Today was the day of the neverending town vortex. We packed up, left the hotel and headed down the street to catch a wifi signal at a coffeehouse. We had a lot of journal updates to round out with photos and post. Unfortunately, wrangling with our blogging app took up a lot of valuable time. Finally we managed to start getting posts through successfully. After that we had to update the maps on our GPS app and make some phone calls home. Before we knew it the day was mostly gone but we’d set ourselves up well for the lack of coverage we’d face in Oregon and Washington.

Then came our next challenge – getting a ride back to the trail. We hiked out to I-5 to try our luck…and had none for a while. I’d hoped that hitching as a couple would make us seem like a safe bet, but I wonder if it puts us in an odd limbo: still too weird for normal folks to pick up, but not vulnerable enough for the people that would stop to pick up a woman alone. Finally, just as it was getting dark and we were facing another night in a hotel, our hopes were answered. Marty is a local very familiar with the hiking trails in the area and offered us a ride back.

The closest trailhead to where we were was actually up the trail from Castella where we’d exited on Monday. Lots of hikers wouldn’t skip the intervening miles, but we’re not terrible purists and always have an eye towards gaining back days as insurance against an early winter in Washington – especially on a day like today when we get hung up unexpectedly and can’t make miles. We set off on a beautiful drive into the Trinity Mountains to the Gumboot Trailhead. Along the way we swapped hiking stories, compared notes on Yosemite, got some valuable info on local fires and learned a lot about the terrain in the area. Marty reminded us that the Perseids meteor shower will be happening in a few days. What better time to see it than on the trail and away from the lights of civilization? We couldn’t thank him enough for the ride and for the conversation. We hiked up the trail less than a mile to the first flat spot we found and set up camp. It’s much cooler up here than it was in town and it will make for nice sleeping weather. No bugs so far, either, so we’re going to try camping without netting.

This put us 25 miles up the trail, making up nicely for our missed day today and our layover that turned into a zero. We’ll reach Etna very early on Sunday if all goes according to plan and hopefully the ensuing layover will give us enough time to do our chores and rest up so we can leave the following day. Then it’s on to Oregon…

– Posted from the PCT

Location:Pct mile 1531