Daily miles : 20
Total miles : 1519
Had a nice day in Shasta yesterday, albeit very warm. We were happy to have an air conditioner in the room.
It took a while to get a hitch back to the trail (about one and a half hours) but we made it to the place where we left off on Thursday a little past 8am. Our ride included two dogs, one of which fell asleep on Beardoh’s lap on the way to the trail head. Sweetpea’s sign was a new addition to our hitching attempt:
Once on trail, we had a moderate uphill climb for about 5 miles and then a more significant climb for about 10 miles. Some of the climb was over 500 feet per mile, which is fairly significant, especially in the 100 plus degree heat. Fortunately , water was plentiful the first 15 miles. At the 15 mile mark , we picked up enough to get us another 13 miles (into tomorrow mid morning). Early in the day, we passed the 1500 mile mark!
The day was spent almost entirely in the Castle Crags Wilderness. The Crags are ridgelines with peaks and exposed rock similar to the Sierra south of here. We had excellent trail for the entire day. Well graded climbs, great trail maintenance and no dust 🙂
Saw a few hikers that we have met briefly in the past but haven’t gotten to know yet. Sunny, Killer, Van Gough among them. Tonight we are camped with Van Gough up on a nice ridgeline that has a small view of Shasta. We have some breeze right now at 9pm and cooler temps than the last several nights on the trail. Looking forward to some good sleep!
We said goodbye to Gazelle as she is putting in some extra miles for a short but so that she can meet a friend in Ashland and spend time there for a couple days. We will pass Ashland some time next week and she’ll be able to catch back up to us shortly after.
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