Day 84, 27.6 miles

I didn’t mean to sleep in this morning, but it seemed like half an hour went by in seconds. I guess it just meant that I needed the extra rest. I was in thick forest for the first few miles, and it felt to get a break from the sun in those hours. The trail itself wasn’t that very exciting today. I just went through forests and sometimes thick shrubs basically all day. With some periods of shade and others exposed.

Mt. Shasta in the background! 

I saw Daddy at the second water source of the day. From there we sort of hiked together for the rest of the day. We’ll talk for a little while and then split up for a bit, and then see each other at the next water source. 

It got really really HOT today! I hope that the rest of California isn’t all like this! At around 2:30pm I came across a spring that I decided to take a 1.5hr siesta at. I had already done 18 miles at that point and felt pretty good about getting my last 7 after things cooled down a bit. Daddy and another hiker stayed up near the trail, and I went down closer to the water and scored a sweet cliff-side rest spot with less flies.

My feet are gnar gnar...

The heat is causing some bad hipbelt rash.. I AM glad that I have the shirts back instead of wearing log pants and underwear through all this! 

Well, all good things come to an end. I really really didn’t want to, but at around 4pm I found myself once again heading back into the heat. Someone want to hike a mobile A/C unit right behind me?! I did find that since my pack is so light, I’m able to tighten the shoulder straps just a bit more and unbuckle the hip belts altogether! This way they don’t rub on my shirt and waist, let everything breathe better, and hopefully let my rashes heal up. All this without being too straining on my shoulders.

The two of us kept hiking into the late afternoon and early evening. I had read about a super cool campsite that wasn’t on Guthooks map proper, but instead on the comments from recent users, so we decided to try and find it. I’m so glad we did! Firstly, we ran into Stallion there. He was part of the larger group back in the desert around that fire with Mougs and Tumbleweed and Huck and Spooked and Mrs. Frizz! I hadn’t seen him for over 800 miles!

Secondly there was this:

The campsite was hidden above trail and situated with a perfect view of Shasta!

We came up to the camp just after 8pm, and we were just in time for the sunset and beautiful pictures to follow! My phone camera of course is getting worse and worse, and now it can’t even seem to focus. Luckily, Stallion has an iPhone as well and was able to take a picture for me and Air-Drop it.

From my phone camera

From Stallion’s phone camera!!

I think I have my new favorite picture! Thanks Stallion! The campsite itself had lots of mosquitos, but this nearby view definitely made it worth it! What a great way to end the day!

Thanks for reading!