Day 103 – Lassen ridge to Old Station – 26 miles


Today was a day full of firsts! The first such first happened when I stepped out to conduct some morning business. I had picked my spot and just started to dig a business hole when a bee landed on my knee and stung me. This was the first bee sting I’ve ever received and it had the intended effect – I bolted back to the tent, worried that she would follow with all her buddies, but apparently fleeing the scene was enough to pacify them. I’m still not sure if I came too close to a hive or what. The upshot is that I know I’m not allergic to bee stings! It stung for a few hours but didn’t swell up. All in all, I’d take a bee sting over another red ant stinging me in the armpit like at the Andersons’.


After that slight delay, we got on with our morning – packing up and hiking the short distance to Drakesbad Ranch for breakfast. Along the way we took a little time to see Boiling Springs Lake, another nearly on-trail volcanic oddity. We could smell the lake for a half mile before we reached it – a sulfurous reek, like a thousand eggs boiling all at once. The lake was surrounded by red sand and was a cloudy blue-green with clusters of foam floating on its surface. If it was boiling like its name suggested we couldn’t tell, but the south side was throwing off a lot of steam. Trusting that a well-worn path of footprints wouldn’t dump us through a thin crust of earth into a boiling pool, we followed them out to a slight rise and found ourselves staring down into a boiling mudpot. After a while we decided not to push our luck before breakfast and walked back along the warm sand to continue on. Having these volcanic features so close to the trail is a huge treat! Being able to see them up close has been an incredible experience.


Breakfast was wonderful and filling. The bees thought so too, attracted by our omelettes, and I was a little gunshy after this morning. We fended them off long enough to eat and then set off to fill up our water bottles at the pool house. Drakesbad has a hot spring-fed pool – one of the big attractions here, I’d imagine. We each took more water than normal since our afternoon would be very dry and we’d be hiking through a burn. As we were packing away our water we chatted with a couple of guys who were hiking south to Belden. Better down that stretch than up it, as we hiked it.


The second “first” happened about a mile up the trail from Drakesbad. We were climbing a ridge and as we popped up over the edge we locked eyes with a bear standing about 40 feet down the trail. We stopped where we were and all stared at each other, and then we saw a cub behind her as it stood up for a better look at us. It was amazing to finally see a bear up close after so long. Her coat was a rich golden brown and long and shaggy. She wasn’t agitated – no chuffing or stomping or any of that – and we all just sat and watched each other for a bit. Finally I suggested that she shoo, and she turned around and headed off the trail to our right. Her cub followed after one last long look at us. When they were well off the path into the scrub and tearing up some rotting logs, we passed them – talking at her the entire time so she knew where we were.


The rest of the day couldn’t quite rival this excitement. Instead we settled into one of the longest, flattest sections we’ve had so far as we wound between peaks through burned out forest. Thankfully it was relatively cool and the skies were hazy, keeping the sun from beating down too strongly. Eventually we passed out of Lassen National Park and started down the Hat Creek canyon. The creek provided the first water in about ten miles – good practice for tomorrow, when we’ll tackle the shadeless Hat Creek Rim and a 30-mile waterless stretch.


With the flat ground we made excellent time to Old Station, our next resupply point. This is home to the Hat Creek RV park (everything seems to be Hat Creek around here), the store and deli of which were still open when we arrived. AND it was taco Tuesday. We got cold drinks and hot showers, then retired back to the PCT to set up camp and enjoy our dinner. Tomorrow we’ll be there when the post office opens so we can claim our package and start the rim before it gets too hot. That’s the plan, anyway…


– Posted from the PCT

Location:Pct mile 1378

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