July 30th
Today’s miles: 25 (+ 1)
My total mileage: 1319
PCT mile: 1501
I’m pleased to say that we finished the Sierra mountain range and have now entered the third and final range, the Cascades! (I think we crossed over back near Drakesbad/Chester.)
We are racing up and down hills to reach Castella by late afternoon/evening. (My app said we’re doing 6,000+ ft of ascent and descent today, ugh.) There is a gas station there with frosty drinks and we’re likely to hitch north 4 miles for the night to the city of Mt. Shasta.
I listened to some of “A Tale of Two Cities” today. It hasn’t grabbed me yet. Very tired and dirty. A girl’s phone said it was 102 degrees today, ugh.
We reached Castella. We ate burritos at the Chevron convenience store and then crammed into the backpackers’ lot at the nearby campground.
A good example of how the trail can be. Kind scary when there are rattlesnakes in this part. Howly and Fancyfeet also had a scare with thick vegetation like this back on our descent into Belden. A large mammal was only a meter or two away from them, and then decided to abruptly turn and shamble off. Later on, we heard from Wu-Tang that it was in fact a bear.
Lancelot’s tree of life tattoo:
Howly demonstrating extreme patience for the deer ahead. It was a doe with two newborns.
