Day 83: Friday, July 26

In a room at the Dunsmuir Lodge (PCT mi 1506.5), walked 25.0 miles today plus at least two more around town

Left after Egg and Spark did, around 7:30, but was only alone for the first chunk of the day. Ran back into both of them at my first break, the gorgeous Squaw Valley Creek, and thenceforth they were my trail buddies for the day. The six-mile climb out of said creek was much more pleasant with company, as was confronting the oppressively hot conditions ... At one point in the middle of the climb we all stopped in a shady spot and plopped down in the middle of the trail for what turned out to be a 30-minute break, during which we commiserated over the heat and also did some reminiscing about the AT, all three of us being veterans. It's the type of break I would've never taken on my own--I would've just pushed up the hill and wasted myself--but it turned out to be very helpful in keeping me fresh for the last 10 miles or so.

Those last ten miles were much gentler, and clouds rolled in and thunderstorms threatened, which dropped the temperature to a more manageable level. Spark got a little ahead and Egg a little behind and I never saw either of them again. Instead, I got to the interstate with a third hiker, Coincidence, whom I'd just met today. I hadn't even taken off my pack yet to change out of my rancid hiking shirt when a pickup hauling firewood came up to the on-ramp ... I stuck my thumb out and he squeezed both of us in for the 3-mile ride up the freeway to the town of Dunsmuir (the PCT comes out of the woods at Castella, which doesn't really have anything). Wasn't sure what to do in Dunsmuir itself, other than the obvious--eat pizza and go to the grocery store--but I decided to splurge on a motel room for the night, under the logic that I might only be staying in one or two more proper motels for the rest of the whole trail. After Ashland at the beginning of Oregon, "trail towns" become less of a concept and it's more like "outposts of civilization that happen to be near the PCT."

Aiding my decision to hotel it was the sky, which was actually beginning to drop rain. Walked into downtown after settling into the room and on the way caught the most spectacular double rainbow I've seen in my life outside of YouTube. It made a full arc ("All the way!" as they say) but my cameraphone's lens wasn't wide enough to capture it all. Nonetheless I got good pictures of each end. Then I began to laugh and cry hysterically. Once I'd recovered, went to the town pizza joint and met up with a LASHer named Pumped, who was the only hiker around. Chit-chatted with him as I knocked out half of an XL Greek pizza (I wasn't feeling especially hungry), then retired to the hotel, which is way too far from downtown, for the night.

Day 82: Thursday, July 25

Tenting more or less on the trail (PCT mi 1481.5), walked 27.3 miles today

Got hiking by 7:30 and the trail improved over yesterday's right away, with nice views of Shasta, less obscured by haze than normal, and a lot of open ridge-walking. Most of it was on south-facing slopes and it was already alarmingly hot by the midmorning. Walked for about 6 miles with an older thru-hiker named Michael who is about to take two weeks off the PCT for Burning Man, but aside from that he is a jet-engine design engineer. I took off alone when he wanted to break, I was feeling strong and walked almost the first 10 miles uninterrupted. Like in the desert, water can sometimes be sparse around here but unlike the desert every source is the ice-cold pure stuff coming straight out of the mountainside. That was Gold Creek, where I took my first break, as well as other springs that I filled up at throughout the day.

At Deer Creek, you won't believe this but I saw a deer. And not just any deer, he had an enormous rack and didn't give a fiddling fuck who came near him ... I and a southbound section-hiker who was approaching at the same time both walked to within about 10 feet of it for photos. Other than that sobo guy, whose name was Eeyore, I didn't see anyone all afternoon. After a long, sweltering descent to 2,000 feet (my imaginary thermometer read at least 100 in the sunny parts today), got to the McCloud River and saw Instagate, Spark and Robin Hood in attitudes of repose on the banks. I wanted to go swimming but it turns out the river water was about 45 degrees .... I played the "Is this water colder than the McKenzie?" game and it indeed felt colder (the McKenzie is 48). All that cold water made the air on the shady banks actually a very nice cool temperature, so I stayed there for at least an hour, during which time the others all trickled out. When I followed suit I planned to get water after two miles and then find the next flat spot, but the next flat spot happened to be a good 3.5 miles later, so I hiked almost til dark, and it was still freaking hot and muggy the whole time. Am sharing this area with Spark and another thru-hiker named Egg, whom I've seen in the books many times lately but never caught up to. Tomorrow: town! Sort of (it's Castella, which isn't really a town).

Day 81: Wednesday, July 24

Tenting in a logged clearing (PCT mi 1454.2), walked 25.2 miles today

Around midnight last night, I had some weasel-like animal make a few passes at my food bag, which was sitting right outside my tent. It was pretty cool ... The thing moved so fast and silently and it had a long ringed tail like a raccoon, but it was definitely elongate like a weasel/ferret/marten. It went away for good once I shined the light at it. Never got a picture, even though I had my camera on and ready in case it came back one more time. Woke up at 7 and the other two were gone already, I was totally alone and the woods were very still, silent and gray this morning ... Cloud cover didn't break up until the afternoon and it was pretty humid in the meantime. Eventually ran into the Carrot/Instagate/Spark crew at a water source. Kept playing catch-up with them throughout the day but didn't really see anyone else til the end.

The trail today was extremely mediocre--overgrown with weeds much of the way, short on views, long on brief up-and-downs, and the tread was composed entirely of sticky brown dust which is coating me and my stuff even more than usual tonight. I wonder if the trail ever gets non-dusty at any point ... It's been at its worst lately, the amount of dust in the desert wasn't even close to this level. I washed my hands this morning in the river and, without even touching much of anything today, they're somehow very very dirty again after 12 hours. And my legs and feet are completely caked. What to do.

I can't really remember where the 25 miles went, but apparently I walked them at some point. There really wasn't anything remarkable about them. There was a very hazy view of Shasta at one point. It was hot. At the end of the day I ran into the aforementioned crew plus Robin Hood and two new faces, SciFi and Campfire. All but the last two pushed on to try to make 30 miles, but that's just so passe for me ... I neglected to join and started looking for solo campsites around my 25-mile point. Found one soon enough, it has a little exposure so I can be ventilated, unlike last night where I sweated my ass off. Tomorrow ought to be another 25 or so. Same ol' same ol' and then Friday afternoon I'll be at the interstate.

