Day 102 Lassen – The Trek

9.27 = 3.0 + 6.27 miles (Hell + Hat Creek/PCT)
From Park Road in Hat Creek (when 6400)
To follow the camp along Hat Creek (Mile 1368, UND 5521)
Climbing 446+222
Descend 1124

Buzz and power

I woke up early (5:20) and went to the only place I had found with electrical outputs: the laundry room of the camp. I connected my battery banks. Then I took the hair cutters that I had packed in my «city bag.» It was certainly not my best haircut, I didn’t even have a mirror, but it turned out quite well and now I look a little more as a regular member of society. Having specific guards in the clippers, as well as having cut my own hair from the beginning of the pandemic.

Bumpass hell

After breakfast and packed things, we headed at the beginning of the path for Bumpass hell. I had seen this a few decades ago, but it was fun to see it again, especially with people who had not seen it before.

On the walk, I ended up walking near Norma, which visits the national parks in their retirement. She had just spent a month in
Yosemite spent a month in Lassen and then headed for a long visit to Redwood. That seems such a good way to visit the parks.

Visitors and Museum Center

Our final stop as a group went to the Visitors Center and the Museum at the Southwest entrance. While I was there, I remembered to look through his books the book of John Muir Laws to identify a wild flowers. There has been a wild flow that had been driving me crazy because I have known that it is the name, but I have not been able to identify it for more than a month. As soon as I saw it in the book, I immediately knew it: California Fuchsia.

Hat Creek Trail

After lunch, my friends drive most of the road through the park to leave me on the Hat Creek path, near the PCT.

The path begins as a dirt road. After a couple of miles, it covers a lot, they cross Hat Creek, and then the path disappears. I walked slowly to navigate and because the ground was as soft, it felt as if I was walking in a soft beach sand with different tunnels under what my foot was still breaking.

The path was divided into one point, where any of the options would work. I took the one that was shorter and highlighted in Farout.

Very quickly, what little path had disappeared completely. So I looked for the last half mile to the PCT. Near the end, Faraout clearly showed the PCT on the southern side of a crest, although I could not see it when I approached from the south. I still couldn’t see it while creating the crest. It was only after I went a little next to the crest that I found the PCT. Farout had presented me incorrect data.

Early camp

A couple of miles later, I stopped and prepared the camp. This was going to be a very short day (although it was already 5 pm). I’ve been food for 9 days, and I want to give me time to eat enough for the rest to fit my USack.

I am in the first place of the store on the list outside Lassen. The views are not spectacular. But the site is very pleasant. I am in a pine position, which provides shadow and damping of pine needles on the ground.

Ramona/Lucky has just walked and said: «Hello.» We chat very briefly. Maybe I feel that I know some people on the way.

Fatigue

Yesterday, during/after walking Lassen Z Peak, my legs felt strong, but I had a time of tiredness.

Today, my whole body is not tired, but it seems to me that it wants to do days as yesterday the norm. For me, it seems that my body is trying to take steps towards hibernation.

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