Day 61: Lassen National Park

I snoozed my first alarm. We broke camp by 5:30 and was treated to a stunning sunrise. 

The next highlight of the morning was reaching the halfway point of the PCT -- 1,325 miles to Canada remaining! It felt unreal.

Water is more spread out here, so it wasn’t until the 7 mile mark that we refreshed on water (and then I made coffee. Yesterday was a long day.). We planned to eat dinner at Drakesbad Guest Ranch, which was 25 miles where we stopped and also located in Lassen Volcanic National Park, another ‘first visit’ to a national park I hadn’t been before. I had cell service early in the day and tried calling the ranch. No answer. Uh oh. We I tried again. No answer again. I tried again later with no luck, so I then sent an email. 

They replied and the news wasn’t good. They weren’t open for another 8 days yet. 

Sigh, I’d been looking forward to it for the last 3.5 days since it was a chance to shower, soak in a hot spring, and eat a good dinner. I’d even ate my planned trail dinner for tonight last night as part of my double dinner. 

Oh well, figured we’d go anyway to see. It is practically on trail anyways. We arrived and they were indeed closed. A worker there felt bad for us and as a result, she rummaged up 4 PB and Honey sandwiches, a quarter bag of chips, and a banana. It was the first and best PB and Honey sandwich I’ve ever had. We hung around to charge our devices and drink water. 

Then, it was a short climb up some switch backs to make it our planned camp. Sandman gave me an extra ramen packet he had so I could have a dinner — so thoughtful!

Miles: 33.0

Total Miles: 1,583