Carter Meadows trail junction to Highway 36 (Staying in Chester)
The temperature was perfect last night to allow for a great night sleep. As soon as we woke, Share Bear said that she heard huge noises in the night that had to be a bear. Free Lunch said that he heard the noises too and put on his light and saw multiple deer around all our tents. Cool. Share Bear said that it made sense because if it was deer then it was many of them. She also said that she had heard stories of deer coming into camp and stealing hiking poles because they like licking the sweat off the handles. Then Alex was like, "Speaking of poles, one of mine is missing!" It was unbelievable. I didn't really believe he story of deer stealing poles, but here it is, right in front of me. Alex went off searching for his pole. Meanwhile, a family of 3 deer wondered into our camp eating while ignoring us:
Momma and 2 fawns
Good pose from a fawn.
I figured if a deer took a pole they wouldn't go far, so I stepped up on a rock to get a view and spotted the pole about 30 feet from our camp. I will be keeping my poles closer to my tent for now on.
After all the excitement, Alex left before our picture, but Free Lunch hadn't left his tent yet, so here we are, ready to hike at 7:30 AM.
After all the excitement, Alex left before our picture, but Free Lunch hadn't left his tent yet, so here we are, ready to hike at 7:30 AM.
Ready to hike.
Today we only have 13.31 miles to get to the town of Chester where Brad's mom Mary bought us a room at the Best Western for the night. She thought we deserved a room to celebrate getting to the halfway point today. That's right...we will be passing the halfway point in just under 10 miles, so let's get going.
Share Bear leads the way.
Brad hikes past cool rock formation.
By 9:00 AM we had 10 miles to get to town. We were anxious to get there to enjoy the room.
Sign indicating 10 miles to Highway 36 (Chester)
Check out this great view of Mount Lassen:
Snow-covered Mount Lassen
The scenery was beautiful today, but the trail was overgrown in many places. These bush really scratch the heck out of my legs.
Overgrown trail.
At 9:30 AM we arrived at the PCT midpoint marker post. It was cool to see it, but according to half miles map, we were 4.39 miles short, but it wasn't going to stop us from celebrating and ponder what this means.
Pondering the halfway point.
Random thoughts that went through my head at the halfway point of the PCT:
* We are only halfway there?!?
* We have used almost two-thirds of the hiking time to come only halfway.
* Can I really hike the same amount of miles again?
* This pain in my back, foot, knee, etc...is it going to make me fail?
* After the halfway point, we are closer to Canada than Mexico.
* We are halfway and still have 369 more miles left in California.
We took a break there and stared at the market post not believing that we made it this far. After about an hour we headed back on the trail in search of the actual halfway point just over 4 miles ahead. Just after noon we arrived at PCT mile 1325.05...the actual halfway point.
* We are only halfway there?!?
* We have used almost two-thirds of the hiking time to come only halfway.
* Can I really hike the same amount of miles again?
* This pain in my back, foot, knee, etc...is it going to make me fail?
* After the halfway point, we are closer to Canada than Mexico.
* We are halfway and still have 369 more miles left in California.
We took a break there and stared at the market post not believing that we made it this far. After about an hour we headed back on the trail in search of the actual halfway point just over 4 miles ahead. Just after noon we arrived at PCT mile 1325.05...the actual halfway point.
Proof I'm standing at the halfway point of the PCT.
Halfway there...One over two.
We were now about 3.5 miles from Highway 36 where Tim is going to meet us and take us to Chester, so we skipped lunch and kept hiking.
Brad...get the gate!
We arrived at the highway at 1:30 PM. A whole 30 minutes faster than Tim or us thought we would be getting there. When Tim did arrive, my friend Lynda's mom was with him. Lynda and her family invited Tim to stay at their house in Susanville for a few days.
We hopped in the 4Runner and drove the 7.5 miles to Chester and immediately went for lunch. After lunch we checked into the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day. Share Bear was nice enough to do our laundry while the rest of us laid on the beds watching the Summer Olympics.
We watched TV way too late and then went to sleep. We should get back on trail at our normal 7:30 AM tomorrow morning, but we have to sleep in just a bit since we have this awesome hotel room. I guess we will wait and see what tomorrow brings.
We hopped in the 4Runner and drove the 7.5 miles to Chester and immediately went for lunch. After lunch we checked into the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day. Share Bear was nice enough to do our laundry while the rest of us laid on the beds watching the Summer Olympics.
We watched TV way too late and then went to sleep. We should get back on trail at our normal 7:30 AM tomorrow morning, but we have to sleep in just a bit since we have this awesome hotel room. I guess we will wait and see what tomorrow brings.
Happy to be in a hotel room for the night.
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