Mile 1440 to 1468.
Last night we camped on the saddle of a small mountain. In the past, this would have been a dicey proposal, however, for the past couple weeks we have been much lower in elevation with no cold weather, high winds or rocky outcropping to deal with. So, when Animal exclaimed “why are we camping on the saddle, it will be so windy!”, I gave him. The appropriate amount of sass reminding him that it's been seventy degrees at night and completely wind free. Well, it was windy.
Today we aimed to hike 28 miles to put ourselves in a good position to reach Mt. Shasta early on Friday to give us enough time to reach the post office that is closed during the weekend. This means no multi hour breaks and hiking “with purpose” for the whole day. For this reason, I don’t have much to report!
I jawed with Animal in the morning, we stopped a few times to put our legs straight up in the air against a tree to drain the blood out of them as they swell throughout the day. I almost stepped on a baby rattler which made every scurry of lizards send me into a tizzy. I talked soccer with Maverick and we were all pretty much shot after 25 miles but mustered up the energy for another hour of hiking.
We have been talking lots about how many miles we need to hike in order to finish “in time,” basically before the big snow falls in Washington (early October usually?). In Oregon, which we have been told is “flat” (we’ve also been told it was flat after Sonora Pass, Tahoe and Sierra City… LIES!) we are planning to average around 26 a day… But if the past couple days have been any indicator, it may be a tall task. We’re looking forward to an afternoon in Mt. Shasta to recharge before setting off on our last week and a half of California. To Oregon!
