Distance hiked: 24.5 miles / 39.4 km.
Today I hit the mid point of the PCT, on Canada Day! 🇨🇦 It was a complete coincidence which made it even more fun. For every step I take from here there's less distance ahead of me than behind, but there's still a long way to go!
And I'm STILL in California - the state is so long that it makes up more than half of the PCT.
I couldn't linger for too long - I needed to make it to the post office in Chester for my resupply box before it closes for the next 3 days due to the July 4th holiday in the US. For the last two weeks I've had my eye on this deadline, calculating the miles to make sure I wouldn't be stuck here for 3 days.
In terms of the trail: more burn, more ash. It's sad to see the devastation of this fire, which was caused by a power box lighting on fire and not being put out quick enough. It's not often (if ever) that you'd visit a burn area normally, so it is interesting to see.
I made it 19 miles to the highway by 2:30pm, where some trail angels were handing out cold drinks and offered me a ride into town right away. The post office is on "mountain time" here they said, and although its not supposed to close until 4pm they might decide to close at any time.
I successfully got my package, had a late lunch since I'd skipped it earlier, showered at the laundromat in the pay-shower (a whole adventure in itself since the countdown timer was out of whack), and hitched back to the trail.
Because of the holiday and music festivals in the area, hotels are fully booked and expensive. So I'm just going to keep walking until I can find a decent place to rest.
I got back to trail pretty late, and planned to hike until I saw another tent that I could camp with, or until dark. It ended up being until dark when I didn't pass anyone else on trail. I debated night hiking a few more miles, but it's too creepy to do alone. The only flat spot I could find was a ditch by a dirt road, so that was home for the night. I could hear (what I assume was) a buck making noises in the bushes around me and calling out, and I crossed my fingers that he'd leave me alone tonight.
Total trail mileage: 1336.4 miles / 2150.3 km