Day 93 -Castella, CA

Miles: 1489.4 to 1501.7

Trail Miles: 12.3

Miles Hiked: 15.3

Last night I camped with 5 other hikers I didn’t know that well. At some point I heard footsteps during the night but couldn’t tell whether it was animal or human. It was also 70 deg inside my tent at 5 AM. My 20 deg sleeping bag was a bit overkill. – It was a restless night.

Still, I was packed up and gone by 6 AM. I was definitely the first one on the trail – for the first 2hrs I kept getting a face full of cobwebs as I cleared the way for others.

Much of the day was through forests

There were beautiful views of Mt Shasta and Castle Crag State Park. — Shasta is a truly massive and impressive mountain. I may have to look into summiting it one of these years. — Oddly, the PCT doesn’t go within 20 miles of it.

Mt Shasta

Castle Crags

I wanted to get to Castella before 1pm. I had several packages waiting for me there. One was my “bounce box” – a box of supplies I kept forwarding up the trail. It also contained my laptop, for downloading photos. I needed to have enough time to download and then mail it back out before the P.O. closed at 3pm. The other boxes were my food resupply, more dietary supplements and a new shirt. The new shirt was identical to the old one, just a size smaller. The old one had gotten too big and was pretty filthy and smelly.

I made it to the P.O. in plenty of time, even though Castella is 2 miles south of the trail down I-5. While en route I had cell service so I called HH, Betty’s Mom and M&D. It was M’s birthday, but D was in the hospital. I was relieved to be able to talk with them vice 160-character messages on the Garmin InReach.

1500 mile point!

The weather was hot again, made all the worse by the lower elevation (about 2000 ft). NorCal is definitely shaping up to be hotter than the desert was.

Not so great hiking weather

Smokebeard caught up with me at the P.O. He was going to camp nearby at Castle Crag CG. I was itching to make some miles but was over 10 days behind on the blog. Being next to I-5 for a night would mean reliable cell and internet – a chance to catch up. (Photo uploads are time consuming) — I opted to camp (and get a shower, no margarita) as well. I’d started the 100-mile push to Etna, my next resupply, tomorrow.