Day 80: Tuesday, July 23

Tenting by Rock Creek (PCT mi 1429.0), walked 13.7 miles today

Slept in til 9 and, even though we had a standing offer from Paul to cook anything in his house for breakfast, we felt like that was too much so we slid to the McDonald's a half-mile away. No hikers there when we arrived, but by 11 or so it was clearly hiker central in Burney--Hummingbird, Robin Hood, Gone Slow and others trickled in over the course of the morning. Went up to order three separate times myself. Resupplied for the 90 miles to I-5 at the Rite Aid next door, then went to thumb a ride out of town around noon. Cars were passing us like it was their job, but then I broke out my rarely-used "PCT HIKER TO TRAIL" Tyvek sign and the second car after that stopped. It was local hero Bill, and he was able to take us up to the trailhead.

Once on, we were promptly waylaid by another exceptionally well-conceived water/soda cache, which had a register in it that encouraged one to write a good joke along with one's name. This distracted me for way too long as I thought of which jokes to put down. I settled on "Did you hear the one about hermaphrodite Barbie? She comes in her own box!"; "Two pretzels were walking down an alleyway--one was a salted"; one about women and coffee; and then a long one about a bear who walks into a bar. Fast-forward an hour and I finally left the cache and actually got some hiking done. 7 miles to Burney Falls State Park, where I hung out on the shady porch of the store for a bit with Robin Hood and a few others (those are his new/old shoes in the picture). Then 6 miles past that to this place, Rock Creek, which was alleged to have "the best swimming on the PCT" in the Yogi book, although I have to disagree and point to the Middle Fork of the Feather and the Sierra City swimming hole both as superior to this one. There was also supposed to be camping here, and that's kind of true, but it's a tight squeeze and there were eight people here when I showed up at 8. Fortunately five of them moved on, which left enough room for me, Robin Hood and Shorts to set up somewhat comfortably. My tent spot has an abandoned Coleman folding chair next to it, but the bugs dissuaded me from relaxing in it for long.

Day 79: Monday, July 22

Sleeping in a bed at Paul's house in Burney (PCT mi 1415.7), walked 34.5 miles today

At 2:45am some people in cars drove into the parking lot by us and made an incredible amount of noise involving the garbage cans (oh the mysteries of Northern California / the entire Northwest), and this prepared me nicely for waking up at 4 for Hat Creek Rim. Succeeded in getting up and out quickly, by about 4:25, Shorts was up too and said he'd be on his way presently just behind me. Walked with a headlamp for about 45 minutes, in the process passing Toyoji, the ancient Japanese man who walks about 1mph but is impossible to outpace over the long run (I first saw him at Richardson Lake, July 7, over two weeks ago). Passed another hiker just after dawn ... It was funny seeing everyone up and crawling along so early trying to beat the heat. But after that guy there was no one for the next 30 miles except me and Shorts, who caught me up around 7am.

Hiking with him made the Rim seem to go by incredibly fast. The trail was flat, and it was also kind of ugly aside from the constant view to the northwest of the valley and Mt. Shasta, and I would have suffered badly from the monotony if I hadn't had a conversation partner the whole time. Before we knew it we were at the first water cache after 12 miles, then the next one after 16. The latter was I think the clutchest and most well-thought-out cache on the whole trail so far--an entire shady domed roof constructed from loose brush, chairs underneath, lots of water, and a cooler with some Gatorade, a Virgil's cream soda (!!!), and beer in it. Stayed there for about a half-hour, then pushed on.

The entire afternoon is one blurry march through the heat, which was bad but never unbearable and often mitigated by a breeze. Stayed very comfortable on water (I started with 5.5 liters and supplemented with cache drinks) up until the first real water source for 29 miles at Rock Creek. By then it was 4pm, we'd done 30 miles and we had only 4 to go til the highway to Burney. Lauren from Eugene had given me the contact info for Paul, a Burney man who had been helping her with her geology field work for the past few summers. I'd been in touch with him throughout the day and he came to pick us up at the highway when we got there at 6. He said, "Want two cold ones?" and handed us a Hoegaarden apiece right away, then drove us down into town to his home. A long story short, we were foot-bathed, showered, laundried, and fed a meal of delicious grilled chicken, corn on the cob (Mitch all together!), and salad from his garden. He's one of the nicest people I think I've ever met in my entire life. He went to bed early because he gets up at 4 for work, but we have the run of the place in the morning and then at some point I'll have to get hiking again. 34 miles in 13 hours doesn't come without a cost.

Day 78: Sunday, July 21

Tenting next to the Subway Cave parking lot (PCT mi 1381.6), walked 4.5 miles today

Woke up around 9 and spent my last two hours of allowed motel room usage completing the shakedown of my pack, getting another shower in, and watching Phil Mickelson win the British Open. Got breakfast/lunch (brunch doesn't seem like the right word for a town like Susanville) on our way out of town, at a diner where my new moustache was out-sleazied by many of the other male patrons', and probably some of the females' too. Drove the hour over to Old Station, where I was dropped off at 1:15pm. Said bye to Kristin, then sat inside the mini-mart for almost 4 hours with the few other hikers who were around: Sharkey and Bebo, an older couple I'd met once before, and Moonshadow, whom I hadn't. Around 4 a fast dude named Shorts made it in, having started the day at Drakesbad, and having started the trail at the Mexican border on May 26. He's trying to get the whole thing done over Colby College's summer break, May 25-September 10. Nice guy, he's an English major at a small expensive liberal arts college who likes to hike long distances, so we've got that much in common at least.

