Spoiled slackers

We left Belden at 6:30am with the sound of rave music still thumping across the river. I wish we could have heard the music for a while as we had a 14 mile climb to start out. We made it 21 miles and called it a night.

The highlight of the next day, Day #81, was officially crossing the halfway point of the PCT. This is marked by a post along the trail.  We took a break here and signed in to the registry. It was fun to see the names of hikers in front of us, probably about 60 or so names (not everyone chooses to sign in though). It is crazy we are halfway done and still in California!

From this point on, we ran into lots of unexpected trail magic...We crossed Hwy 36 in the morning and found coolers of fresh fruit and sodas from a trail angel. We continued on and after 22 miles we went through Warner Valley CG where we saw Chief and his wife, Maureen, with their camper. Chief's wife is taking a few weeks off supporting her husband at various points along the  trail. We had intended on saying hi for a few minutes and then hiking on a few more miles, but after some lemonade, fruit and an offer to "slack pack", we put up our tent there and each cracked open a beer. Slack packing is where someone takes the contents of your backpack ahead for you and you hike with just food and water for the day, essentially like a day hike. After Maureen made us a wonderful breakfast, she drove our stuff to Old Station and Chief, Katie and I set off at 6:30am for our 23 mile "day hike" to Old Station. Oh man, slack packing felt great! It was a good break from the weight of the pack and our pace was so much faster. We hiked through Lassen NP and went through a couple different burn areas. The trail was mostly flat and downhill and the ground was soft and dusty, we even trail ran a few miles. We were 3 miles away from Old Station when we encountered some unexpected trail magic from 2 old thru hikers from 1999. They had a banner welcoming us to their trail magic and when we walked over there we were given cold soda, pastries and fresh watermelon. Wow, what a treat on a hot day!

We reached the Hat Creek RV Park at 3pm and caught back up with Maureen who had just arrived and had a great site by the stream. We did laundry, showered and relaxed for the afternoon. Once again Chief and Maureen let us camp with them. Maureen also fed us homemade chili and we split a bottle of wine. Great end to an awesome day!

After a restful sleep we woke up and were invited in for pancakes and coffee with Maureen and Chief. I haven't ate this well in weeks and their kindness is amazing! We set off at 8am to hike 7 miles with a side detour to check out Subway Cave (pic below), and then took a siesta at their camper until 4pm to stay out of the heat. We hiked on until about 9:15pm so we had to break out the headlamps but were rewarded with a great view of Mt Shasta with the sun setting behind it. I "cowboy camped" for the first time in my life last night (camped without a tent); the stars were out and the moon just a sliver. It was a beautiful night.

Next stop is Burney Falls SP where we will meet up with Katie's parents and Katie picks up her dog Xena for a couple weeks of hiking.

Trail stats after 84 days and 1398 miles:
# snakes: 23
# bears: 1
# days rain: 3
# nights indoor: 12
# showers with soap: 16
# beers: 37
# loads laundry: 13
# chocolate milk: 10
# pushups: 560

Pics from top to bottom:
- Footprints
- Siesta at the camper
- View of the trail
- More cows!
- Boiling Mud Lake at Mt Lassen NP
- Lunch time and Katie's stove
- Chief and Katie entering Subway Cave
- Our favorite trail angel, Maureen, and me