The sunrise struck my tent early, forcing me out of bed. I was still sleepy. After the terrible night in Castella, and all the town tasks I had to attend to in Mt. Shasta City, I was overtired.
We left camp early in the day, around 7:15, and it was already heating up. Our first task of the day was to get water at an off trail spring (Bradens Spring), which was good because I was out of water.
The spring itself was nice. A shady, cool wooded area with pools of water and a slight flow. I was surprised to see pitcher plants growing next to it — I thought they didn’t exist in North America.
Full of water, we returned to the trail (and the heat) and continued on. The trail takes a large westward detour in northern California just past Shasta, so we wouldn’t be getting any more good views of it after about today (a Lemurian plot, perhaps?)
The heat suddenly lessened as we crossed a ridge, and it became clear that today’s weather would not be a repeat of yesterday’s.
We had lunch at an off-trail waypoint called Porcupine Lake. The water was clear and cool, and there was plenty of shade and rocks to sit on.
We got back on the trail, and continued onward.
We neared a trailhead with a parking lot, and a familiar sign appeared: “Coppertone is Here”. After a root beer float and a chat, I was ready for a nap. But that would make 2 short days in a row, so we pushed on.
We set up in the last tentsite before a non-campable stretch. It was busy and there were bugs, but we got to sleep.
