I woke up with one thing on my mind. Breakfast. It was only 5.7 miles to the road where I could hitch into Etna California. After the last few days, I was ready for an easy day. My feet hurt and I was hungry.
As soon as I left the lake I saw this amazing sunrise. Another hiker and I stopped to appreciate it and take pictures. It was mostly downhill to the road so I made good time. That’s when I saw this…
Snow! The last time I saw snow was almost 300 miles ago. This was at mile 1594.6.
I got down to the road at about 8 am. My guide said this road doesn’t see much traffic, but the traffic it does see is very hiker friendly. I sat on the side of the road and waited. Two other hikers showed up and not long after a car showed up. They were dropping off hikers at the trail and offered us a ride back into town. Perfect!
My plan for town was to get some breakfast, buy some groceries, and get out. The ride in was slow, due to the twisting highway and herd of cows wandering around. I was almost convinced to stay the night, but I did manage to escape the hiker vortex.
I went to Bob’s Ranch House for breakfast and had chicken fried steak. That’s become my go to breakfast meal. This place was famous for their pies, so I had to order a slice. I also wanted a milkshake. How to choose? Well, they blended that slice of pie into my milkshake and I had both at the same time.
After that, I went to the dollar store and resupplied. Dollar stores are great for grocery shopping. Prices at the grocery store in town were literally triple for some items. I got an easy hitch back to the trail and started hiking.
On one of my water breaks I met a woman named Spirit from Malaysia. She had actually started the trail after me, but was skipping around. She had injured her ankle early on and was taking it pretty slow. Talking to her was so interesting because she was just out here to enjoy herself. She wasn’t worried about finishing or anything. She just loved being out here and meeting new people. It’s hard to describe, but she just had a really great energy about her.
Around 7 pm I reached my planned campsite. The guide said it would hold 3 tents, but when I arrived, there were a dozen Boy Scouts and their leaders. I asked if there was anywhere left to camp and they all laughed. They had packed the campsite to the gills. Lucky for me, one of the tent pads had room for two and one of the leaders let me pitch my tent next to his.
This is the first time I’ve stopped hiking this early in a long time and it feels good. Only 40 miles to Seiad Valley. I probably won’t do it all tomorrow, but you never know…