Well it's official. This morning, around 8:15, I crossed the midpoint of the PCT. I had gotten an early start despite a rough night of tossing and turning. I discovered that I had forgotten my evening painkiller, which explained the restlessness and the fact that I woke up well before dawn. Tick Tock had headed off with the sunrise, so I was left alone to watch the sky slowly turn from pink to orange. Last night was a cold one, so I stayed in my bag until my breath no longer poured out of me in large steamy clouds. Still, I was up and gone earlier than has been my habit of late.
The trail started with a short and easy climb up the shoulder of Butt Mountain. From there I had spectacular views of Mt. Lassen and Brokeoff Mtn (pictured). These two peaks were once a part of the same massive volcano, which would probably have been larger than Mt. Shasta. The eruption that tore them apart also created vast volcanic mud flows that form the buttes near Chico where I often hiked while I was in college. Speaking of college, Brokeoff was also the mountain my buddy and I got snowed in on during the winter mountaineering course where I first learned to use an ice axe. Lassen, incidentally, also marks the first volcano of the Cascade range (sorry if I already mentioned that, it's been a long week).
After the first climb the trail descended gently for a number of miles. As it rounded the eastern side of the mountain I had views out over Lake Almanor, where we fished a few times when I was young. It was here that I also came across the midpoint marker (pictured). So everyone do me a favor and pour a glass of wine, lift a beer, or mix your favorite drink and celebrate a bit for me. If you're underage, grab a bottle of hand sanitizer and join in!
(Warning: drinking hand sanitizer is dangerous, please don't. Besides, cough syrup tastes better)
(Caution: don't do that either. In fact, if you're underage you probably shouldn't be reading my blog anyway - it's a bad influence)
I was energized from yesterday, and crossing the midway point perked me up even more, so the rest of the miles until lunch went by in a blur. I also got a treat in the form of a cold soda, which was left in a cache near highway 36. This was the first trail magic since SoCal, and it really hit the spot.
Mostly I was hiking through tunnels of ponderosa pine, white fir, sugar pine, and incense cedar, with occasional views out over meadows or volcanic buttes. Not the most amazing views, but it does feel like home.
At lunch I discovered the beginnings of a couple of blisters, so I soaked my feet, wrapped them in mole skin, and slowed my pace for the rest of the day. Around mile 31 I came across Boiling Springs Lake, which I had seen on my map. It is a thermal lake, and I had hoped to take a soak. Unfortunately it is illegal to come within 20 yards, in part to protect the landscape and in part, as the boiling mud pots could attest, because the water was hot enough to give a person burns. I moved on until I found some hot springs near the Drakesbad Resort (which I didn't visit because I was too lazy to hike the extra mile off trail to get there). Here, though, signs warned of high levels of acidity in the water, so once again I moved on.
I crossed Hot Springs Creek (which is ice cold) and ran into some Chico natives out camping. One of them told me that the creek was a great place to fish, and that he had been pulling out brook, rainbow, and brown trout the day before. I made a mental note to come back some day, since this area is only 2 hours from my house.
I climbed one last ridge, which forms the rim of a caldera in which all these thermal seeps originate, and dropped down into a meadow on the other side. I'm now camped in Corral Meadow, after a 34.5 mile day. Tomorrow I should make Old Station Resort, and possibly some fresh food and/or a shower?