It was revoltingly hot outside, in the triple digits for sure, all afternoon, and I didn't end up hiking out til 6. I had every intention of night-hiking a good 15 miles of Hat Creek Rim, the 28-mile upcoming hot dry exposed stretch, under the full moon tonight. Then I got to this place, the Subway Cave, the last chance saloon for water before the Rim, and remembered how much I'm sick of night-hiking alone and how I keep telling myself every time I do it that it's my last time because it's boring and I never make any progress, not to mention it's a little unnerving at times. Shorts showed up a few minutes after me and said he was camping here and getting up at 4am for the Rim; this sounded appealing to me so it's the new agenda. The town of Burney, at 34 miles, is in theory in range for tomorrow if we start at 4, but we'd have to walk through the heat of the afternoon to make that kind of mileage, and it's supposed to be just as warm tomorrow, so it seems unlikely.

Day 77: Saturday, July 20

Still in Snoozinville, CA, a zero day

Woke up at 8:30, demolished the continental breakfast at the motel and tried to leave Susanville as soon as possible after that. Had some internet errands to run using the motel room WiFi, but by 10 we were on the road and despite being detoured around the Lassen County Fair parade on Main Street, we made our way out of town and over to Chester by 11. Sat down for kraut dogs and shakes at the Pine Shack Frosty, which I had missed out on three days ago during my first visit because I was in such a hurry. Other hikers were there too, and Kristin got to experience hiker trash at its finest when two of them immediately demonstrated high levels of cliqueishness, douchiness and unfunniness. Got some more errands done, including laundry, then drove out of town looking for a swimming hole to pass the heat of the afternoon by (it was around 100 today in Chester).

On our first attempt to take forest service roads out of town to a place called Lake Juniper, the car started to overheat going uphill so we aborted and went back to town. Walked into a bike shop and asked the employees for a recommendation on a good local place to swim that didn't have a jet-ski and motorboat scene ... They understood us perfectly and sent us back out down some different gravel roads to another lake, Willow Lake. It took a half-hour, including 3 miles on an awful dirt road, but there was almost no one else around when we got to the lake and once we'd walked a little way around it we found a spot perfect for swimming. Hot day, cool water, a lake in the middle of the Californian forest all to oneself ... I really enjoyed it, but for Kristin it was perfect, I think this is exactly what she'd wanted to do when she drove down to meet me and it worked out better than we could have hoped for. Spent at least an hour there, then headed back to Chester for another milkshake. Even though it was the wrong direction from Susanville, we figured we'd check out the PCT trailhead for hikers needing a ride into town before we left Chester for good ... we found Squeaks and Happy Hour there by the road and were able to give them some door-to-door service in to the Pine Shack.

Made it back to Snoozinville for the evening, had dinner at the brewpub again ... Against geographic logic, they seem to specialize in seafood and I had some pretty slick clam chowder and risotto. On the way back to the motel, stopped in at the Susanville Wal-Mart for a hair buzzer. It was a long, anxious process but suffice it to say Kristin performed her first haircut ever this evening on me, and if you don't look at the back very closely, it doesn't look terrible. After she was done, I waged war on my beard, the logic being that I'm halfway done with the trail, time for a fresh start, and at any rate that thing looks like absolute shit after 5-6 months as I found out on the AT, and I don't really need to repeat that look. Recognizing that this is one of the only times in my life that it'll be easy to do something interesting with my facial hair, I decided to leave the moustache on. Ready to bring a fresh look to the tired old neckbeard-and-shag world of male hiker fashion.

Day 76: Friday, July 19

In the Super 8 in Snoozinville, CA (left PCT at mi 1377.5), walked 26.2 miles today

Woke up way too goddamn early, at 5:20, was hiking by 5:50. Kristin's goal was to meet me at Old Station at 6pm so not wanting to take chances I decided to torture myself by starting so early. It ended up being unnecessary and I took a siesta at 1pm when I knew I was going to make the 26 miles comfortably by the evening. The day can be divided into the time before that siesta, when I was barely conscious, and the time after it, when I was relatively refreshed. Just about the only thing I remember from the not-conscious part was passing by a thermal lake at 6:30 am (see pictures). The rest of the morning was a total drag, I was too tired to think or converse with the few people I saw.

Post-nap, I felt normal again and would've positively skipped through the last 8 miles had it not been approximately 200 degrees outside. Some of the trail was shaded but there was also a lengthy (10-12 miles) stretch of burnt area from a huge wildfire last year, and the sun was fairly merciless there. Listened to music for the last few miles and got into Old Station around 5:15 to find a passel of hikers hanging out at the one shady picnic table in front of the store. Bandleader, whom I hadn't seen since Mammoth, was there, as were about 5 new faces plus a few others I recognized. Got my cold draank on (Gatorade and Mtn Dew, nothing stronger) and waited for Kristin.

She rolled in at about 6:45 having driven from Eugene after a half-day at the U. It's worth pointing out I was about the dirtiest I've been on the entire hike, and hence maybe my whole life, at this point ... 4 days of fine dry dust and ash, both volcanic and wildfire-borne, had glommed onto my legs and feet and they were pretty much black. She had my new shoes and socks so I tossed the old ones in the trash on the spot. Got into her car and drove east to suddenly Susanville, where we had booked a reasonably-priced motel room for the night. We got here and discovered why the motel rooms were so cheap: it is an arrestingly, laughably ugly town (think Klamath Falls but bleaker (that's not a compliment)) but we don't care too much, it's nice to see each other and we've got the car to get out and about from here tomorrow. Ate dinner at the main highlight of the city, the Lassen Ales brewpub, then retired for the night. Don't know what tomorrow holds, but it will be a zero and it's safe to say we're GingTFO of Susanville during the day.

Day 75: Thursday, July 18

Cowboying in a clearing (PCT mi 1351.5), walked 19.0 miles today

Didn't sleep very well last night because of the mutant ants that lived in the pinestraw beneath me ... There weren't many, but anytime one decided to crawl on me I could feel it, even through my clothes, and it woke me up. And once awake, I could hear each individual ant footstep crawling around on my Tyvek (I swear I wasn't on drugs, these things are just enormous) and couldn't get back to sleep. Had to put in earplugs. Woke up at 6:15 to mosquitos on my face instead of ants and decided I'd had enough of that particular spot so I hustled out by 6:40. By 7:30 I was at the road to Chester ... Hitching was slow, Robin Hood caught up to me as I was waiting and called Piper's Mom, a local trail angel who left her number on a sign before the road. She got there after a half-hour and drove us in ... She's the nicest lady (originally from Ely, MN, which made sense), she stocks a cooler of soda and fruit at the trailhead, and she said she's going up to Oregon later this summer for a week on the McKenzie, so I gave her OWA's information in case she wants to raft.

