Day 79

I began the day by loading up the rental car with six boxes to be mailed. Three contained food and were being sent to various spots up the trail. One was a box of stuff I no longer needed on the trail (for example, my bear canister) sent to my parents, a box of stuff for Adrienne going back east, and my bounce box. Like everything else these days, it wasn't cheap!

On the way to the post office I stopped at Red Hut (again) for breakfast. FYI, I had the strawberry waffle breakfast (including eggs, bacon or sausage, and biscuits with gravy) for the fifth day in a row. Trust me when I say it was heaven on a plate!

After the post office, I returned the rental car (sniff, sniff) and focused on getting back on the trail. One of the waitresses at Red Hut offered to give me a ride back to the trailhead (thanks Diane!), but I ended up getting a ride with another guy who was also staying at the hotel. His daughter was also hiking the PCT and he was there helping her with logistics so it worked out perfectly! So around 1:30 we headed out and after some conversation with other hikers at the trailhead, I was back at it by 3:30. Unfortunately, my legs didn't feel as nearly as fresh as I was expecting them to. So the going was slow and achy, but I ended up getting about 11 miles under my belt before it got dark. My goal is to get to the halfway point (in terms of mileage) on the trail before the end of the month and I've got my work cut out for me! I'm currently at 1138.2 and need to get to 1331.5--nearly 200 miles--in nine days. My body already hurts just thinking about it. Hopefully I'll get off to a good start tomorrow with a 25-mile day. That would be very helpful!