Day 81, 27.1 miles

Last night I felt a few little drops on my face just as I was falling asleep. I got out of my tent and put the rain fly on just in case. I’m glad I did because at around 4:30am I woke up to it raining outside. Then there was about an hour and a half of lighting and thunder, getting closer and closer and then eventually further away. It was still a warm temperature outside and it actually felt real nice and cozy to have such an early morning thunderstorm!

It eventually stopped raining and I was able to leave and pack up and hit the trail by 7am. I’m in Lassen Park, and from why I can tell by others’ stories and pictures on social media, this is where I’m most likely to see some bear activity! With this in mind climbed the first hill more attentively than normal, and also decided to just wear one earphone today instead of both. Every once in a while I’d think I saw a bear in the distance, only to get closer and discover a big rock or a burnt out log or stump:

Dead center: I thought this was a bear and cub! Haha

Today was such a nice day for hiking! A small ~1000 for climb, and then flat and slightly downhill for the rest of the day!! Here’s what the elevation map looked like for today:

So great!

I knew I only had ~27 miles to get to Old Station where I was planning on getting some dinner, and with the great flat/down grade, I didn’t feel to rushed. I even put my trekking poles away after the climb! There was a really beautiful lake at the start of a 12 mile waterless stretch that I stopped at for awhile to filter some water and just take in the peace and tranquility.

Ahhhhh!

A nice flat burn area

Straight and flat, the best!!

Lassen Peak in the distance behind a burn area

I stopped at around 11am to eat an early lunch and to dry out my rainfly. I’m telling you, I’m really loving this super light pack setup that I have right now. Especially since the stretches between towns have been extremely short (therefore not a lot of food weight), sometimes I forget I’m even wearing a pack! 

Looking slim!!

More straight and flat!

After my lunch break, the skies got angry and started to thunder. At times there was lightning nearby. Although the sky was still partly sunny, there were dark and menacing clouds moving in towards me. I picked up the pace a little when I started feeling a few raindrops come down. Luckily, I didn’t get hit by a full downpour, as I sped down towards Old Station and JJ’s Cafe! 

A sight for a hungry hiker!

This place was so great! I got there right around 4pm, while it was still pretty hot out. Lucky, who I camped with last night, had gotten there at 2:30! I immediately ordered th lunch special salad and a big Nutella shake. And then a California Burger with avocado... and then the berry cobbler dessert... hahaha! Let’s just say I was preeeetty stuffed after all that!

Course 1 of my dinner, and Lucky thinking of what to order next..

After spending over an hour there, we decided that it had cooled down enough to head it and walk a little bit further. Less than a mile north on trail was a junction to check out Subway Cave. It was very neat, reminded me of the Kazumura Cave back home on the Big Island.

Lucky going in

The cave was about 1,000 feet long, and had a few different pockets and cul-de-sacs branching off of the main tube. We thought it would be cool to camp at the South end mouth (pictured above), on the smooth packed firm dirt near the stairs. It was a cool 43° inside the cave and still easily 70°+ outside, so we sat around and cooled down while deciding what we’d do. Within 30 minutes we saw and heard at least 10 mice, and figured that we didn’t want to deal with that all night. We left the cave and camped close nearby.

The night sky was clear and I debated using the rainfly, and ended up deciding not too. It’s still so hot outside and it’s dark already! Here’s hoping for no rain!

Thanks for reading!!