped out. Perfect timing! We followed his voice, finally found him, and had a nice little conversation in the middle of the bushes before each going our way.

One of our best experiences with other hikers, though, took place our last night before heading into Chester. It was one of those experiences that seems to happen less and less as we age, simply because we are not in the appropriate situations as often… the kind of experience in which perfect strangers in very transient situations create strong bonds for a short time before everyone goes their own way, each allowing himself/herself to be truly changed by the experiences shared. Around a campfire, we shared stories. We shared food and drink. We shared laughter. We shared music. We shared listening. And we departed the next morning sharing hugs, more music, and hiker friendships leaving us wonderfully affected by each other.

Let’s talk numbers for a moment. Numbers tend to make things very clear, and this was clearly a crazy week. So here we go:

• 5 – the number of days we hiked on the trail (4 nights)
• 5 – the number of  thunderstorms we’ve been in
• 6 – the number of bouts of hail that ricocheted off our bodies during said thunderstorms
• 10 (or so) – the total number of hours of sunlight we saw in those 5 days
• 4 – the number of days we’ve been tucked in a warm motel bed waiting out the crazy weather

We began with a great send off by Strog’s Aunt Marthe and Uncle Skip who picked us up from the Greyhound station in Sacramento, took us to lunch at the wonderful Nevada City Classic Cafe, and dropped us at the trailhead in Sierra City after several pictures. The weather was perfect for hiking, and we began in high spirits up the beautiful, forested terrain. 

In general, the trail in this section winds up and down along the crest between open ridges and thick forests. Reaching the ridgeline, we were greeted with amazing views of the Sierra Buttes and the northern Sierra Nevada range.

An unexpected exposed section had us hiking until dark to reach an acceptable campsite (and even then, the site was only marginally acceptable if you don’t mind the possibility of being awoken by an ATV bearing down on your tent).

The next day (Wednesday) began sunny enough, but we kept a watchful eye on the gathering clouds. Our beautiful views soon disappeared in the clouds, and we heard our first clap of thunder just as we popped out to an open ridge. We immediately popped back into the trees and headed to lower ground to wait out the storm.

Let me pause for a moment to recount the weather predictions. We’d heard from locals and checked weather online before heading out. The weather showed a chance of thunderstorms through our second day on the trail (Wednesday), clearing up the next day. We decided to take that chance and headed out, after which we had no cell reception to check in with the weather. Okay, back to reality.

The storm chilled the temps and dumped hail, then rain, then more hail on us as we hovered in the forest. Thunder continued crackling sporadically in the distance. Just when we thought we were all clear to keep hiking, another loud clap of thunder resounded overhead. We hovered for a good couple hours waiting out the storm. Oh yeah, and about halfway through we discovered we were getting wet under our rain gear… turns out, not waterproof anymore. Finally, the skies began to clear a bit and we hiked on, enjoying the sunshine and figuring we had hit our afternoon thunderstorm as predicted.

 Spoiler alert – We were wrong. An hour after the storm broke another one came in, drenching us and sending us to lower ground once again. Hail, rain, the whole nine yards. Once we stopped hearing thunder we hiked on, but the rain didn’t let up until the next morning. We camped earlier than planned to get warm and dry and hopefully wait it out a bit.

We woke up to blue sky and sunshine and hung out all our gear and our spirits to dry.

 Good thing we jumped on this sunny opportunity, for it was short lived. With our dry gear barely back in our packs, the rain set in again – we almost pitched the tent immediately and called it quits for the day. But instead we donned our semi-waterproof rain gear and headed out.

The day brought on and off storms and, for some reason, only brought thunder when we reached exposed ridges. Our timing so far has been impeccable. Luckily for us, the evening was a bit drier, and we were able to set up our tent in between rainstorms.

 We awoke in a cloud (now Friday). It was eerie but super cool too. The cloud made the entire forest seem enchanted. We’re pretty sure we heard fairies laughing at us in the distance. The morning stayed at least a bit dry, though our views were completely obscured by cloud. The afternoon brought downpours as we scrambled over mud-flowing gullies and took respite at each grove of trees. The clincher for the day (and maybe the week) was our final emergence onto the Sierra Crest – a completely exposed ridgeline, shrouded in cloud (we literally could not see more than 10 feet around us in any direction), with the wind and rain pelting us from the sides. Bling pretty much sprinted through this section, certain she would be struck from above at any moment. Even Strog was breathless trying to keep up with her.

