July 22nd
Today’s mileage: 18
My total mileage: 1166
PCT mile 1347
Only our second soda cache of the entire trail! It was such a nice surprise.
Arrived in time for dinner at Drakesbad. I had heard really mixed reviews about this place beforehand. It ended up being a fantastic experience. There were a couple of weird things….they told us it was really important to make reservations beforehand. So we did, for 6:30pm, and they definitely knew we were hikers. But when we arrive, they told us we need to wait until all of the rest of the normal guests have eaten, and we can eat at 7:30pm. We had heard from other hikers that at lunch, they got stiffed on chicken and salad…that the resort had run out of food by the time that hikers got to eat. However, you don’t have to pay in advance, so it looked like we wouldn’t be out anything if the dinner ended up being just crummy leftovers. However, the all-you-can-eat BBQ included tri-tip, burgers, hot dogs, etc., and they didn’t run out of anything while we were there.
Hikers paid $14 each, while the normal guests paid $28. Plus that $14 included the best shower on the entire trail, and laundry. Such a better deal than VVR! I’m pretty sure a number of hikers didn’t even pay. One of my friends said that when he went to pay, they said, “you’ve been buying beer, don’t worry about it.” Pretty crazy. I felt like my $14 was well spent. Interestingly, nearly all of the help staff were Latvian or Lithuanian.
All of the hikers moseyed a mile back to an official campground area. I had stomach cramps in the middle of the night….I think from having eaten too much food.
EXTRA: Joe Brewer has an excellent video showing this stretch of trail from Drakesbad Ranch (Mile 1354) To Mt Shasta (Mile 1507). I highly recommend subscribing to his channel: