Made some coffee this morning for Soho and me.   Decided to ram down some dehydrated eggs for breakfast (good choice!)   While we were packing up, this doe kept nosing around our camp.   She is not timid.   Came within 10 feet and wouldn’t scare.    I walked over to a fallen tree and took a piss and she follows me and starts licking it up.   Apparently they are jonzing for salt.   

Another big day.   Going to bust out 27 again.   Got 4k up and 5k down on this one.  

Good news is that there is plenty of shade.   Bad news is there are not too many vistas.   In one clearing I did get a good look at Shasta.   Now that is an impressive dormant Volcano.   It is 14k feet high and I think most of the surrounding hills are less than 6k   Check out the clouds bunched up around the top.     

Mostly I either get shade and no views, or logged areas that look like a wasteland.

There is a dude ahead of us named Trent who is riding northbound on a horse.   Well horses.  One of them is a pack horse and the other he rides.   I think he switches between them.   He told us at Burney that he does 3 to 5 days, then meets his Mom with the horse trailer to resupply and give them a rest.   It is good to see a few trying to horse it on the trail.   He is probably a day in front of us.  

What isn’t so good is that their is fresh horse shit all over the trail that I have to dodge.    The biggest bummer is when there’s a particularly steep / tricky bit of trail.   I’m out of breath, legs burning, at the top and there is a big pile waiting for me to step in.   Apparently horses like to relax the anus after every big climb.    Trent is leading two of them, so double the fun.  

Not much happened most of the day.   Just tunes and walking.   Stopped at this view for a bit and ate a snack in the afternoon.   While I was sitting here Soho shows up.    We are chatting away when we hear a pine cone fall near us.   Then another.   After a while another one falls.   I get up and look around and can’t figure out where they are coming from.   I figured a squirrel was doing his thing.   Well, after another falls closer to us, I put on my pack and make some joke about the Squirrel Prince of the forest trying to drop one on us, when Jackalope steps around the corner.  

Apparently he was 15 feet up the trail resting when we stopped.   He just sat there throwing stuff at us.    It was funny.   We spent some time catching up.   He is trying to make Dunsmuir by Sunday morning and we are aiming for the afternoon.    

While catching up, Land Mammal shows up.   I haven’t seen him since Walker Pass at 650 or so.   He is trying to catch up with Rise and Shine, Snakebit, Cake, and the others.   He says they are only a couple days ahead.    Apparently Shine’s parents visited them a few weeks back and left her dog who is now hiking with them.    They are slowly building up pace again, but right now keeping it to 15 or so.    Apparently the dog got into a skunk last week, so by the time they got into town everybody smelled the same.   I think that is over the top even for hiker trash.  

I left the guys early and hit the trail.   I’m usually running slow on the hills and wanted to get this over with.  

Made camp at 8 with a couple of other hikers.   There is a doe hanging around this place too.    Skeeter’s are all over the place, so I zipped up and cooked in the tent.   Ate and crashed.   This was a long day, but did make the 27 miles.   

The ball of my left foot is killing me.   Got some kind of bruise there.   These extra miles are going to hurt.