September 5
1400 to 1410 (Burney Guest Ranch)
My shoes are starting to die. I have a blister on the tip of my big toe. It might be a bug bite, not sure.
Mount Shasta is getting bigger.
The thing about volcanos is they make bumpy rocks that suck to walk on. And for digging holes, if you have to dig a hole for some reason.
I’ve been passing through the bubble of southbound hikers for the last couple days. They all look strong and fast. Even though I’m meeting them around the halfway point, they’ve all started months after I did. Sometimes I feel like the slowest hiker on the trail. I have thru hiker imposter syndrome.
Just before I got to the guest ranch, I passed a big poo full of berries. I don’t know what bear scat looks like, but if I had to guess, I’d say something like that. There was a lot of it.
I wasn’t sure if I should stay at the ranch or keep walking to Burney Falls. If I wanted to make it to Mt. Shasta by Friday, I’d keep going. But I really wanted a shower and some wifi and something yummy. I decide to hang out for awhile, clean up, see how I felt after a couple hours.
Anyway, there was a dog. And some cats.
I like it when the showers are right next to the washing machine and you can take off everything and toss it in the washing machine before you jump in the shower. It was super windy. My clothes would dry on the clothesline in a few minutes.
I was on the porch listening to hikers talk when the fire started. An enormous cloud rose on the horizon. Videos of drivers trapped as fire exploded on both sides of I-5.
Could my parents even drive up to see me? Would they spend the whole day stuck in detoured traffic? Would all the hotels be full of fire fighters and evacuees? There was no way to know what would happen, a fast fire on a windy afternoon. I could think of lots of worst case scenarios.
For dinner, we ate huge burritos and watched the Fire Report on the news. I emailed back and forth with my parents. They’d planned on driving up on Friday morning. We had one more day to decide.
Spinstera 