Yesterday, I passed the halfway point of the PCT. Part of me can’t believe that I’ve already walked halfway to Canada and another part of me feels like I should be way farther than halfway. I still have over 300 miles left in this state.
The objective for yesterday was a highway that was 24 miles from camp. We were hoping to be in town in time for a pizza buffet, but that proved to be too difficult.
Found more snow today. Mile 1319.6, just before the halfway point. Lucky for me, I was able to use this snow to chill my halfway beer.
One of the nearby mountains has a pretty interesting name. I’m not sure if that’s what it’s supposed to look like or if someone once misspelled butte and the name just stuck.
After hiking like mad all morning, we made it to the halfway point. Because the trail get rerouted every once in awhile, the halfway marker is about 5 miles short of halfway. We celebrated there anyway.
After eating and drinking at the halfway post, we hiked into town as fast as we could. I rationed my water as much as I could so I wouldn’t have to stop. This paid off and we made it to the highway at about 3 pm. We immediately got a hitch and headed into town to eat.
Chester is a small town on Lake Alminor. They have a grocery store and a few restaurants. The first hotel we tried was full for the night. There were no cars in the parking lot, so it must have been hikers. We stayed at the Best Western and 2Taps’ mom offered to pay as a halfway done gift. We enjoyed the hotel and the nearby restaurants before heading out in the early afternoon. Oh yeah, we didn’t make it to town in time for the pizza buffet, but we did have it for lunch today.
Just 15 miles from the highway is Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park requires a bear can and all of us sent ours home. Lucky for us, the trail only goes through 20 miles of the park, so we can hike through it in a day. Right now I’m just feet from the park boundary. In the morning we’ll stop at a resort about 4 miles in for breakfast then finish the rest of the park and keep heading north.