It sure helps having a huge breakfast before walking for the whole day. After staying in Old Station, breakfasting at JJ’s and visiting the Lave caves, we headed up to the Lassen Volcanic Rim trail. Gorgeous weather, chilly to start with but into the early 20’s by midday. Certainly a stunning trail with majestic views down from the rim. Not a lot of water so great to find a water cache 6kms before we finished for the day. Walked the final part of the day on a forestry road finishing with head torches and camping just off the road. Beautiful sunset.

We didn’t often walk with head torches in the morning but today it was certainly worth it. As we walked the final day of our trail, we watched the sunrise ever so slowly rising on the horizon – a fitting tribute to the 211 days on the trail. 16kms done by 10:30am, an early coffee break and water refill by a lovely creek. We spent the day swapping between the trail and various roads, nice to change it up and luckily we got to see some interesting things – a park with huge sculptures made from scrap.

More trail, road, trail and finally the highway to the entrance to Burney Falls campground where we’d flipped to almost 4 months beforehand. The shop had already closed for the season (go figure) so no ice cream – water faucets already turned off, only a couple of RV’s and still we were asked to camp out of sight at the very rear of the campground. We were happy to, we pitched the Palace in exactly the same site as we had previously. Coffee, dinner, bed, sleep. No more trail tomorrow.

It’s too early for meaningful reflection on a journey that’s taken 7 months across 4250 odd kilometers. But one things for sure, I never tired of the sunsets and sunrises….

Melissa, our trail angel goddess will pick us up tomorrow and take us to her home in Redding. From there we’ll hitch, walk, greyhound and Amtrak our way to Vancouver before flying out to Germany.

I’ll be putting some reflections together and maybe some tips for Kiwis thinking of doing the PCT.

For now, just two final things: I’ve learned it’s not about “live your dreams” when you undertake these kinds of adventures – that’s just a marketing phrase from people like Nike. It’s actually “live your life”, keep the dreams for when you’re sleeping.

Second: Thank you Anna for sharing this amazing adventure – remember, happiness, like adventures are best when shared!

The double zero day in Quincy was well deserved and much enjoyed. Warm in the motel room, running hot water and electricity – wonderful! Freezing overnight in the valley, frost each morning on the grass outside our room. Time to carry on though, our final section on this amazing epic journey ahead of us. We left fairly early and hitched back to the trailhead. Again, beautiful sunny weather but chilly. A relatively easy trail took us to a spring where the only place to camp was on the actual trail – not a problem since it appeared we were the only people left on the trail. For our final section we’d only bump into 1-2 hikers per day.

A few rain showers early in the morning finally tested our tent seam sealing…..woohoo! Seams all dry. Misty in the morning and cold. A long descent and made it to Belden by 10am, shame the café doesn’t open till 11am. Changed out of our warm gear and headed off for our big climb out of the valley. We managed to do about 17kms of the 23km climb before the temperature seemed to plummet at around 4:30pm. Found a great tentsite, Palace up, coffee and into sleeping bags by 5:30pm. Over the past few weeks it’s become common practise to cook in the awning while in our sleeping bags. It’s dark in the forest by 6:40pm and only gets light around 7:00am. Every day the weather has been bright and sunny but the nights are definitely consistently cold. The next 3 nights are forecasted to get even colder.

Our 33km day started with cold overcast skies which stayed with us till noon. Completed the final piece of the climb from yesterday and spent the day walking through forests, mostly flat’ish with small ups and downs. Made it to a spring so we could camp with water nearby. Palace up, coffee, into sleeping bags and dinner cooked in the awning of the tent again. Super cold again, diary updated and lights out by 8pm. Rain forecast for the morning. Let’s see how that goes.

Yep, rain started at 2am, not too heavy but enough to get things soaked. Rained all the way to the Carter creek intersection – took the forestry road out to trailhead – nice walking even in the wet. Finally got out to the road to hitch into Chester, sadly it was Saturday and only visitors were driving the highway. 2 hours in the freezing cold and finally we got a lift from the local rubbish guy into Chester. Decided to stay the night in a motel and carry on in the morning. Warm room, hot shower, dry……Paradise! We were reminded again that the season clock was ticking down, not only was it cold every night but many shops, restaurants and accommodation providers were already closed for the season. People however are kind no matter the time of year – a total stranger bought us lunch at the café in Chester after hearing it took 2 frozen hours to get a hitch…..Cool!

Chester was lovely. Instead of hitching out we decided to road walk to the trailhead instead. From main road to forestry road to trail, all in forested areas. The weather yet again gorgeous and sunny. We’d seen our first Coyote yesterday and luckily saw another one roaming a meadow by a closed hot spring resort – soo cool to see this wildlife on the trail. Carried on along the trail to another spring where we camped for the night. Most of the following day we walked across Lassen National Park, passed the thermal areas which were interesting if not as spectacular as Rotorua. Camped next to the trail by another spring – gonna get chilly again tonight!

And yes, so cold we could see our breath next morning in the Palace. Packed and gone by 7:00am, walked down to Old Station and arrived by midday, got a room at the only accommodation in town and then down the road to JJ’s Café for a late lunch. Pancakes for me, Vege mash for Anna. Another hint we’re on the trail too long, JJ’s closes this Sunday for the season – thank goodness they were still open. Next morning we were down at JJ’s for a huge breakfast before leaving town. We visited and walked through a lava cave before heading up to the Lassen Volcanic Rim trail.

