Day 78 My Tent of Luxury

Day 78

August 6th

28 miles

PCT mile 1506.5/Castella

How do you get a thru-hiker to book high miles into town? Bribe her with a ride at the trailhead and tell her she's got a box of goodies waiting for her.

I had yet another late start today, after a second night of rain and things were wet and a bit muddy in the morning...first I turned my alarm off and completely fell back to sleep for another hour and 15  minutes. Once I was up and moving I let things dry out a bit and cleaned the mud splatters of my rainfly the best I could. By the time I started hiking it was 9:30am. I had 28 miles to the I-5 and another 2 miles into Castella, where my next resupply was waiting for me. Elevation was telling me 7600+ of elevation gain with about equal that in elevation loss as well. No way with my late start was I going to make there tonight. So I set a realistic goal of 23 miles for the day.

I was 12 miles into my day and started to pick up cell service. I got a text from a San Diego TrI Club friend stating that he was camping at Castle Crags State Park in Castella for a few days...talk about perfect timing!

 I started to think maybe I can do 16 more miles, I had a bit of a climb in front of me and would see how the climb treated my legs. As it turned out I had it in me. By 8:30pm I had hiked 28 miles with 7600+ feet of gain and all with my late morning start and breaks too!!!

Not five minutes from being done I was being picked up and shuttled to pizza. Hornsby who got to the trailhead not 10 minutes in front of me lucked out too...he got to tag along for all of it. We were in hiker heaven.

Pizza Place in Dunsmuir...best pizza on the trail yet

If the pizza wasn't enough Ron had set up a tent of luxury for me, complete with a blow up futon, chair, and table. The tent was enormous...you could easily fit a family of eight in there and I had it all to myself. I was humbled but delighted. Oh yeah...and I got a real pillow!!!

My Tent of Luxery

Such an unexpected, cool, and fun end to a hard days work on the trail!