Note: Sorry, I posted this one out of order by accident.
Today was another long day. My longest yet, in fact — about 32 miles. It wasn’t supposed to be, but I’ll explain later.
The day started like any other. I packed up, had breakfast, set out, etc. It was a bit of a dry section of the trail, so I picked up water at the McCloud River, and again at Trough Creek. I ran into Luke there, a hiker I hadn’t seen since Tehachapi, about 800 miles ago. He had been hiking with Poppy, and he let me know that Poppy had taken some time off, and had returned to the trail. Poppy had skipped the section from Tahoe to Burney Falls, so he was now a couple days ahead of us. We might meet him soon.
After Trough Creek, I made my way downhill to Squaw Creek, the last water before a dry stretch, and a good spot for lunch. I finished my trail mix, tortillas, and a mixed fruit bag in the creek’s rocky gulley. This wasn’t a very coherent lunch, but it let me leave my peanut butter jar completely sealed — a badge of pride to someone sick of peanut butter.
The rest of the day was all about covering miles. I plowed ahead, through the Northern California woods, in the Northern California heat, dodging the Northern California poison oak. Late in the day, I crossed directly past a recently-clearcut portion of the forest. Heat rose from the clearcut section with shocking strength.
My plan was to stop at the last campsite in the Halfmile’s maps before I-5. I saw it, decided it wasn’t big enough for Halfmile to call it a campsite, so I walked on by. With no phone, I couldn’t check whether I was at that campsite’s GPS coordinates, so I just guessed it wasn’t the right one. Eventually, I found myself at the I-5 intersection, where Elizabeth was waiting for a ride that wouldn’t come.
After giving up on the ride, we started walking to the Castella drive-in campgrounds, which would be a 2 mile side trail to end a 30 mile day.
But, a driver was kind enough to pick is up and take us there. She was spending 10 days camping there, while she thought about taking a new job.
She drove us not just to the campground, but to Ammirati’s Market, where she waited for us to buy dinner and dessert, and then drove us all the way through the large campground to our campsite.
So, we managed to finish the day eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and drinking Ammirati’s Castle Crags Ale.
My kind of dinner. Beer and ice cream.