Day 206: Cold Springs to Just Short of Soldier Creek...

This was the day I was dreading. A hike with around 1,400 feet of elevation gain, partly above tree line with 24 long, dry miles. No water on this section of the Pacific Crest Trail. We tanked up at Cold Springs; filled our water bottles (around three gallons of water) and headed out.

The skies were ominous as a thunderstorm passed over head. I was worried about lightning on the exposed sections. We did get a few drops of rain, but the storm passed us by. A few rumbles of thunder warned us of our mortality...

Up the trail...

And boy did I sweat. Precious fluids sweating out of me...

The storm over Mount Lassen...

Trail Angels! When we got to the eight mile point without water, these kind folks fed us. Gave us beer. Sodas! Water! Fruit! Chips and Salsa! Some really good cookies! Our stroke of luck because the last time they decided to serve hikers was three years ago! For some reason, they decided to take their four wheel drive to this remote location in order to give us fluids and snacks. Such luck!

The northern end of the great Concow fire of 2008. The fire that nearly burned Joni and me out of our home (the first day we moved into it). This photo is some thirty miles north of our house.

More fire..

There is water at the twelve mile point--you just have to hike straight down the mountain for around a mile to get to it. We decided to forge on to our campsite at Soldier Creek and turn the day into a 24 mile day. 24 miles with 40 pound backpacks in the blaring sun is a long, long way.

We didn't' make it. Night closed in on us. We forged ahead with headlights on our foreheads, but the trail got a little tricky to find. So we plunked our sleeping bags down on a precarious ledge and slept there for the night.

Sometime after falling asleep, a bat decided to join me in my sleeping bag. I awoke with a start, slid off the ledge. The bat stayed in the bag until I turned the thing over, with the Therapist pointing a flashlight at it. The bat flew out of the sleeping bag.

The bat didn't bite me, but it sure did give me a fright. At first I thought it was a rattlesnake that had climbed into the bag with me.

I fell asleep soundly after the bat incident. My partners stayed awake most of the night listening to loud crashing and thrashing all around us. Later the next day, we found mountain lion tracks on the trail. We ended up backpacking around 23 miles that day. A record for me!