Days 96-98

The last few days have been a whirlwind. I was close to Dunsmuir on Friday, but not close enough to make it to the post office before they close. And they aren't open on Saturdays. So I was more or less stuck for a couple days until I could get my resupply box. In all honesty, however, as much as I want to get to Oregon, the zero day yesterday was probably good for me. I think it was the first one for me since Tahoe!

So, my buddy Matt who works in Sacramento picked me up in Dunsmuir and we proceeded to his family's cattle ranch in Tulelake. It was so close to Oregon the road to get there WAS the stateline--Oregon on one side, California on the other. Must mean I'm getting close to Oregon...woohoo!

After showering and doing laundry, we had a bbq and I've never eaten so much red meat in such a short span in my life! It was delicious. The fresh peach pie topped things off--I had two slices...mmm. Yesterday we drove around the property and then went to a bbq fundraiser for the local fire department. The whole experience reminded me of home in Oregon but on a slightly smaller scale. Regardless, the food was second to none, and the hospitality was even better!

This morning Matt and I left Tulelake at 5 am so that Matt would be able to get back to Sacramento in time for work. He dropped me off in Dunsmuir where I was able to grab breakfast before picking up my box at the post office. While eating breakfast, one of the locals asked me about my trip and I got a free ride back to the trail out of it! (Thanks Wendy!) So after catching on a few phone calls, I was hitting the trail by 10:30 this morning. Since I've got 100 miles to do in four days, I wanted to knock out 20 today. I ended up hiking 18 and I was very content with that considering the conditions: steep uphill, full pack, and HOT temperatures. The locals were saying it was supposed to get up to 100 in Dunsmuir today. Thankfully it didn't get that hot, but it was still rather toasty. I gained about 4000' of elevation and now am camped west of Castle Crags with an unobstructed view of both the crags and Mt Shasta. It is beautiful and much appreciated after the substantial climb!

Tomorrow I need to do about 27 miles to get back on track with what I wanted to do this week. I'm trying to do the 100 miles in four days because I'm meeting my parents in Etna for dinner and probably breakfast. Also I just want to be out of California and big mileage days are definitely helpful in achieving that!