Day 70, Monday, September 7. Cub Spring, TM 1337.3—(15.5 miles)

Normally, we stay until the last possible minute before checking out of a hotel. This appeals to my miserly side. Instead of looking at how much I spent for a hotel stay for the day, I look at it as the “per minute cost.” If we stay until 11 our per minute cost drops significantly. I knew there was no way Charcoal and Struggles were going to stay late. Even before we checked in, they were asking where to drop the key for an early departure. These were foreign words and concepts to me. In my mind, we spent less on the hotel than they did, because we stayed a minimum of 180 minutes longer. I’m a smart shopper. 

Before going to bed, we had all agreed where we were going to camp today. We knew they were going to leave before 7. We compromised and moved our departure target time up at least an hour to 10. We’ll give them the thrill of getting to camp before us today. Charcoal and Struggles were long gone when our alarm went off at 8. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, packed up, and were out by 9:45. I increased my “per minute cost” by an additional $0.02, but what’s money when hiking with friends. 

We had a bit tougher time getting a ride than I expected. I’ll blame Bunny for that. As soon as we walked out of the hotel, her daughter called so I was left to thumb for the ride. This is never a good thing. I’ve pulled my pants leg up to show more thigh, smiled seductively at drivers, flexed for passing motorists, and even turned so they can see my ass, but nothing I do works. The most effective thing I have been able to do in the past is to sit on the shoulder and clip my nails. Passing drivers see a male so calm that he trims his nails gives the impression of “non-homeless person needs assistance” so they stop and help. Even more effective with a female standing out front. I wasn’t getting any help from Bunny, but I’ll forgive her.

I forgive her because when she finally got off the phone, we walked down to the local laundromat where the hikers usually go when in town. This is where she found the $20 bill on the street. When she bent over to pick it up, we got a ride. I’m sure there was no connection to the bending over because I had already put my ass out front with no response from the driving public, but a ride, we did get. 

Joe had seen us thumbing and turned into a parking lot to park. This way, he could walk up to us and determine if we were raving, homeless lunatics or a couple of hikers trying to get back to the trail. His partner waited in the car for him to return. When he showed up with us, she became very friendly. During the course of our talking, we discovered Ines was from Barcelona which we had visited in 2017 during the first year of our travels. Joe and Ines (I’m sure I’ve spelled her name wrong and I apologize) were out for a vacation from the Bay Area and were visiting Lassen National Park. Ines showed us pictures of a cinder cone we had walked by. You can even go inside the cone and down a few hundred feet. Joe has hiked sections of both the AT and PCT, so he could differentiate between homeless people and hiker trash, but he wanted to play it safe. The trailhead was right on their way back into Lassen NP. 

Today had a significant milestone on the trail—the half way monument of the PCT. It was only 8.2 miles to the midpoint. We had intended to sit at the monument for a while to consider all we had gone through to get there: the desert, the snow, the encounters with rattlesnakes, our own near death experience on Grizzly Peak last year, the death of my mother, the meeting of new friends, the pain, the complaining, the unexpected beauty of nature, the joy of accomplishment, etc. We had visions of sitting there and contemplating it all. That romantic idea got shot to hell by all the damn yellow jackets fluttering around us. They are another memory that needs to be added. They ruin the moments they appear, like the unwanted black sheep uncle who shows up at the house (that would be me…I’m beginning to understand why I never get invited to big events).

We carried out some heavy foods today in an effort to eat healthier. Bunny carried out a pound of strawberries, a jar of peanut butter, a biscuit from breakfast, part of a fresh cinnamon roll. I carried a full stalk of celery and 2 avocados in addition to the 3 day resupply. We planned on giving the cinnamon roll to Charcoal and Struggles because they have shared cinnamon rolls with us on multiple occasions. A funny thing happens with Bunny’s hips. She can carry 28# without any problem, but give her even an ounce more, and she falls apart. She was over 28# today. 

After the midpoint, we hiked the better part of a mile before stopping for lunch. We had planned to eat at the midpoint, but, yellow assholes! When we stopped, we ate the biscuit, more than half the strawberries, the entire stalk of celery with half the jar of peanut butter. With the water we drank, we got Bunny’s pack back below 28#. She was ready to fly, now. 

I kept trying to guess where Charcoal and Struggles were. I assumed they got about a 3 hour head start on us. They net about 1.5 mph with breaks then throw in an extra hour for incidentals on a 15 mile day. We net about 2 mph and throw in an additional hour for days of 15 or less. Over 15, our mileage drops to 1.75 net with an extra hour thrown in for bitching. My guesstimates are pretty accurate. All day long, I was doing math problems in my head: if train A leaves at 7:30 traveling at 1.5 mph and Train B leaves at 10 traveling at 2 mph, when will the two trains be in the same location.

As I was performing the calculation for the umpteenth time today, we were about 0.2 miles to camp. I figured they had been in camp for about a half hour. Our inReach went off with a message from them asking how we were doing. It was getting close to 7. Rather than text back, we could almost yell the response. Instead, we walked a few more minutes to give the answer in person. With the trip to the satellite and back with associated time delays, we could hike faster than respond electronically. 

They had just gotten to camp and expected us to catch up with them. They had started about a half hour later than I had been guessing. Charcoal was just getting ready to go get water. Instead, we set up our tents first before walking the extra half mile plus round trip for water while the women finished the housekeeping. By the time we got back, Bunny even had our supper cooked and soaking. 

I tried something different tonight. I was tired and lazy. I didn’t filter the drinking water I had put in our Smart Water bottles. I knew better than to tell Bunny because she would immediately get sick if she knew she had drank unfiltered water. If she doesn’t get sick within the next 24 hours, I’ll know the water was safe. When I drank unfiltered water in Bhutan in the morning, I was throwing up with diarrhea by lunch. It’s a pretty fast and accurate outcome (from all orifices) if water is bad. 

We had a nice colorful sunset in the West thanks to all the smoke in the sky. We had been hiking under clear blue skies all day. We are heading towards a huge fire south of Belden, but we plan to get off trail a good 30 miles before we encounter it. There was a high red flag wind warning for today and tomorrow (meaning high winds possible) but we hadn’t run into much wind at all. We camped in the saddle above the stream, but it was calm. What little breeze we had while setting up camp had even died down. It looked like a peaceful night. 

EFG