I was wired last night and didn’t sleep very well but I loved having a pillow. I quite often get these 90 minute increments of sleep at the moment and miss sleeping through the night. I get breakfast as soon as I wake up and see Gameboy! I really like him and am sorry when he departs to do his chores. I go back to the room and have a bath. This feels very good. I consider trying to scrub the dirt on my legs more thoroughly but don’t.
My goal today is to make some timing decisions about finishing California and what to do after. I go to the grocery store and resupply but forget to buy the only items on my list: powdered milk, headphones, comb. I buy a pretty arbitrary amount of food but do buy a beef sandwich to pack out as im badly craving red meat. I go outside and join two very nice hikers who are organising their packs too. As soon as I sit down one says ‘do you want powdered milk?’ Why yes I do! This is beyond clutch! I still have shredded wheat from last night and think I will actually eat cereal for breakfast on trail. Operation calorie increase commences. We chat for a while. They are extremely nice and we talk about the fact that 1000 miles gives you a lot and how hard it is missing loved ones at home! Skinny is very perplexed about why anyone would choose to do an fkt. He asked if I was happy during my attempt, I said no. He asked if I’m
Happy now, o said not really, but sometimes. I tell him I don’t think the purpose of a hike is to be happy in the moment and even if I’m not happy, pain and discipline are important to me. But I say I am getting indulgent and doing more things that make me happy (eg sitting talking to them) even though doing so makes me unhappy. He laughs at my conundrum!
It gets to lunchtime. Lassen NP requires a bear can which means you either have to do 15 miles to camp before the park boundary or 35 miles to camp after it. I just know I M not doing 35 today so I really have no time pressure. I go to a diner – last time I was here it was snowing, I was sleeping in my car and absolutely freezing every night. I order A beef sandwich as I forget I have packed one for dinner, also mozzarella sticks. The cheese is delicious but my enthusiasm for deep fried food is at an all time low. I sit and do math on the back of a napkin but struggle. I’m really tired still and my cylinders aren’t all firing. Gameboy shows up. I suspect I will never see him again and this is sad.
I go out in search of headphones but none of them have the iPhone jack. I buy an ice cream and sit outside a gas station. It’s so hot! A man who overheard my gad station. Conversation walks over and gives me his headphones. It is so kind. He won’t accept money and tells me to pay it forward. I start hitching to the trailhead and it is not good! I am solo and the traffic is steady so I expect a sub 2 minute ride but I’m standing there for 20 minutes before the same man who picked us up yesterday spots me and drives me back. He is so kind and I am grateful.
I am lethargic. At the trailhead and wish I had brought soda. I make it the two miles to. Brilliant piped spring where my grocery store friends are. I soak my head and we chat. They have lots more questions about sleep deprivation and i horrify them. They are so amiable and pleasant and I hope we camp together tonight.
I am totally buoyed by my functioning headphones. I listen to Taylor who has been out of rotation for a long time and it feels good. I want to do Taylor swift themed trail magic at some point. I don’t know what this means apart from having giant cardboard cut outs of taylor and okaying her music. Something to ponder.
I get to a lovely river and lie down in it. It isn’t deep. My head on the pebbles and the rushing water in my ears with the trees swaying gently above me is the happiest I’ve been in forever. I urgently need to spend some time lying down looking at trees!
Skinny catches up at the next river when I’m dunking my head and I ask to walk behind him. He asks me why I don’t use trekking piles and I say it’s because I need to eat on the move, and I ask him what he does with his piles when he eats. He says he only eats sitting down. I am shocked, which he finds hysterical. He says sitting down to eat is not a strange concept which I accept but I do think it’s weird not to snack on the go.
It is so fab and seven miles disappear like that. He gives me their full daily rhythm. They do story time every afternoon where they tell each other the story of their lives. I think this is amazing! He asks for my full daily routine in return and says he is short changed when I say: wake up at five, try not to sit down again until eight. He tells me the one thing he has been able to glean about me is that I love the water.
. His companion (whose name I have forgotten Ahhh!) catches up at water and he has downloaded his first every Taylor swift album and loves it.
The campsite at the lassen boundary is controversial on our app because of all the burned trees. Branches are very loose and drop unexpectedly so it’s arguably not the safest sleeping. Sure enough it’s not great when we get here. there’s already a group here. We find spots that seem safe enough though it’s very hard to tell. Then we all eat dinner together! I don’t really want another beef sandwich but the mustard tastes good. I sadly realise I already decanted tomorrow’s dinner into my cold soak jar so I have no possibility of cereal for breakfast. The other hikers are really fun. I have a lovely time with them. I’m in bed now at 8.30am and can just hear the clattering of branches tumbling around me.
Now at 1346.6 boundary spring
Rambling Red 