Chester

I wake up at 5AM and get ready. I also wake up feeling negative. I flat out don’t want to hike today. Yesterday was a hassle of bushwhacking and trail finding. Quite frankly it destroyed my moral. I hope the snowy miles are solid this morning so I can walk on top of it. I get out of my tent and take that first step, the snow feels firm, nice. That’s a huge first win for the day.

I dig my cat hole, eat breakfast and start off over the ridge line in the snow. After a mile it clears to nice dirt path along the ridge. Nice. I followed it for a while through blowdowns and ups and downs through some eerie burnt forest. This area was a victim of the Dixie fire and it got absolutely scorched. Depressing.

I get to the top of the hill after 4 miles and see some volcanic rock formations. Pretty cool to see since back home we have none of this terrain. I read the far out comments on how rough the lava is. This areas going to tear up my shoes but it’s beautiful. I do remember how rough the black sand beaches were in Maui.

As I continue on walking up the volcanic rock I can see views of the mountains between the rocks and they’re still covered with snow. Beautiful views too.

As I continue on up the trail again I stop and grab some snow melt as the next water source is a handful of miles away. I’m starting to chafe, sweat and I need to stay hydrated. That’s been rule #1 since day one. Hydrate hydrate hydrate. I filter a liter of snow water and chug it down. Gross strawberry flavored electrolytes, I can’t buy this flavor again. So far my favorite flavor has been the tropical flavor, next the new lemonade flavor.

After grabbing water it’s another snowy traverse, this time we go up over the ridge line to the opposite side where the sun is beating down on the mountain to skip the snow. We’ll take a smidge of bushwhacking over a sideways snow traverse in slush. Overall I’m done with snow at this point mentally. It’s sketchy walking on an angle in slushy conditions. If the snow gives out you’re just along for the ride.

After we finish the snow we begin a nice downhill, it’s 7 miles to the highway 36 and I’m planning on getting there today. The downhills uneventful, I didn’t take many pictures of this section due to it being just burnt down. It was ugly, depressing, and made me wonder how beautiful it must’ve been back then. Towering tall trees in a beautiful forest.

My dad’s voice pops into my head when I complained to him about the Big Bear fire area. He said “it’s a forest fire bud, that’s nature it happens and that’s now what the forest is. Get use to it. Find beauty in the rebirth of a new beautiful forest.” He’s not wrong, but it’s a hard pill to swallow today.

On the way downhill I pass the halfway point marker. Seven says It’s kindve underwhelming for being “halfway”. I cannot believe I have hiked this much mileage on the PCT. I haven’t made it officially halfway yet. I still have some miles I need to do in the Sierras because I had to skip forward as the snow was melting to fast. But wow, I have hiked over 900 miles on the PCT NOBO, and over 200 miles in Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Sequía. Fuck yeah! I’ve hit over 1,000 miles for 2025.

I sign the logbook and notice I’m the 15th person to come through here this year. I believe it, the trail looks like no one’s been on it in years. It’s due for some serious maintenance. Another mile or so after thinking that and I see 3 guys doing exactly that. Trail maintenance, I stop and chat for a moment and tell them they are sent from god. The trails trash the last 20 miles and you guys are very much appreciated. Too late for me, but the next guys will sincerely appreciate it.

Uglystick and Wind two other hikers I’ve met are a day behind me, they are the true trail leaders and have been ahead of everyone the entire time. They went into the sierras in April. That’s crazy, me jumping ahead put me just in front of them. They’ll catch up though.

After talking with the guys doing maintenance we move through a soaked meadow, I was originally planning on camping here but it’s not going to happen. Camp sites are scarce here, the dead trees make it so I don’t want to camp anywhere near them.

After we cross the meadow I bee line it a mile for the highway. I decide I’m grabbing a hitch into Chester and spending the night there. Seven says he’s coming with me and has his eyes on a milkshake somewhere. I get to the highway and throw my thumb out. Ten minutes in and a lovely woman picks us up, she tells us her stories, she’s heading to Reno to dog sit for her daughters new 9week old puppy. She also battled cancer the last few years and lost almost everything. Financially she lost everything, but she beat cancer. That’s most important.

She drops us off at the Bidwell House bed and breakfast and I grab a double room. It was the only place is town with a room available for tonight. The woman at the front desk has a German accent and is also lovely to us, she shows us around the property and it’s just pristine. White picket fence type pristine.

I will say Chester is the most expensive hotel I’ve paid for on trail so far, even more expensive than in San Diego but I needed it. Hell even Seven needed it. Gala apple index is also through the roof, so I knew going into it would be expensive.

Mentally and physically, I’m just toast this week. My pace throughout this hike has progressed significantly, I can hike 30 mile days but the last week or so has just been physically demanding with very little views or scenes that balance it out. This is the time for the mental toughness and to find beauty in misery. Embrace the suck.

I decide to take a zero tomorrow. Tomorrow’s suppose to be 97°F and I just don’t want to hike in that heat. My plan is to relax for the day. Do laundry to get the poison oak off my socks and just generally enjoy a day of not hiking. Seven is going to burn the day with me, Wolf and Pinecone pushed on. We’ll catch up to them later in either Old Station or Burney.

The next day I wake up later than normal and enjoy an off day. I meet a local Michael who use to run the Hiker Hostel and hang at his house for a bit. Michael shows me around town and we enjoy a beer or two. These small towns and the people in them truly do make me want to stay, the hospitality for a complete stranger like my self keeps me going.

After I leave Michael’s I stop on the way back for a sub at Pizza Factory, I order an Italian with no tomatoes and the lady says “Do you want it hot?” Absolutely not, Italian subs are served cold in my life. Man do I wish California would stop trying to heat up every sub they make. I crush my sub and hang out for the rest of the day, back on trail tomorrow and I need to get in the zone for it.