Ate an excellent breakfast with Robin Hood at the Kopper Kettle, talked about his term studying in Finland, which I was very jealous of. Did a little snack resupply at the grocery store, then immediately left to hitch back out ... Local stud Tom gave me a ride after 10 minutes and I was back hiking by noon. Immediately the heat got to me, which I could tell by how much Gatorade I was guzzling and how hard 4 miles of flat trail was seeming, so I stopped at a shady spring after 4 miles, pitched my tent and took a siesta. Woke up once in the middle of it to black flies in a frenzy around the tent, probably because I smell something like an animal corpse. Didn't get moving again til almost 5.

After about 7 miles, ran into an older section hiker named Lee, from Nashville, slowed down to walk and talk with him a bit ... He's 8 years into sectioning the PCT, in order, from the Mexican border up to here, planning to finish at I-5 in 150 miles. Nice guy, had to leave him when he wanted to stop and make camp at dusk like a normal person. Pushed on into the evening, with its very pleasant walking temperature of about 60 degrees, then it got dark and I busted out the headlamp, never really stopping for a break, just keeping snacks handy where I could reach them as I walked. Caught some eyeballs reflecting off my headlamp beam as they moved silently and swiftly uphill about 50 yards ahead of me, then found them again a minute later and had a staredown with them. They looked big, like maybe deer-sized, and I've had many staredowns with deer in the daylight so far and I know it's a game they're fawned of. But the silent movement was very un-ungulatelike, so when I watched this thing slink off soundlessly again a second time, it was kind of disquieting. Kept checking behind my back for the next mile or so, tried to remember everything I've read about mountain lions, which is that they're crepuscular/nocturnal hunters, they always attack from behind, and their first move is always to sever the spinal cord with their claw so you never even have a chance to fight back. These were all comforting thoughts as I made my way forward totally alone in the dark. I had wanted to get all the way past Drakesbad tonight, but after awhile I got to a flattish area that leaves me with about 26 miles to do before 6pm tomorrow, which is when I'm meeting Kristin, and that's a reasonable goal, so I thought enough is enough with this night-hiking crap and I settled down about 10:30.

Day 74: Wednesday, July 17

Cowboying on timber company land (PCT mi 1332.5), walked 30.0 miles today

It was almost cold last night and extracting myself from the sleeping bag was not easy at 7am. Showing great fortitude, I made it out anyway and was hiking by 7:45. Caught up to Banana Ripper, Songbird and Robin Hood basically all at once after an hour or so and told them about yesterday's misadventures. Walked on and off with some of them for awhile, left the couple behind for good when they got to a dirt road where Songbird's mom, having driven from Massachusetts, was supposed to meet them and take them into Chester for a few days off. But the mom wasn't there and there was no cell reception, so all they could do was wait.

My legs were leaden all afternoon and I'm not sure why; my mileage hasn't been crazy lately and I'm eating enough, and those are usually the two problem-causers. Staggered through it all anyhow; the terrain wasn't very hard, though the water sources were all 10-15 miles apart and one of them was .4 miles off-trail straight downhill so I ended up doing a lot of extra work and weight-carrying. Was alone all afternoon and evening, Robin Hood's probably just ahead of me somewhere, he might have made the next 2.5 miles to the highway, which I'm saving for the morning.

At about 6:30 pm, made it to the halfway monument, which Halfmile points out on his maps is 3 miles short of what he's measured as the current midpoint. At any rate, there was a register there, which I signed with a relevant SpongeBob quote, then I ate a celebratory Mounds bar. See, I haven't changed since middle school. I remember when Perro and I walked up to the halfway monument on the AT, there was a family there day-hiking, and they had a wretched little ADHD creep of a child named Hudson who was running around, interfering with our pictures, and generally not giving us a chance to soak in the moment at all. We were gone after 5 minutes. At least I had some peace this time around. The only hope I have for the second half of the PCT is that my body stays intact, which it failed to on the AT. I have a feeling I will keep enjoying the trail immensely, and it'll just fly by, if I just hold up physically.

Tomorrow I'm probably going into Chester in the morning just to grab a meal and a few extra groceries, then I've got to get back out and keep moving, 45 miles in about the next 44 hours.

Day 73: Tuesday, July 16

Cowboying atop a ridge near Frog Mtn (PCT mi 1303.3), walked 17?? miles today

A smattering of rain at 4:45 a.m. drove Robin Hood and me inside, where I put in earplugs and slept til 8:30, by which point the crazies were gone. Walked down the highway a piece to the Caribou Crossroads Cafe for breakfast ... It came highly recommended in the Yogi guide, specifically the blackberry milkshakes, and it did not disappoint. Back at the crib, dillied and dallied, including perusing trailjournals.com for people I know from this year ... The clear winner was Rocket Llama's journal, http://www.trailjournals.com/alejandrawilson, which I think would be entertaining to anyone but it's better if you've met her because she writes exactly how she talks. Finally left the place at 11 and went back to Belden Town, where Robin Hood and I bought soda and loafed some more.

At high noon I took off and headed across the highway to a well-constructed trail that climbed uphill and due north, just like the PCT does out of Belden--or so I thought. Dun dun dunnnn. After about 40 minutes of walking and 1000 feet of elevation gain the trail petered out and I began to suspect something was wrong. Indeed, the Halfmile app told me I was .6 miles, as the crow flies, from the PCT. Whoops. Going cross-country to rejoin the PCT would've been impossible in that terrain, so I went all the way back down to the highway to start over. Turns out I had climbed the Indian Springs trail, which leaves from the same point as the PCT, looks just like the PCT, but isn't the PCT. While I was down there, figured I should go get some lunch from the resort, so I did that too.

