Day 86, 1377.3 – 1397.2 – Man Seeking Mountains

7/4/18 19.9 miles

This morning I was the first customer waiting outside JJ’s Cafe, not like I was hungry 😜. After 2 plates of breakfast I retrieved my resupply box from the gas station and did the usual organizing of food supplies. After letting my battery charge I was back on trail by 10:30 and managed not to forget my trekking poles! Days are definitely getting hotter and this included a climb up to Hat Creek Overlook, a rest area/campsite.

There are fires near Ashland and the smoke can be seen in the valley.

At the Overlook campground more Trail Magic! My apologies I didn’t write down their names. He invited me to a beer, chair, shade and a friendly dog to pet! We hung out for about 15 minutes. He and his wife are able to work remotely doing software programming and basically camper travel for a year. I left with 2 mountain dews and a big apple! Thank you!!

Walkin with a cold soda on a scorching day👌

Another episode of Highlights Magazine. Can you spot the rattle snake? Well there really isn’t one but there was about 30 minutes before at my rest break. In this photo imagine walking 2 miles an hour, scanning the path for at least 2 foot placements, scanning the grass edges for anything moving out of the ordinary. 2 miles an hour is a good pace and already likely to late to avoid a snake in tall grass. I was sooo paranoid after seeing that 3ft rattler minutes ago! At break time I was intently licking the chocolate out of the Snickers wrapper. I had just finished putting the wrapper away and the snake had crossed a wide gravel area by the cell tower I was sitting by. He just came into my view about 5 ft away headed straight for the shade I was in. Phew! 3 minutes before and he would’ve been at my feet!

Remember a few weeks ago I posted a picture of two trail maintenance guys. One of the was Jim Beatty, he keeps this water tank supplied due to the the shortage of water sources on the Hat Creek Rim. If you feel like it send him a few bucks for his efforts.