We were awakened by some early morning visitors today – deer crashing around near our tent before the sun came up. When we shined our lights on them they just stood there and looked at us dumbly. Maybe they couldn’t tell what was going on with the net tent, but it took some scolding to get them to leave so we could go back to sleep.
Other than that it was a pretty uneventful morning. Our tent was in the shade but we could still feel the heat and humidity as we packed up. We started out on a slight climb through open forest and hilltop meadow, then spent the rest of the morning on gentle hills in the woods. We crossed a lot of roads – a few real ones, even, with pavement and lines and everything. There’s logging activity in this area and we saw a few trucks loaded with timber. On one lookout I think we caught our first glimpse of Mt. Lassen, still a few days away.
We stopped at a creek for lunch, hoping that it would still be running since it was a steep hike down. It was and the icy water helped revive us. After lunch we started a long, switchback-filled descent down to a fork of the Feather River. We’d been looking forward to this all day – there was supposed to be great spots for swimming down in the canyon. As we dropped down, avoiding the poison oak, the skies clouded over and a breeze came up. By the time we reached the steel arch bridge high over the river, it had cooled off significantly and looked as though it might rain.
We dropped our packs at a well-used campsite and walked out to the river, where we sat and soaked for a little while. It felt great to clean the dirt and sweat off our legs and faces. The water was warm enough to swim in, but neither of us wanted to take the time since we had a long climb out of the canyon waiting for us. Instead we just sat and watched the dipper birds hopping around on the rocks next to the churning water. They stuck their heads into the bubbling pools to look for bugs and other tidbits. This river will definitely go on our list of places to revisit someday when hiking isn’t our main goal.
After our relaxing soak, we began the climb out of the canyon – the flip side of the long downhill into it. It was steep but we made surprisingly good time. This is the payoff for spending weeks above 8000 feet. When we drop down to 3000 feet the air is so much richer that we were barely breathing hard. We certainly were sweating, though. The nice breeze that had cooled us off at the river was gone and it was incredibly muggy. We had three water sources coming up. We planned to get water at the third before hiking up another mile or so to a spot on the map that looked like it might be flat enough to camp on. This was a bit of a gamble since there was no campsite marked on our map. It if wasn’t suitable we’d probably have to push on another few miles until we reached the top of the climb.
We passed the first two water sources in quick succession and crossed our fingers that the third (a small creek) was still flowing. It was, with great force, and we stood in front of its cascade and caught the cold damp air rolling off it. It was like having our own air conditioning. We loaded up with water, carefully crossed the mossy, slippery rocks, and hiked on. By now it was starting to get dark and we were anxious to find out if our gamble would pay off. We trudged up and up and rounded a corner, and there it was – a flat campsite big enough for three tents, complete with a fire ring. This was better than we had dared to hope for. The bugs started in on us right away so we got the tent up in record time and dived in. Tomorrow we face the last 5 miles of this steep climb, but we’ll reach a restaurant by lunch and be able to get some real food. The day after that we should reach the town of Belden for another short break. We’ve been making great time on this section so far.
– Posted from the PCT
Location:Pct mile 1256