After the false start, finally stepped onto the real trail at 2:30. It was a draining afternoon of climbing. Physically, it was only tough in the 3-mile-long burn area, where it was baking hot, in the 90s for sure. But mentally it was an awful climb--overgrown and muddy in places, mostly mazy and wooded so there was never an idea of progress, inconsistently graded so I could never get in a rhythm. Time estimates for intermediate goals were always off, it always was slower in reality. By the evening hours it was cool and I made it up to the very top ridge of the climb, 4700 feet above the highway (plus the extra 1000 up and down from the wrong trail), around 8:30. Lassen and Shasta (I'm not completely sure of the latter ... EDIT from the next morning: definitely Shasta) are silhouetted off in the distance against the sunset. Soon found possibly my favorite bivy site of the entire PCT so far, not far off the trail but totally out of sight of it, with a great view to the north and west. To me this was just like getting up to the heavenly Sonora Pass area from the stygian Dorothy Lakes area ... The PCT never stays crummy for long, there's always some awesome spot waiting to be encountered if you just walk a little further.

Alone for now because I lost Robin Hood, as well as Banana Ripper and Songbird who were just a few minutes out in front, with the two-hour false start delay. Stepped over an apparently homeless man--jeans, t-shirt, haggard appearance and a big older backpack--sleeping in the middle of the trail at 4pm, and then a half-hour after that I saw a campsite with a dozen backpacks set down but no people in sight (I was a little on edge at that point), but otherwise I had the woods to myself today. Haven't even caught up to the crazies yet, but I'm sure I will tomorrow.

Day 72: Monday, July 15

Sleeping on the porch of the Braatens at Little Haven, near Belden, CA (PCT mi 1289.5), walked 20.0 miles today

Slept like crap for some reason on the lawn last night. Woke up around 7 and got caught up on the news on my phone for the first time in awhile ... George Zimmerman acquitted, Andy Murray won Wimbledon a week ago apparently, Barack Obama elected president ... who knew? Left the house around 9 with the other hikers, we made the short walk to the Quincy main drag to an earthy "natural-foods" grocery store situated right next to a coffeeshop. I went to the latter for a latte and a breakfast scramble, they went into the store to buy quinoa paste or whatever it is one buys at such establishments. Left from there around 10:15 with local citizen and hiking enthusiast Steve who had approached me at the Safeway last night and given me his number for a ride out of town in the morning. He refused gas money, as is typical in these situations. At the trailhead itself, I was distracted for a while by a register book, the first one anyone has seen for about 500 miles. Despite the fact that I'm doing more consistent miles, everyone I know seems to keep widening the gap in front of me. What to do.

The 20 miles to Belden feel like they never even happened. They were so easy for the most part ... even though I started at 11 I was at the other end by 6, and comfortably. The last 7 miles or so were a huge, knee-lifespan-shortening descent down to about 2200 feet. Was unsure when I got down there whether I would push on or call for a ride here to the Braatens', the local trail angels. Yogi's guidebook had painted the Belden Town Resort, which the trail passes through, as some sort of druggy hell-hole because it hosts ravey music festivals all summer, but today was a Monday and there weren't many people around, and the place actually has a sweet restaurant setup overlooking the N Fork of the Feather River. Went into the bar and got an Asian chicken salad and a soda (I guess I wasn't feeling my usual bar meal of pork rinds and 5 shots of Jim Beam), and once that was over it was 7 and therefore too late to push on, I determined. Called up Brenda Braaten ... They live only a mile down the road, so I was picked up and delivered to their house within about 5 minutes. They have a small guest suite of sorts that hikers pretty much have the run of ... bathroom, small kitchen, a few beds, porch.

The other hikers at the house for the night are Robin Hood, who is great, and two unrelated fiftysomethings, Rodknee Dangertrail and Iceaxe, who are tough to share such a small space with. Iceaxe is so called because she is still carrying a 3lb iceaxe down the trail. She had about 2 hours of phone conversations, all with befuddled-sounding men, all on speakerphone (why why why?), and would literally follow me into whatever room I tried to escape to until she finally caught me giving her the death glare. Rodknee isn't quite at her level but he still talks an incredible amount, whether anyone's listening or not. Robin Hood and I both said no thank you to sleeping anywhere near those two and chose the porch for the night, which is less hot and stuffy than the house anyway. Tomorrow I don't know what I'll do ... I don't have to do particularly big miles to get to Old Station by Friday to meet Kristin. The first 15 are all uphill, so that might be all that gets done.

Other people's hiking blogs

I'm just finishing a zero day where I have access to a real computer with real internet (read: not the 3G connection on my phone), so I thought I would post links to blogs that friends of mine are keeping for their long hikes this year. I've done my hike and my blog a certain way, but as these other ones show, there are many ways to skin a cat, both with hiking and writing.

Most of these are people I've met on the PCT so far, but I knew Spins from the AT in 2011; she did the PCT last year and is now on what sounds like a perilous adventure on the Continental Divide Trail. For a taste of what I'm probably going to be doing at some point in the next few years, go to http://spinscdt.blogspot.com.

I met Tribhu in the very early days of the PCT (Julian and Idyllwild). He is way far ahead of me by now. There's a spiritual angle to his hiking and writing, at http://awalkofsurrender.blogspot.com.

I haven't seen Rocket Llama since Big Bear City. She is way far behind me by now. For an example of people having way too much fun on a thru-hike, and someone who writes exactly like she speaks, read her trail journal at http://www.trailjournals.com/alejandrawilson

I hiked with Muk-Muk for a day in the Sierra around VVR, and at the time didn't even know she was blogging. But her page got recommended to me recently, specifically because of the post on July 18 where she posts several videos of being stalked by a mountain lion for an entire night. Her blog is at http://mexicotocanada2013.wordpress.com.

My foreigner friends Lenny and Becca, aka Captain 'Murrica and Concrete Babe, have a rarely-updated but always entertaining blog at http://beaton-berg-cake.blogspot.com. They're not even planning on thru-hiking anymore, so this could turn into more of a general travelogue as they visit places like New Orleans, Orlando and San Diego before their visas run out.

Finally, if you want to read about two donkeys and a Frenchman wandering all over North and South America, visit Pascal's blog (I met him around mile 125 and again on Glen Pass when his donkeys were in a spot of bother), http://longears2chile.blogspot.fr.

