Day 76

June 28 PCT Mile 1233.4 - 1253 PCT miles - 19.6

Well, we had big ‘mile’ plans for the day - nope - the day had other plans for us. We planned to hike to the Middle Fork of the Feather River, cool off, get water, have lunch and rest until ~4:00 PM when it would hopefully cool down. There is a 2500 ft climb out of the canyon to a spring and good tent site (with view) up at 7000 feet. That was our goal after lunch. Silly us! This was a very hard, hot and dirty day. Hiking through the fire zone was tough and required a lot of off trail hiking around downed trees or scrambling over them. So sad to see so many enormous trees dead all around us, all day. So quiet all morning. No birds, no bugs, no squirrels - void of life. Trail like walking on black talcum powder. It gets into/onto everything.

We reached the Feather River, but getting to the water wasn’t very easy and the mosquitoes were just too hungry to hang around. The bridge is lovely, but far above the water. We decided to hike a few more miles up to Bear Creek for lunch.

When we saw Bear Creek, the water access and lovely tent sites, we knew this is where we would hang out until we were ready to tackle the uphill climb. An oasis surrounded by blackened landscape - fire zone. Gorgeous spot!

A couple hiking only this section (why?!?) of the PCT southbound stopped and chatted with us for an hour. We were not anxious to leave the soothing water of Bear Creek and neither were they. We let them know what they would encounter when they left (not good) and they told us about the climb in front of us. We then saw a figure up on the bridge over the creek who Chris thought might be Darko (met her on Donahue Pass and in Kennedy Meadows North - she passed Chris on the trail singing and Chris was impressed by her singing voice). It was Darko. She was hiking on beyond the bridge looking for a campsite. There was a nice one near ours so Chris waved her over.

Darko backtracked and when she reached us, she dropped her pack, kicked off her shoes and immediately dove into the pool in front of us with her clothes on. It was such a hot, dirty (thick ash everywhere) hike to that point. Ahhhh. Such relief.

Bear Creek is also full of small rainbow trout that Chris tried to feed and talk to for hours. The mosquitoes were not active in this slice of paradise and we all enjoyed our dinner outside before heading to bed at 5:00! Nice, lazy day. No chance we were headed up in the afternoon - tackle the hill in the morning.