August 6, 2017
Mile 1453 to 1484 (15 miles south of Castella)
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 93
It rained today. The canopy of trees is so thick that we hardly got wet. I do not like the trail in NorCal. The scenery is beautiful but it is a constant up and down. Actually—let me retract saying that I don’t like the trail. I am pushing too hard on the trail and that’s why I don’t like it. There’s quite a big difference between a 25 and 30-mile day, and pushing 30+ miles a day makes fucked up things happen to your body. It’s not sustainable, at least not for me.
The good news (hopefully) is that we’re pushing specifically to make the Saturday farmer’s market in Etna, CA. We have now put ourselves in a position where we should be able to do that.
Goose-Chasing a Resupply Package
We might have our first experience tomorrow of a box not arriving on time. Somehow it got sent to Los Angeles instead of Castella, and then rerouted to Redding, CA. It may or may not show up at Amarattis. My parents have done so much to help with resupply and made it so easy, I am really really grateful for all their help and want to figure out something nice to do for them. They spent their whole day off on the phone with people from post offices all over the country trying to figure out how the package ended up where it did and how to get it where it needed to go.
They gave us a play-by-play; each time we had service we called them get updated on what was happening next. It took a while for the post office to just figure out where the package was and how to stop it from a perpetual transit loop between LA and Redding. My parents had the clincher—insider postal information because they’re both letter carriers.
After several hours of phone calls, my mom doggedly asking for each person’s name that she talks to (how do moms always know to ask that?) so she could track them down if any information was contradictory, they at least sorted out with the PO where the package is right now and who they needed to talk to in order to get it to the right destination. That package will have been on a mighty adventure when we see it. If we see it.
I met a Kiwi today heading SOBO who said this single day he counted 29 people heading North! That’s crazy to think about, particularly because we’ve only seen 5 or 6 people on any given day for the past few weeks. But they’re all out here, just a few miles ahead of or behind us, trudging along. Anyway, time for bed. Resupply and beer tomorrow (hopefully resupply, definitely beer).