Day 88 thru 105

Apparently it has been almost three weeks since I posted anything.  I'm not going to lie, its hard to make time to do this especially since we have decided on no more zeros until grant's birthday, which will be in Mt Shasta at the end of the month. We have rmped up our mileage to 20+ per day, and recently more like 23-25 a day. The terrain has flattened out, finally, but not before a few days of hot steep hiking into and out of the feather rivers various forks. Swam in an incredible swimming hole, bit the climb out does not make it worth the hike unless you are thruhiking...well, maybe an overnighter would be fun, what do I know?

I still don't have time to write, my usual refrain. We are in Burney, having nero'd yesterday. Got a new tent here, finally, after an ongoing saga with Big Agnes and REI. Our zippers failed on one door. Big Agnes was pretty unreasonable, suggesting we take a week off trail while we wait for ground shipping so they could repair it, also suggesting that we find a seamstress to repair it, finally offering to sell us a refurbished tent body, and then we could send our broken one back at which point they may or may not reimburse uss based on their arbitrary assessment of whether it was warrntied or not, then possibly minus the cost of repair. Basically a bunch of crap. They have their heads in the sand about the realities of thru hiking.

Next we called rei who were really helpful and from a hot ridgetop we ordered a new one with overnight shipping, planning on returning our broken tent when we get home. Well, of course we were out of service after we left the ridgetop, and a few days later, when we called to check, turns out it was out of stock and would ship a month later, with overnight shipping to a town we would obviously no longer be in. Soooo...uh, no, and I let her know that it was absurd that we weren't told when we ordered that it was out of stock. That got us a 20% off gift card, but still stuck with broken tent. Meanwhile they told us of four stores around the country that had them in stock, none of which actually had them in stock when we called, and all of which would only have shipped ground anyways (hence a call to a friend in Tacoma to pick it up and overnight it for us, a moot point as the store was out and my friend was out of town)

While shopping for a different tent we saw that our tent may be back in stock afterall, a call verified, and we were able to finally order our tent and overnight it to Burney (with the weekend it was actually four days..oh well). Meanwhile on trail the other doors zipper failed, so yeah, just in time. Short of it, we have a new tent!!!! Yay.

OK, hot, triple digit temperatures this week, below are some stats.

Oh, by the way, we blew past the halfway mark!!!! Woo hoo!!!

Day 88 - leave Tahoe, mile 1090.0 to 1101.6, 11.6 miles, desolation wilderness, rain
Day 89 - mile 1101.6 to  1122.1 - 20.5 miles, woman says our lei and Mardi gras beads make her happy
Day 90 - mile 1122.1 to 1142.3 - 20.2 miles Squaw Valley, where I would have met my friend from the Maui, bit he was at sea. We made it late in the day anyways. See a guy we hadn't seen since the first week of the trail!
Day 91 - mile 1142.3 to 1162.4 - 20.1 miles, camped at a spot where somebody had just buried some of her brother's ashes. Left note. Decided he wouldn't mind camping with us.
Day 92 - mile 1162.4 to 1186.2 plus .2 for water getting = 24 miles, ran into old creepy hands first thing in the morning. Old bastard who thought it was reasonable behavior to walk up behind me and start massaging my shoulders without saying anything. What was I supposed to do? Whip around so he got a handful of my breasts too? This was waaay back in Canon Pass best western months before and I've been trying to hike fast to avoid the old bastard ever since. Jerk. Bad mood today for obvious reasons.
Day 93 - 1186.2 to 1195.4 = 9.2 miles Sierra City, new shoes, but they are out of canister fuel, so we wait all day while they try to track some down in the next town. Super nice people, and we finally get out of town that evening, camp by highway, but at least not still in town.
Day 94 - mile 1195.4 to 1214.9 = 19.5 miles - hot uphill, camp in fields of purple flowers
Day 95 - mile 1214.9 to 1236.9 - 22.0 miles see only two other people today
Day 96 - mile 1236.9 to 1257.6 - 20.7 miles , epic swimming hole, also lost a sock, crap!
Day 97, Mike 1257.6 to 1261.0, plus 6.7 Mike buck's lake alternate, mile 1265.4 to 1267.6, minus .3 for bushwacking to road, equals 11 miles. Wtf!? Overstayed bucks lake. Woops
Day 98, mile 1267.6 to 1290.2 - 22.6, Belden, leftover dregs of a rave, awful weird peoe everywhere, stressed out employees, hike out is steep, hike until 1030 pm to get a flat spot to rest. Belden is a bust.
Day 99 - mile 1290.2 to 1311.4 - 21.2 miles
Day 100 - mile 1311.4 to 1328.8 - 17.4 miles - HALFWAY !!! Night in Chester.
Day 101 - mile 1328.8 to 1331.4 - 2.6 miles, nero in Chester, by accident. Took forever to leave, but got another (in stock) tent ordered.
Day 102 - mile 1331.4 to 1355.3 - 23.9 miles, skip Drakesbad resort. Oh well
Day 103 - Mile 1355.3 to 1379.4 plus .8 mile restaurant detour = 24.9 miles, start of hat creek rim section
Day 104 - mile 1379.4 to 1402.4 - 23.5 miles - hot hat creek rim. Yikes!!!
Day 105 - mile 1402.4 to 1408.8 - 6.4 miles, nero in Burney, got our tent!!

Cheers everybody. Photos on instagram