The next day (Saturday), with our nerves shot and another thunderstorm crackling overhead (more hail, more rain, more panic), we decided to make an unscheduled hitch to wherever any car would take us. We were hoping for Quincy, CA, but Bling was pretty willing to go anywhere but the trail. We tried for a hitch while we walked down the road toward Quincy. Seriously, we stopped every car we could and offered to pay those going the opposite direction to take us to town. Comically, Mother Nature dropped yet another thunderstorm on us while we waited for a hitch – sending us into the trees again. It’s even more difficult to flag down a car when you’re hunkered down in the forest next to the road and then bolt out of the trees like a madman anytime you hear an engine coming. People just don’t seem to find that image trustworthy.

Blessed be the lovely family in the pickup that finally stopped and let us ride in the bed of the truck down the hill to Quincy. We are now tucked in a warm motel room from which Bling refuses to emerge until the weather promises to behave.

Almost seven years after hiking out of a blizzard into Wrightwood, CA and missing 22 Miles of the PCT due to snow and ice, we returned this past week to complete that section of trail. This trip allowed us to test our gear as well as ourselves… and boy did it ever.

If I had but two words to describe this hike, they would be: 1) windy and 2) cold. Given a third word – beautiful, maybe rugged. Those two tie for third place.

Our plan was to hike from the middle of this 22 mi stretch to one end (the Acorn Trail turnoff), double back to the other end (Islip Saddle at Hwy 2), and then hike back to our car (Vincent Gap). Within this section, elevations range from 6500 ft to 9300 ft as the trail climbs both directions: north up Mt. Baden-Powell and south toward Mountain High and our Acorn Trail endpoint.

This hike contained moments of amazing wrapped in stretches of sincere effort and discomfort (but who hikes for the comfort of it?). Actually, even the uncomfortable parts were sometimes amazing.

I’ll recap the amazing:

Smoldering Campfires: Seriously, this is some of the stuff hiking nightmares are made of. You’re all alone in a campground and nestled in your tent with the wind whipping by outside when you think you smell smoke. You ask your partner, but he doesn’t smell anything. So you wait thinking you were dreaming it. The smoke smell doesn’t go away, but it does get stronger. You shake your partner fully awake, and he crawls out of the tent, looks around and says, “Oh s***. Someone’s campfire reignited.” We were the only ones left in this primitive campground that night and therefore the only water source to put out this fire. A gallon of water later (extra because the weather was cold enough that we did not need to drink it, thankfully) and some serious stirring and all ended well. But Smokey the Bear would not have approved. If you know anyone, especially a novice camper, heading out this season, please guide them to resources teaching how to properly put out campfires… and reiterate the importance of doing so. We thank you.

The PCT Hiker in Its Natural Habitat: After that crazy night, we were delighted the next day to be interviewed (along with other  hikers) by different school groups doing lessons on nature and the Pacific Crest Trail. We were definite spectacles to the students whose teachers were so excited to run into “actual PCT hikers.” We answered all questions but shrugged off some of the labeling. We won’t really feel like “actual PCT hikers” until sometime tomorrow. But it was so heartwarming to find out that elementary students were learning about the trail in school and to see educators so excited about the PCT and its hikers.

Summiting Mt. Baden-Powell: This was definitely the highlight of the trip. The climb is intense with few views until the last mile or so. But the last mile makes the climb well worth it. There were great views all around:

The Best Laid Plans: Remember how I mentioned our plan above? Well, we’d intended to stretch it out over about 5 days of hiking – taking our time, hiking shorter miles, getting used to multiple days of hiking, etc. Mother Nature had other plans. The weather turned ever colder and windier as the week wore on. The morning of our second full day of hiking we met some rangers and checked in on the weather for the rest of the week. Stormy, they said. Snowy, they said (again?!). But not until Thursday night, they said. Hmm. Thursday night we were planning on camping just below 9000 ft and hiking down Friday morning. Not a good idea, they said. And then this, “But if you get stuck out there, you can just call us. That’s what we’re here for. We can come get you.” Right. To air lift us off a mountain in a snow storm. Exciting as that sounds, we’ll pass. We’d like our first helicopter ride to be… how should I put this… ah yes, scheduled. So we change our plans. We shorten the trip by hiking a little farther on day 3 and then going all the way back to the car on day 4 (Thursday), instead of waiting until Friday morning.

And then, on day 3, we hiked the beautiful, rugged, windy, cold section from the top of the mountain down to the highway (~3000 ft down). It was spectacular, and made us ache, and I didn’t take my warm hat off once all day. We were about 3 miles from the highway enjoying a respite from it all in a sunny spot when Brian turned to me and said, “There is no way in hell I’m hiking back up over that thing. Let’s hitch.” And so we did… ending our hike on day 3 with a celebratory In-n-Out burger, a shower, and the best night of sleep all week.

Since coming in from the Wrightwood section, we’ve debriefed, adjusted our gear and strategy a bit, and are prepped to head out again. Today, we leave for the beginning of our two-month long section hike. We start from Sierra City and will check in with you again in Chester!