Day 71: Sunday, July 14

Cowboying in Mark and Jenny's backyard in Quincy (PCT mi 1269.5), walked 19.0 miles today

What comes down has to go up ... Woke up down in the river gorge and had to spend the first 11 miles climbing back out of it. It was shady and very peaceful all the way up except for a few exposed areas near the top, and the ascent was never too steep. Poison oak reared its droopy, waxy, tripartite head again for the first 5 miles or so. Got up to the top right around noon and just as I was starting to get concerned about my water, a spring with ice cold piped water--so cold there was mist rising off of it--was pouring out right next to the trail. Made the most refreshing liter of Tang that's ever been made and moved on.

By 3 I got to Buck's Summit, with the road to Quincy and its 24-hour Safeway, a welcome departure from the shitty overpriced small-town general stores that we've all been struggling with for the last 300 miles. It took an hour and 15 minutes for someone to give me a ride, during which time Hummingbird showed up and tagged along into town with me. He and I had no plans other than the grocery store and the pizza we ended up eating for dinner ... Motels were expensive and it was looking like stealth camping somewhere in town for the night. But then I went into the Safeway to buy a Haagen-Dazs pint for dessert, and the guy in front of me in the express line (which was taking 10 minutes--some things don't change about Safeway) asked if I were thru-hiking. I said I was, then he said that he and his wife liked hiking and had read some books about the PCT recently, and had considered becoming trail angels because Quincy didn't have any, as far as they knew. He asked if Hummingbird and I would like to camp in their backyard for the night, and take care of laundry and showers and whatever else we needed in their house. Of course we accepted that incredible offer ... Hummingbird later dragged in Uncle Famous, Miss Maggie and Ain't Nothin Wrong, who were just arriving in town.

Got cleaned up and spent a long time chatting with Mark and Jen about the trail, about law school (which I'm still not planning on, don't start any rumors), and about our respective travels abroad. Their pets, Boris (dog) and Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great (cats) took too keen an interest in my tent during and after setting it up so I took it down again and decided to sleep out. People, especially crabby old hiker people on certain online forums, sometimes like to say, "All those hiker feeds and coolers by the side of the trail aren't real trail magic! You don't know what real trail magic is!" Well, does this count? This has been some perfect storm of serendipity and generosity in a town that I didn't even plan on being in as of last night. The trail provides.

Day 70: Saturday, July 13

Tenting by the unbelievable Middle Fork of the Feather River (PCT mi 1250.6), walked 27.1 miles today

Woke up at 6:45 to Redbeard leaving, got going myself by 7:30. Don't really remember what happened in the morning, other than that I was alone and the weather was cool and forgiving. Around 11am, after 10ish miles, got to Quincy-LaPorte Road, which Yogi assures is has very little traffic. That was true, but the one truck that did come by offered as much cold juice and yogurt as we could carry to me and the two other hikers, Robin Hood and Hummingbird, who were sitting there on our break. Ate a Chobani mango cup and filled up a liter of bright pink Guava nectar, which made the next five miles to water so much easier.

The terrain today was not as remarkable as yesterday's--just a lot of low brushy hills with literally a hundred or more downed logs to scramble over or around--which is maybe why I'm having trouble piecing together the events which led to me covering 26+ miles in 12 hours (maybe there was an alien abduction somewhere in there). At 16 miles I had to go what felt like an eternity (0.3 miles) off-trail to draw water from a spring, then the next 10 miles flew by and suddenly the trail was dropping hard into a canyon with this gorgeous river, the Feather, at the bottom of it. One of the best parts about the PCT is when I arrive at some stunningly beautiful place that, despite all my hours of pre-trip research and on-trail grapevining, I've never heard of or been warned about. This is such a place, a complete surprise. Went in for a full-body dunk, but not really a swim, and got cleaned up before setting up camp. Ate dinner with Robin Hood, a pretty cool dude from Bismarck, NoDak (he doesn't know Randy). Hummingbird and Gone Slow showed up later. Going to bed feeling very clean compared to the usual, knowing that I'll get dirty again climbing for 10 miles tomorrow morning, but that there are burgers and sodas at the top at Bucks Lake.

Day 69: Friday, July 12

Cowboying near the W Branch of Nelson Creek (PCT mi 1223.9), walked 25.2 miles today

Woke up at 6:45 to some apparently very early risers walking around me on the trail. Hadn't expected anyone to come out of town so early, but they had started hiking at 5:45. Crazy oldsters. Sky Eyes came by later as I was packing up, still sitting in the middle of the trail, and gave me a fist pound because "Fuck it dude, I fuckin love sleepin in the middle of the fuckin trail." Got hiking by 7:45 and climbed up over a couple of miles to the Sierra Buttes, which everyone could see from down in town yesterday. Really stellar views, and if I had had enough water at the time, I would've run off trail to the fire tower at the tippy top of the peak ... Alas, I was pretty parched and had to push on to the nearest spring. Water is back to being an issue, something we have to constantly be aware of and plan for. It was a nice 450 miles with water everywhere you looked, but those halcyon days are over.

Rolled through some very easy-on-the-eye terrain all the rest of the day ... If it wasn't a shady hemlock/fir forest, it was a lush verdant hillside covered in wildflowers and lamb's ear. Walked alone and had a genuine struggle for motivation in the middle of the day, one of the first times it's really happened to me. I had just taken a long break and was alone and was tired of being alone and wishing I could catch up to the people I like in front of me. But I kind of eased out of that low mood after walking awhile, and by the end of the day I was back to being very happy with just about everything.

