Day 77 Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Day 77

August 5th

26 miles

PCT mile 1478

I'm so happy!!! I saw one on my peeps today!!! It was a strange day as I hadn't seen a single human on the trail all day...I thought I may have my first day without a human encounter. It was 6:30pm and I saw someone coming southbound. "Hey, that kind of looks like Vee." I thought to myself and as he got closer, sure enough, "Happy Feet!" he exclaims.

"Vee! Oh my gosh! I am so happy to see you!"

As it turns out Vee made it to Old Station sometime after myself, then got a ride into Redding, but couldn't get through to Burney Falls due to the fire and road closures. So he got a ride up to Castella. He said he started northbound on the PCT from Castella, but skipping 100+ miles just didn't settle with him. So he decided to southbound from Castella to Burney Falls, then get a ride back to Castella and continue northbound afterwards. Brilliant idea!!! I'm surprised no one else has jumped on that strategy.

I told Vee I hadn't  seen a single person all day. He assured me there are quite a few hikers just ahead of me, he's seen 17 since leaving Castella and heading south, since yesterday.

So cool! I told Vee I hope I see him again at Castella, as I will be resupplying there. I would love to hear about the rest of his southbound trip into Burney Falls. How the fires are and if any other hikers have gotten through behind me. I told him I'm really hoping Guy On A Buffalo is somewhere behind me and if he sees him to tell him to hurry up and catch me.

On another note, the rain was a very welcome change in the weather last night. I slept so well all cozied up in my tent and new sleeping bag. I slept until 7am, I think I got close to 10hrs of much needed sleep. I used the rain as an excuse to have a lazy morning and had a much later start then usual, I just relaxed drinking coffee, blogging and reading in my tent. When I finally started getting ready and packing up, I had a visitor.

This little guy had me cracking up. His behavior reminded me so much of my dog Izzy. He'd come up to me real close and then get real excited and tear around the outside of my tent and then come back and do it all over again. I've never had such an encounter with a wild rabbit like that.

Once I finally got hiking it was 10am. Today's hike was beautiful. It started with magnificent views of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and then eventually descended into to bright green forest enormous trees and lush undergrowth everywhere. 

It did start raining the last mile of my day. I set up camp next to a creek. It will be another great night of sleep listening to the rain drops on my tent and the creek flowing next to me.