Day 75: 1500 miles

Mile 1470.9 to mile 1501.2 (30.3 miles, 48.8km)

Hitch into Dunsmuir

No a lot to write today. It was another ripping hot day.

The aim for the day was to get to Dunsmuir tonight for a 6 day resupply to get me through to Seiad Valley.

Slowly but surely I’m getting through California but boy is it a long state. My mind is really focused on reaching Oregon in the next 10 days and to be done with California. I need a major milestone to prove to myself that I’m getting somewhere. I did reach 1500 mile this afternoon but it’s not enough.

All day I was leap frogging Breezy. He is a fast, ultralighter and all round good guy. This was the fella I got a ride into Burney with. I’d forgotten but he recalled the ride into Burney a few days back and asked me what I thought about our conversation with the driver. He was obviously concerned. We were both knackered on the ride in, and both in and out of talk with the driver. Bob Dylan comes on the radio and the driver recalls a tale of his daughter having tickets to see Dylan but she had no idea of who Bob was and was trying to give them away, saying ‘I have tickets to some guy named Bob Dylan’ in all seriousness. Breezy in a tired state missed the ‘…my daughter…’ piece and says ‘What an airhead.’ The driver responding ‘ That’s my daughter…’ 😆 It was a honest mistake but funny as hell. Obviously followed by frantic and repeated apologies.

Anyway, late in the day I caught up with both Breezy and Baby Blanket and we walked to the highway.

A major storm had brewed over Mt Shasta and further north up the trail. While it hasn’t rained down low, all afternoon thunder could be heard rolling around the hills as the massive cumulus clouds crashed together. I later saw some YouTube video taken about 30 miles north of a huge hail storm, hail the size of marbles and lots of lightning.

Out to the highway Breezy kept cruising to Castella to pick up a package while Baby Blanket and myself hitched a ride into Dunsmuir.

It took a long time to get a ride. Eventually we headed to the top of the exit ramp to increase our chances. My longest wait yet. And on the freeway with a million cars coming past. A bit of dance and carry on with umbrellas was required to attract the attention of drivers. Finally a ride pulls up and with a bit of rearranging and Baby nursing a kitty litter tray on his lap we got driven straight to the Dunsmuir Brewery. The coconut chocolate porter went down a treat with a 1/2 pound burger. Breezy made his way into town and joined us as well.

I’m going to have to work on changing Baby Blanket’s trail name. Heaps of people shorten it to Baby but it sounds too odd when you say ‘Hey Baby…’