Got to a mildly famous water source, the A-Tree spring, at 6 pm and had to endure a little too much lecturing from an older section-hiking couple about not treating my water. Normally I will take a brief tsk-tsk, counter it with "I understand, but I've spent 6 months in Sri Lanka and have 2000 miles of treatment-free hiking under my belt now, and I haven't gotten a serious intestinal condition yet" and then we can leave it at that. But these people wanted to go on and on about it, so I actually left early without taking my planned longish break there. On the last 5-mile stretch, Red Beard caught up to me ... On Monday the 1st he left the trail from Bridgeport for 5 days because of an issue back home in Seattle, got back on on Saturday morning, and has since hiked 200+ miles to try and catch up with Blast, Orbit and Slack, his trail friends. A pretty epic week of walking ... Today he did 30 including a trip into Sierra City. He's the type of person I like to point to when people accuse me of moving fast. He and I are camped at this water source, which is _barely_ running. It's listed in Yogi's book as "usually has water," so it stands to reason that it's dry enough this summer that any water source with even the slightest chance of failure should not be counted on. Tomorrow should be a 26-miler to a swimming hole.

Day 68: Thursday, July 11

Cowboy camping on the trail (PCT mi 1198.7), walked 10.9 miles today

Got walking at 7 sharp and the descent was constant and very gentle for 5 miles sharp. At 8:40 sharp, meaning I was walking 3 mph sharp, got to Wild Plum Road, the turnoff for the 3ish-mile alternate route into Sierra City. Halfmile doesn't mark this on his maps for some reason, but looking at the geography it's an obvious shortcut, and Yogi's notes mentioned a great waterfall and swimming hole midway down the road. Sure enough, it was an incredible spot ... Normally I don't really get off on swimming holes when hiking, although some people really do and they seek them out. But even I have to say this place was perfect and was the highlight of my day, probably the last couple of days. There was a waterfall dumping into a deep bright turquoise pool with bracing cold water and rocks all around perfect for jumping off of. Spent over an hour there swimming, jumping in, cleaning myself and my clothes and then letting them dry.

Ran into Simon just as I was getting back on the road toward town. Halfmile's notes had mentioned an elderly male citizen of Sierra City who had been reported to make "unwanted sexual advances" toward younger male hikers over the past several years ... Simon was probably the worst possible person to walk into town with because every innocent old man that we saw, he would whisper, "I bet he's the one" and then make some crude insinuation about his private life. Neither of us did a good job keeping a straight face through any of this.

Made it to the Red Moose Inn, which is hiker central in Sierra City because they allow free camping around the back and showers inside, and serve dinner for a concessionary rate. Bill and Margaret, the couple who run the place, are extremely helpful and patient but Bill especially seemed a little weary of hikers ... When I left he said something interesting to me, which is that he'd been doing this for four years and had seen a "noticeable decline" in the "quality" of hikers coming through. I obviously don't have other years to compare to, but I can see what he meant about today's crowd--I can't point out anything specific to illustrate it, but, to be snooty about it, the amount of intelligent life among the hikers who hung out on the porch all day today wasn't especially high. As I have said before, there are nice people in this herd surrounding me, and there are no specific ones for whom I have a strong antipathy, but I don't really care to spend much time with this crowd. For that reason, decided in the middle of the afternoon that I would stick around for dinner but not for the whole night.

Got errands--shopping, shipping, laundry, soda-drinking (they had Sprecher in the store!)--done in the afternoon. Was reunited with the town t-shirt I'd bounced ahead from Kennedy Meadows, and picked up my cutoff jeans in a maildrop from Kristin. Dinner was great--pork ribs, carrots, beans and home fries, with a bottle of Moose Drool on the side and watermelon for dessert. Afterward I packed up and headed out of town. Had to road-walk a half-hour just to reach the trail, and once I was on it, it was going up the whole time and it's just getting started. Could tell that there might not be any flat camping spots for awhile, so knowing that no one's coming up behind me until midmorning tomorrow at least, decided to crash in the middle of the trail. Haven't done this before but it's certainly comfortable, my only fear is a deer tripping over my face in the middle of the night. Bears are supposedly active around here so I've taken the unusual step of putting all my food far away from me halfway up a tree ... If it gets ransacked tonight I turn around and go back to town tomorrow. Almost no bugs for the first time in ages. The plan for this section is to make Belden, 92 miles away, in four days starting tomorrow.

Day 67: Wednesday, July 10

Tenting in a medium-sized clearing (PCT mi 1189.8), walked 26.8 miles today

Even though I had gone to sleep about 9, couldn't bear to open my eyes til 7:30 today. Was moving by 8 and the terrain was so ridiculously easy, and the weather so cool and pleasant, that I started to think I could do 30 miles even with the late start. Kept seeing people from the mini-herd all morning, but by noonish I was past all of them. Kept my breaks short and just kept moving ... The trail spent a lot of time rolling around in fairly dense evergreen forest, but then periodically would climb to a treeless grassy ridge with a great view. Never got to sit and enjoy these views for any length of time because the wind was always blasting, hard enough to alter the placement of my footsteps, whenever the trail went up high.

I would have been well on pace for 30 but a grave case of butt-chafe struck in the mid-afternoon. I have no idea what causes this--my theory from the desert had been sweat running down my back, but I haven't had to sweat much lately. It definitely got worse with the long pants I started wearing after Mammoth, but I'm no longer wearing those. Today was the absolute nadir ... Nothing I could do to treat it was very effective and I had to make a chew toy out of that little plastic ring that comes underneath the cap of a Gatorade bottle, just to keep my mind off the pain. Waddled into camp a lot sooner than planned and am trying to take care of all chores in the tent for the evening in the lying-down position. Even when it's bad I almost always have a few hours of pain-free walking to start off every morning, and I'm only 8 miles from Sierra City, so I should be in town before it makes its dreaded return.

Day 65: Monday, July 8

Tenting at Squaw Creek (PCT mi 1142.9), walked 22.3 miles today

Had one of the best night's sleeps on the whole trail in the ski hut and blazed right through my alarms, woke up at 7:30 and was gone by 8:15. Was surprised to see 6 people still passed out in their sleeping bags next to the lake, but later I learned they were up til 2 a.m. whoopin it up and catchin crawdads, hot damn! Dirtbag's new trail name is apparently Crawdaddy because he bagged "like, 30 of them." The morning was a very easy climb to Barker Pass, where there was a vanload of Tahoe Rim Trail hikers who gave me some food, including a protein bar that might as well have said "All new POOP flavor!" on the front. There was also a cooler with 1 PBR and one bottle of aloe vera juice, which is a new concept to me. My esophagus wasn't sunburned or anything, but I took the juice. It had chunks of something floating in it. It tasted okay I guess.

