Days 106 thru 111 - Burney to Mt Shasta

Got a late start leaving Burney, as usual, but hey, at least it wasn't a zero! Mailed my puffy ahead to ashland and sent my camera home, as I have forever lost my charging cord plus a ton of pictures from early on the trip plus years of pictures before. It's awful, but I think a lot of it is on my computer at home, and we have lots of pictures from grant's camera and our phones so not a total loss, but still makes me want to throw up a little...as usual, I meant to back up the full sd card but never found time in towns or it wasn't available, and I kept forgetting to mail it home. That's the way it goes, but I guess that's the good thing about social media and blogging.

Hiked to Burney Falls State Park. Wasn't feeling it with the hiker trash. We have gotten stuck in a vortex of people we really do not like or connect with, kids that are waaayyyy too trashy, druggy (and I'm not talking smoking dope or doing a little this or that...way overboard), or just something about them that isn't right. It sucks having all your friends ahead or behind you, and also having no isolation on trail. I am in total disbelief on how many people are still on trail! But there are still bright spots, some truly wonderful people as well, but we do seem to be in a vortex of evil bubble right now :( oh wait maybe it's us!

It's been hot, well into the 100's, which is quite difficult to deal with. There has been a lot of tree coverage, so not burning like in the desert, but pretty awful.

Grant turned 40 on trail. I tried to throw him a trail party. A little sad as there was literally nobody we knew on trail to share the fun with, plus it was one of those 103+ days, but I managed to surprise grant with a couple of Sierra Nevada Torpedo Pounders which we cooled off in one of our few and far between water sources. Also brought cake, candles, glow sticks, and our Mardi gras beads and lei we were already carrying. Put in a really long, hot  22 mile day because we have to carry on, but managed a few minutes of fun :)

This trail continued to be filthy, dusty fine dirt coating our feet and legs. The dust comes right through our socks, and the sweat turns it to thick mud which seeps into our pores and the lines in our feet creating a hard clay crust that is impossible to scrub off, not that we had water sources to do that in anyways. When your only water in 12 miles is a small spring forming a tiny pool that you must scoop with a cup, you are not going to stick your feet in it (unless you are an asshole) so we were extremely dirty for a long time, though we tried our best at night to wipe down with wet wipes.

My socks acquired holes this section, which compounded the clay crust problem.

Grant got blisters after 800 miles without, probably due to the heat and dirt.

There are a ton of wild fires and the air is thick with smoke.

We made it to Mt Shasta and decided on a zero day, our first in 22 days, believe it or not.

It's not all bad. We are super stoked to be on flatter terrain, walking tons of 20-25 mile days. Looking forward to being done with California, a reality in about 11 days!!! My parents and Grant's friend and his family are visiting in Ashland which we are really really really excited about. We are doing our best to gain our weight back here in Mt Shasta so they are not totally shocked, and are doing pretty well with that. I might have a stress fracture in my left foot, but I will not stop hiking until I am out of California, plus I'm sure it's nothing :)

Daily stats:

Day 106 - leave burney, mile 1408.8 to 1420.8 plus .7 miles store detour = 12.7 miles
Day 107 - Grant's Birthday!!! Mile 1420.8 to 1442.0 plus .8 for water = 22.0 miles
Day 108 - hot, fing hot. Hot, hot, hot. Mile 1442.0 to 1461.4 plus .3 for water = 19.7 miles ( bunch of noisy people camp next to us as no other camping, steep hillside walking for miles)
Day 109 - up at 0415, back on the desert "4x8 watch" schedule for hiking. Hot, hot hot, no breaks, hike all day. Mile 1461.4 to 1485.0 = 23.6 miles
Day 110 - Mt Shasta City mile 1485.0 to 1498.7 = 13.7 miles
Day 111 - Zero Mt Shasta City!!!!!

Take it easy!

Pictures on instagram