Chapter 9: Chester to Mt Shasta
After leaving Chester, I immediately entered another intense burn, this one owned by a private logging company that was actively removing burnt trees as I walked through. The trail itself, however, was pleasantly flat. This was incredibly welcome for my feet, which were still healing.
A few miles in, I came across a fork of the Feather River, with a sturdy bridge going over it. I decided that eating an early dinner would be a great idea, to avoid carrying extra water until Lassen National Forest, and took up position under the bridge.
As I prepared my ramen, several hikers passed, and I had pleasant conversations with many of them, but before too long my food was ready and I was alone. During my first bite, however, I heard one more hiker walk across the bridge, not having spotted me, and drop their pack on their other side.
I didn’t see them again for a few minutes until, on the other side of the river, a woman in just her underwear popped out of the trees on the other side. Since she still hadn’t spotted me, I did my best to gently notify her of my presence without scaring her.
Moo was a bit surprised by my gentle “hi”, but she waved back and did her best to bathe in the shallow waters I was eating my dinner by. She had had a tough day and was looking forward to this chance. We chatted for a bit until another hiker stomped across the bridge. This was Pitstop, who I last saw in the Sierras, demanding if I had seen Moo or Danger Noodle.
I continued on my own towards the boundary of Lassen National Park. Due to there being very few safe camping spots in this area, when Moo and Pitstop showed up later that evening, I made room for them to sleep next to me.
Lassen National Park had been heavily burned by the fires, and despite the flat trail, hiking was miserable, punctuated only by tepid and gross ponds for water. I heard that Magma was just ahead, however, so I pushed on to attempt to catch up to her.
At Old Station, I hung out with Clementine and Abbey, who I hadn’t seen in over 500 miles. I then tackled the intensely hot Hat Creek Rim, nearly succumbing to heat exhaustion due to an ill-advised attempt to wait out the worst of the day in an extremely exposed position with minimal cell service. I was taking this opportunity to order new shoes to the next town, which I desperately needed, but the infuriating spottiness of my cell service made this difficult.
Eventually, Hat Creek Rim ended, aided by the incredible water source “Cache 22”. The evenings were difficult, however, as the muggy heat never dissipated.
On my way into town, I came across Moo and finally met Danger Noodle. A few miles past that, I caught up with Magma and we got a hitch together into Burney, where I convinced her to hang out in town, especially with a record heat wave about to reach us.
In Burney, I found Sweet Cakes, as well as Floss, and again we joked about never actually meeting on trail. We did our best to wait out the heat of the day, but eventually I had to go back out into 112 degree weather, despite running into Guppy, who tried to convince me to stay and play with water guns in town.
I rushed past Burney Falls State Park, wanting to make up for time spent in town, but still rested at each creek I could, as the heat was oppressive. At the final creek for the day, I sat down for dinner before being joined by Rich and Ben, who I last saw early in the desert. As we hiked on a bit more, McMansion and Honeybee caught up to us.
The next day we were climbing over a ridge when wildfire smoke overtook us. I checked my phone to learn of the McKinney fire, which had just broken out on the PCT north of us. This meant that the rest of Northern California after Soda Springs Road was now effectively closed. We digested this information over the next few days while we all made plans on what to do.
The day before making it to Soda Springs, where I planned to hitch into Mt Shasta, I learned there was another fire in central Oregon, meaning that most of the trail in Oregon was closed, albeit in spotty sections, and the Lionshead burn from 2021 still closed parts of Northern Oregon.
I decided I was going to attempt to skip past almost of all of Oregon to Timberline Lodge, finish out Washington, and then come back to clean up any miles that reopened after I finished. When I encountered Moo and Danger Noodle, I let them know my plans. I also had booked a hotel room in Mt. Shasta and invited anyone who needed a place to stay, as most hotels in town were fully booked.
Danger Noodle had family in the area she was going to stay with, but Moo asked if she could join me. Soon after, Pitstop joined us and asked me what my plans were. Behind her, Moo gently shook her head, and this confirmed my long held suspicion that Moo and Danger Noodle had been trying to lose Pitstop for quite some time. I gave a non-committal answer and wished Pitstop the best of luck.
In Mt. Shasta, I found Floss and Magma and invited them to stay with Moo and I. Magma also invited Shapes, who I last saw the day I first met Pitstop, and the six of us crammed into the same hotel room, doing our best to make the best of the situation.
While I offered to go and do the group’s laundry, I contacted Little Hamster. She had quit the trail back in Idyllwild, but later rejoined for parts of it. Her leg injuries, however, eventually took her out. Despite that, she was still hanging out around the trail, working and providing help whenever she could.
Washington has almost no towns to resupply at, so I needed to send resupply boxes in advance. The closest major city was Bend, Oregon, which has always been a favorite of mine. We coordinated a car rental and house rental in Bend, and she drove down to pick my new group up.