Shortly after the pass, ran into 2 thru-hikers, Luna and Werewolf, who have just picked up a dog from their parents and are trying to take him to Canada, but he's not really cooperating. He seemed to want to run off trail a lot and then sit in the shade and refuse to move. Got caught without much water over an 8-mile stretch in the mid-afternoon because I was distracted by the dog and not paying attention to where the trail was about to go, high along a ridge. Tried to appreciate the views of Lake Tahoe from said ridge anyway ... There was what looked like a new wildfire burning on the east side of it (see picture). Later the air around us got kind of smoky, presumably from that.

Took a 1.5-hour break after I finally staggered up to a water source, Simon the British guy was there for most of that time with me. Took care of the final 5 miles alone with music in ... I listen to music while hiking rarely enough that it always really pumps me up and I want to sing along, but I can't because what if I walked right up on someone's snack break yelling, "R.O.C., we runnin this rap shit!" to myself? I'm honestly more afraid of that than of someone walking in on me pooping. When I got to this site it was only 7 and I could've kept walking, but I'm liking this whole sustainable-pace thing. Noticed that the pattern in my mileage lately has been to race race race, a bunch of 25-mile or more days, and then flame out in town with a zero and/or a huge nearo. I feel 100% each morning if I keep the previous day's mileage at or just under 25. Tomorrow there will be a long midday break at the Soda Springs store but I ought to still have total mileage around 15-20, which is close enough to the 21 per day that I figure I have to average to get to Canada by Sept. 20, which would be ideal. Camped nearby are Sexy Legs, Johnny Reb, Jug and Chozen One, as well as a LASHer (long-ass section hike) couple named Lodgepole and Wuzzy. The first four are doing more experiments with campfire cooking, which is ironic because fires will soon be explicitly banned everywhere we hike, if they're not already now (signage has been unclear).

Day 66: Tuesday, July 9

Tenting not far past the Peter Grubb Hut (PCT mi 1153.0), walked 20.1 miles today

Got moving around 7:15 this morning and after about 5 miles of climbing popped out on the very top of a very steep and very exposed ridge with 360 views ... Stayed up there for a couple of miles, and it was a fantastic morning of walking. There was a stiff breeze on the ridge, but I can only imagine what that area would be like if it were really blowing. Took a bathroom break at the Benson Ski Hut, where my poop fell from possibly the highest distance it ever has--the commode was on the second story, there was an entire first story below it, and then below that was the pit. It was fascinating. I could have sat there all day.

But town food called ... I continued the next 6ish miles to the old Hwy 40, where there was an older couple, the family of Werewolf and/or Luna, handing out cold beer and fresh cherries. Hung there awhile with Sexy Legs and Johnny Reb, then caught a quick hitch 3 miles to the Soda Springs store. Ate a pretty good sandwich there, drank some Mtn. Dew, which I'd craved all morning, charged my phone and grabbed some extra snacks for the next 35 miles to Sierra City. Was back out to the trail via another quick hitch in about 2 hours. 4 miles from there, the trail passed under I-80, where someone had left more trail magic, with some very recently stocked coolers of soda and beer, and some frosted donettes for good measure. Drank two sodas and moved on. Had started to feel very antisocial because I had seen about a dozen hikers, most of whom I don't really care about, in the vicinity since returning to the trail and knew they all had the ski hut, the Peter Grubb, in mind for the night. I got there at 7 and it was closed for repairs, which is going to disappoint a lot of people. Went less than a half-mile past it, figuring they'd all camp in the building area anyway, then poked around off-trail for a good stealth site, found one under some nice big pines. Relishing my aloneness because I'm clearly around a mini-herd and my not have much time to myself between here and Sierra City in 35 miles.

Day 64: Sunday, July 7

Sleeping in an ACTUAL SHELTER, the Ludlow Ski Hut by Richardson Lake (PCT mi 1120.6), walked ~23 miles today

Set no alarm but woke up around 6:45 anyway and was going by 7:30. Aloha Lake after a few miles was quite spectacular, a throwback to the High Sierra. There were good lakes all throughout today, come to think of it. Climbed up Dicks Pass, did not see the anatomical snow art that I'd heard is often present at the top in years past. Had been alone til then, but found thru-hikers at the top--Sexy Legs, whom I knew already, and Rafiki, Johnny Reb and a British fellow named Simon, whom I did not. They were hilarious and we hung out for awhile talking food and bodily functions, mostly.

Ambled through the afternoon, hiking at times with Legs and/or Simon, and at about 6:30, which is normally way too early to stop for me, got to this lake. It had a multitude of very nice camping areas all around, including this Sierra Club hut which we eventually discovered on the other side. The front door was locked so to get in, I had to climb a ladder to the second story, open a door that leads out of a wall onto nothing, climb down from the loft and undo the bar on the main door from the inside. Back outside, more hikers were stopping for the night, including Messenger, his visiting cousin Gili (also Israeli), Chozen One, Dirtbag, Johnny Reb, Rafiki, a guy named Jug, Britta and Karen. Messenger is obsessed with building fires and cooking anything and everything on them, so he got working on that. Jug disappeared for 30 minutes and came back soaking wet but holding a crayfish from the lake, which he and Rafiki then boiled and ate. Messenger and Gili carry flour so the latter worked up some bread dough ... Chozen One tried too but he was competing with a pro and his dough did not exactly have the perfect consistency, while hers did. She baked some of it by wrapping strips of it around a stick in a spiral (see pictures), then they handed out the rest for people to make their own calzones with whatever food they happened to have in their personal stash. After awhile the fire got too hot and one of the rocks that was under/in contact with the coals exploded ... No one was hurt, which was kind of lucky, but a little flaming rocklet landed on my pack and bored a hole in the fabric. Ended up staying out well after dark and left when there were a series of explosions of smaller rocks ... I've never been useful for much around campfires and I figured I'd leave that problem to the guys who started it. Went over to the hut around 10 and laid out on one of the dining tables inside to go to sleep. No tent hassle and no bugs ftw.