PCT: Chester to North Fork of Feather River

With a four day weekend at hand we decide to put in a few more glorious miles on the PCT.  Our plan is to hike from The PCT near Chester to the Hat Creek Rim Overlook.  This will finish filling in the gap and we will have officially hiked from Mexico to I5 near Dunsmuir.   Woohoo!

We contacted Larry at the Old Station Filler Up and he is going to store our return shuttle motorcycle for us as the Overlook might not be a safe place for it.  This means our first hike of the day is from the overlook down to the Filler Up.  Subway caves is along the way and it’s huge and dark.  

After doing a quick shuttle back for our truck we are on our way towards Chester.   It’s a bit of a longer drive than we reckoned and we don’t start hiking until 12:30 so we decide to just hike to the North Fork of the Feather River.  

It’s a hot day!   I brought a thermometer and it reads a hundred degrees in the sun and 85 degrees in the shade.  We have a mellow climb, but sweat drips like we are climbing a steep mountain.  Luckily there is water 4 miles out and we sit in the shade and watch the multitude of butterflies on the flowers.   The pond is a mucky mess, but there is a piped spring, so the water is easy to catch and great tasting.  

By 4:30 we are 9 miles up the trail, at the river, which is really more of a creek, and we strip off our sweaty clothes and sit down in the water and cool off.   By six mosquitos are buzzing so we hit the sack after an early dinner.   A successful first day back on the trail.