September 6

Distance: 22.3 | Ascent: 2150′ | Descent: 1700′

Mile marker: 1281.1

Lunch: J&A – rice and beans with summer sausage (A, A)

Dinner: J&A – rice and beans with summer sausage (A-, A)

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A water cache was located about three miles down trail from where we camped last night. If we left the ranch earlier, we probably could’ve made it there. When we arrived, it seemed like most of the other hikers did camp there. We got water and prepared for a somewhat exposed hike.

A short climb to the top of the ridge gave a great view of the valley below. It also led us to another water cache and some great cell service. Since we last had service like this, we thought of more chores we had to do. So, we sat on a bench at the top of the ridge, ate lunch, and knocked out a bunch of lingering things we needed to do. We don’t really want to spend the time doing these things, but they gotta happen eventually.

Once done with our chores, we carried on towards Lassen National Forest. We passed by a picnic area and took the chance to throw away our trash in a proper trashcan. It had only been a day or so, but it’s nice to lighten the pack any chance we get rather than having to carry all of our trash for the next few days.

Once we hiked off the ridge, we made a small detour to Subway Cave. It’s a lava tube about 1500′ in length packed with lots of cool geology, like drippy-looking formations on the ceiling created when the feature was full of molten rock. The tube was dark and spooky – we turned off our headlamps and couldn’t see our hands held right in front of our faces. It was nice and cool after the day’s hike, too. So far, it’s the closest thing to some sort of middle-earthian thing we’ve encountered on the trail. We ate lunch in the parking lot and saw a white headed woodpecker cleverly get water from the spigot.

We left this side adventure to rejoin the PCT and soon ran into some folks hiking in a nearby different volcano feature (we didn’t stop and I forgot what it was – maybe splatter cones?) They asked where our trail led to. Jason, being the smart-ass, answered that it goes to Canada. We chatted a bit. They were nice, but we might as well have been aliens to them because hiking as far as we do totally floored them.

We hiked until it was dark and set camp at the next viable spot near a dirt road. Not glamorous but functional.