Distance hiked today: 21.7 miles / 34.9 km.
Today we're making a quick stop in town to resupply before heading out. By "we" I mean whoever I've been hiking around, as we tend to sync up for a little while with the same people before heading separate ways. Today it's MacGuyver, Sticks, Walker, and Crypto.
It was about 12 miles downhill to the highway with views of Mt Shasta, and we passed the 1500 mile marker! When we got to the road, there was a trail angel waiting there with a cooler of Gatorade and ready to give us a ride to town, which was amazing since this major highway is a hard hitch.
To the West is the tiny town of Castella, really just a gas station and post office along the highway, only 2.5 miles from the trail. To the East are the towns of Dunsmuir and Mount Shasta. I had sent my resupply box to the gas station at Castella since it's open every day, and I wasn't sure if I could get a hitch into the main towns. The trail angel was kind enough to drive us to Castella first before heading the other way to the larger towns.
But when I got there my box was nowhere to be found… After looking around frantically I realized it might still be at the post office next door - I hadn't sent it there specifically because it's only open a few hours a day, and from 8:45am-10am on Saturdays. I looked at the time - 9:55am. I rushed next door, and my box was there, for some reason requiring a signature which is why it hadn't been released to the gas station. Somehow we'd made such good time and had gotten lucky with a ride that I'd actually made it there before 10am unintentionally, with 5 minutes to spare. The post office would have been closed until Monday morning afterwards. Once again, the trail provides!
Arriving in Mount Shasta, we went for breakfast, got groceries, then lunch. MacGuyver chatted with an older man at breakfast and he offered us a ride back to the trail later. Back on trail by 3pm, it was uphill to the tent site and hot. We stopped short of where we'd planned since it was just too slow going, and I had dinner in my tent to escape the bugs.
My pack is heavy with 6 days of food. Even though there's another town in 4 days, I always carry for longer sections so the shipping is more worthwhile. I did pack out more snacks this time though: nuts, cheese, and pepperoni slices.
Total trail mileage: 1511.1 miles / 2431.4 km