PCT day 65 - mile 1353 to mile 1380 (Cinder Cone, Trail Angel Cafe)

"I'm saving all my sleep for another life" TA Brian

"The key to fulfilment is to make other people happy without hurting yourself in the process" TA Brian

Today felt pretty special in many ways perhaps because of the summer solstice, perhaps of the places I've seen and people I met or the campsite we ended up staying at, it had it's tough moments as well.

Firstly myself, Fomo, Rip and Smiley decided to take a detour to the inactive volcano called Cinder Cone few miles away from the trail, we met at the junction leading to it and proceeded with the plan, at the last moment another hiker called Zohan joined the fray as well. Road wasn't the easiest to navigate, fallen, burned trees were covering our path, the ground was very sandy which slowed the approach even further. After about an hour and a half we managed to climb the volcano and boy oh boy was it worth it! The landscape was like from another planet, very bare and dramatic, symmetry was ruling the surroundings. We descended into the centre of the Cinder Cone where someone build a spiral out of stones leading right into the middle. We stayed on top for half an hour enjoying the panorama and proceeded to make our way back to the trail shortly after.

Our feet stood back on PCT at midday and it was still twenty miles to the point we planned to camp, way too far for my liking so I said to others that I might not be joining them this evening. I stayed behind, day was awfully hot but luckily trail pretty flat, so I steadily made progress towards the agreed spot. Not much else happened in-between and I managed to successfully pull off those damn twenty miles arriving at the campsite just after 7pm.

I'm so glad that I did! Place was called Trail Angel Cafe and it was run by Brian a middle aged guy with very hippy vibe to him, he offered us some hot and cold drinks, at this point there was about five of us: Fomo, Rip, myself and two girls I haven't met before. After about 15 minutes a big surprise happened another bunch of hikers rolled into the cafe and I knew my most of them! There was Tank Top with his hiking partner Camp Post, Alex and Ben I walked with few days ago and Zohan I met earlier today! At this point it started to feel pretty special.

Brian took out guitar and started singing for us while we were having our dinner, after that we went together to watch the sunset, the atmosphere was excellent and everyone was having a good time. We also signed the side of Brian's campervan labeled "PCT 22". All the excitement and good vibes continued well past the hikers midnight at 9pm, but finally everyone went to their tents as most of us will be having a big thirty mile day tomorrow to reach the town of Burney. It was a very memorable day, full flavours and events.

Trail Angel Cafe:
Tank Top:
Cinder Cone:
Smiley, Rip, Fomo and Zohan:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Appalachian Trail (day 77) - Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Campsite / mile 1816

Image
"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far. In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today. I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after. ...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 12) - Icewater Sorin Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter / mile 231

Image
Today could be described in one word - windy. And it was not your refreshing summer breeze, it was the kind of wind that chills your bones and the moment you feel it you want to turn around and go back home, except there's no home and you can't turn around. The food I hanged last night was completely frozen, it was funny to crunch on a solid snickers and granola bars for breakfast. At least it was sunny, I've put all my layers on and started hiking. Trail looked really good, I could see small patches of snow and icicles probably formed last night hanging from the bushes. Later during the day you could see the damage last years hurricane has done, fallen trees, layers of uncovered rock showing that there was not much trees could hang on to beneath, trail was trying to manoeuvre around the blow downs and disturbed earth. I haven't met many people today but I hiked alongside Blazer, a friendly, older American guy. He also hiked PCT, so w...
Read more

Appalachian Trail (day 76) - Lambert Ridge to Hikers Welcome Hostel / mile 1799

Image
Hot, humid, stormy day. My goal was to place myself withing the short distance before the climb to Mount Moosilauke. AT in New Hampshire definitely prooved from the very begining that it means business. The first and second climb of the day:  Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube were steep and rocky, the path was muddy, overgrown and not very well marked, combined with the hot and humid weather I was moving at a snail's pace. Views were quite rewarding though and after the initial struggle trail got easier for the rest of the day. I've seen yet another two bear cubs, no mother in sight this time around which got me a bit spooked. Cubs climbed so high up the tree I could hardly see them from the trail, they were so incredibly agile! I've taken a blurry video of the couple as I thought it was fairly safe to do so, that's 10 black bears I've seen so far on Appalachian Trail.  At one point I took a break  by the road and tried to dry my feet a...
Read more