Next up……our final days on the trail, the end of the PCT for us is coming soon…..

Another wonderful break in Lone Pine! Thanks soo much Clark, Jo Anne and Judy for letting us stay and re-energise again after the High Sierras. Shame we had to leave before you visited. It was especially lovely to spend time with Judy – we owe you a brunch at the Alabama Café next time we’re there. Very sad leaving but with time running out we had to move on.

The dial-a-driver style bus picked us up at 8:30am (thanks Judy for arranging it). At Elevation outfitters in Lone Pine, Anna made the hitching sign “New Zealand PCT hikers…..” and off we went to the Petrol Station on the edge of town. Almost straight away we got a lift from a Yank who’d toured NZ in his youth with a college rugby team – cool! That took us to Bishop, a short wait and a guy called Lou picked us up and took us to Bridgeport, bought us lunch and left without another word. Next up was a couple in a camper who a month ago had picked up a Scottish guy called Grant who was also a PCT Hiker – go figure…. they took us all the way to a supermarket in Sth Lake Tahoe where we resupplied. Getting super late, we luckily got another ride to the trailhead (which was out of this guy’s way) – turned out this guy wrote the original X-files story the TV series was based on. Lone Pine to the trailhead, 400kms in a day – pretty awesome!

We started out very near to where we’d finished previously with Klara and her brother the last time we were here. Up to Echo Lake and onto the Tahoe Rim Trail. Not too steep or high – not surprising after our High Sierra altitude training – so pretty easy going. Great views, gorgeous weather, only a bit chilly at night.

While it was a bit snowy one night in the High Sierras, this area to the north had received about 10cm of snow and lots of it remained on the north faces of the hills. Some parts were actually a little treacherous and slippery. The other issue we faced was an ever shorter day – only light enough to see the trail at 6:50am and totally dark by 7pm, earlier under the forest canopy.

One thing you’ll never get sick of are the sunrises and sunsets (guess that’s two things really). Somehow, as the photos and videos on our blog show, we’ve managed to have stunning weather virtually every day. Fingers crossed that continues. We passed by numerous ski areas as we edged north along the mountains behind Lake Tahoe and found the hiking fairly easy, certainly easier than at altitude the week before.

We got some real treats on this section, two nights in a row in two stunning alpine huts, plus a wonderful lunch at the Donner Pass Ski resort. What a joy to have a hut, woodburner, heaps of wood and only an $8 donation each per night. Thanks Sierra Alpine Club, it somehow made us realise how much we miss NZ huts and how much we love them! After the huts we also stayed in a closed campground, eerily quiet and empty reminding we were here very late and the outdoor season was already over.

After 175kms we were really looking forward to staying in Sierra City (population 200). Unfortunately we arrived to the hum of generators and a closed General Store plus most shops had closed for the season……Opps! Northern California had turned off the electricity grid to 1 million residents due to high winds and the risk of fires (in 2017 an electrical fault caused a massive blaze with lives lost when the town of Paradise burned down). Luckily the owner of the place we stayed at had gas hot water and heating. He also took us across to a nearby town which had its own supply so we could buy food. Got to say it seems pretty third world when infrastructure like this means no power for days due to a little wind….doesn’t happen in Wellington unless you get tree falls on the lines. Head torches back on in bed to read, like in our Palace.

The following days were spent heading north towards Quincy, a cute old mining town we’d had a coffee in on our way to Burney Falls in June. The final day we decided to walk the scenic road into town instead of taking the trail to the trailhead and possibly getting stuck with no hitching opportunities. With the Winter on the doorstep, the back country roads are empty as we discovered on our 34kms road walk. It was a Sunday and only really saw more cars as we got closer to the outskirts of town.

Quincy, a motel, showers, laundry, food, electricity, warm and cosy. A double zero day well deserved after 280kms in 9 days of hiking plus a hitching day. Only around 240kms to get to Burney Falls. Stay tuned……and fingers crossed the weather stays fine the next 10 days or so.

This blog post should have been titled “how to freeze your butt off in the High Sierras” but that wouldn’t be appropriate. Actually, my usual blog style wouldn’t really do this section justice. We crossed 6 high passes in 6 days, 5 of them over 3500 metres. We twice had temperatures of minus 15 degrees Celsius in the tent and one of those nights it must have been around minus 20 with the wind chill. It snowed overnight and we woke with everything covered in fresh snow. I’ll let the photos do the talking – if you get the chance, see them on a bigger screen. Anna’s videos shows the High Sierra’s much better then I could write about them.

We’d finally completed the High Sierra’s, gorgeous weather every day, freezing cold overnight but definitely justified us skipping north in early June and returning now. We met plenty of hikers who struggled through the High Sierras, post-holing through deep snow. We heard many had started walking at 4am, finishing after 7pm and managing only 16kms per day. We had a fantastic time, some days managing 25-30kms and camping mainly in the dry. Although water bottles froze, sometimes within an hour of going to bed, it was all well worth it.

So back to Lone Pine, a hitch from the carpark at Kearsarge trailhead on arrival, food in Bishop and another hitch to Lone Pine saw us back at John’s outfitters and so after (thanks John) back to stay with our dear friend Judy in Alabama Hills.

From Tuolumne Meadows we join up with the John Muir Trail and climb over our first 3 passes. Donohue, Island and Selden. We journey south!

A storm is brewing in the distance, go climb that pass and then hide in the tent