Trail Day 88: Warner Valley Campground (mile 1347.8) to tentsite (mile 1364.7)

16.9 PCT miles

I got up around 6 am to get to Drakesbad by 7 am. I was hoping that an employee had gotten there early and had ferried my package from Chester. No such luck.

Drakesbad Guest Ranch in the morning.

I went down to the hot springs pool to soak my feet. It felt absolutely amazing and I wished I could have soaked my whole body in it. Unfortunately,  certain wounds have to heal.

The hot springs pool.

At 7:30 am, I went back to check on my package. The dining room server told me that the person who brings packages wouldn't be there until 8 am.

While I was waiting for this mysterious person to arrive, I had another employee ask if he could help me out. He went to double check that my package was not in storage. He came back empty, but said that he would be heading into Chester at 10 am and could get it then. I hoped it would not come to that as I was already late for getting on the trail today.

As I sat around waiting,  I noticed a jay. It seemed to have a cracker in its mouth. It flew to the ground  and worked at it a while. Then it flew up to an abandoned breakfast table and grabbed another. I found it odd that there would be crackers for breakfast. I watched a little longer and figured out what it was doing. It was methodically grabbing sugar packets and burying them in the dirt. Not eating them, just burying them. I let the server know and she quickly cleared the table.

I kept seeing employees come in and none of them were carrying a package. Eventually,  someone was going to make a trip into town to pick up some produce. He was specifically going to look for my package as well.

By this time I was getting hungry as well. I avoided eating the few items that remained in my food bag, in case I needed them on this next stretch. When the car got back in from town without my package,  I ended up buying the lunch buffet and stuffing myself with as many calories as possible.

There was no cell service or wifi at the resort, but I wanted to contact my Trail Angel to see if he could look up what was going on with the package. I was able to use the resort phone to call him. He got on the computer and it said that the package had been delivered just before 2 pm yesterday.

The staff then went on a frenzy trying to track it down.  Eventually the ranch’s hosts took me up to their private office to type the tracking number into the computer. The name that had signed for it was not someone they knew. They confided in me that sometimes FedEx will deliver a package meant for the ranch to the wrong business.

I had already spent way too much time waiting,  and it seemed unlikely that I would be able to track the package down. I had to pack what I could and try to make it to my next destination as quickly as possible.

I had 2 dehydrated meals left over from my last resupply as well as a bag of goldfish, a jif-to-go, and plenty of electrolytes. The ranch hosts gave me 2 Mountain House meals, which was very generous considering how expensive they are. I was also able to grab a bag of tortillas and 4 ramen packages from the hiker box. This is what I needed to survive on for (hopefully) 3 days until I reached Burney Falls State Park.

I packed my bag and walked back towards the campground and onto the trail. The first section after the campground was a climb out of the valley. After that it kind of leveled out and wound through the forest.

View from the climb out of the valley. The hot springs pool is that tiny shape at the bottom. 

The forest was pretty with streams and meadows. Luckily, the meadows had boardwalks so my feet were able to stay dry. The same could not be said for the creek crossing. There were a couple logs across the way, but they all look sketchy, so I forded it. Luckily, the water level stayed below the knee.

Creek ford.

Boardwalk through a meadow. 

Twin Lakes during an afternoon storm.

After Twin Lakes, I entered a large burned section. While I was sad to see the evidence of a forest fire in a National Park, it looked eerily beautiful in the late day light.

The burned section.

Deer.

Mt. Lassen in the fading light.

I almost made it out of the park by the time it got dark. I had to pull out my headlamp for the last couple miles. After I officially exited the park, I walked another mile or so to a campsite,  where I set up my tent around 10 pm.