Chester to Burney

July 10

Mile 1408

When we posted the last entry we were just leaving the town of Chester, CA. We managed to get in and out in under 4 hours which was an impressively short town stop. We heard in town that there were thunder showers forecasted for the evening and, unfortunately, the forecast was accurate. We had planned on doing about 20 miles out of Chester to catch our hiking buddy, but we only managed about 12 before the rain started with lightening and thunder following shortly after. We set up our tent and were asleep by 7pm due to the weather. We started early the next day at 4am to make up the mileage we lost to the storm and ended up doing our biggest mile day yet - 35 miles! It stormed that day too, for about 7 hours, with incredible lightning and heavy torrential rain for most of that time. We followed our 35 mile day with a 32 mile day yesterday, again catching thunderstorms in the afternoon. The storms just won't quit. I'm sitting in a McDonalds here in Burney writing this and yet again the clouds are building and turning dark and ominous. It looks like we might be in for round four today. :/

Yesterday we finished a portion of the trail that went through Lassen National Park, an area with incredible volcanic features including a boiling acidic lake and lava tubes, one of which we found unmarked and unnoticed right by the trail.

Mike looking into the lava tube.

The boiling springs lake, complete with bubbling mud pots around the perimeter.

Nice view on our early morning hike.

Scary clouds halfway through our 35 mile day.

More weather.

An informational outlook near Mt Lassen where we learned that we had been seeing Mt Lassen and not Shasta. Woops.

Taking a break from the storms at a water cache during a 30 mile waterless stretch of trail. In the pic it kinda looks like a hobo camp, but to us it was a magical oasis. It was novel to have some chairs to sit in. It's the little things!

A rainbow after the storm. It almost made the rain worth it... Almost.

I'm now at the grocery store finishing this entry up. We're trying to do another quick turn around here so we can fit in another 20-25 miles today. We'll take a rest in a few days when we get into the town of Mount Shasta. Wish us luck with the weather and the miles!