Day 79 I had set my alarm for half past two am today as I was going along the notoriously dry and hot Hat Creek Rim (allegedly comparable to the Mojave) as I wanted to beat the heat. It took me a while to get going simply because I was tired but it was still very early and cold. I walked the short way back to the trail and passed by the Subway Cave, which…
Day 78 Normally I snooze my alarm once and the second time it goes off I open the air went on my sleeping pad. That gets me up because the ground is hard and cold. Well not today as the ground was neither, so I fell asleep again and slept longer than expected. Not a catastrophe as today would probably not be that demanding, I thought. Most other hikers had already left despite it being…
Day 77 I spent the early morning on finishing some chores and ordering new tips for my trekking poles. The latter was not trivial as for instance Leki’s “universal trekking pole tips” wouldn’t work with my Leki trekking poles. Anyways, after eating a lot of food at the complementary breakfast I checked out and wanted to hitch. I met a female hiker called “Hardcore” and thought she was trying to hitch in the wrong direction.…
Day 76 I won’t bother you with the usual chores every zero day entails, but as something different, I sent myself a resupply package (e.g. food). It was all the way to a store near Crater Lake that accepts packages. There is no good places to buy food nearby so why not just ship it to yourself there? I will probably do the same thing for a couple of places in Washington if I make…
Day 75 As it was a long day yesterday And I had ample time to get to Chester today, I allowed myself to sleep a bit longer. At a hilltop I finally had cellular service again and looked for hotels and found that the one I wanted only had one room left (allegedly), but I thought I would take care of that when I got to town. Spent the next stretch of trail thinking about…
Day 74 I wanted to do a lot of hiking today so that I would be in a good spot for getting to Chester tomorrow. In fact, more hiking than I had ever done before. I was therefore a bit disappointed in my inability to get out of bed and going quickly, but oh well. First part of the day was spent walking at the top of a ridge, but it wasn’t long before the…
Day 73 Having not a too long day ahead, I let my self sleep in a bit. The morning hours brought me up off the river valley through a long ascent with at times a tad narrow trail. Biggest nuisance, however, was the abundantly present poison oak. I think I have seen as many plants today as I have jointly on all other days. Luckily, many of the plants weren’t too big so it was…
Day 72 Despite the unexpectedly early sleep I got yesterday I was surprisingly unable to muster the energy to get out of bed (or rather sleeping bag) when my alarm clock rang, so I slept in a bit. Hope it didn’t wake the hikers next to me with that alarm that I didn’t even need. Sometime later I got my things together and before heading out I wanted to fill up my water bottles at…
Day 71 Today was the Fourth of July, which is a major US holiday. Two years ago I saw the fireworks in New York City, which was nice, but it is probably best known for the parades, barbecue and beer. Some people were staying behind to celebrate it, which probably would be nice, but it would also mean one less day to get to Canada before winter, and my legs were feeling like they wanted…
Day 70 Got up at 3 am and ate the rest of yesterday’s pie in the dark in my my tent before I got going. It was actually slightly better than yesterday and was nicely cold. Shortly later I was hiking, which was a special experience. I have done a lot of early day hiking, but I think it has been a ling time since I have been this early out of the bat. Everything…