The Laziest Day of All

Shameful, I know....

July 19: Frankly, there's no other way to say it, today was mostly a wasted day. I did very little of anything that was productive. Amanda and I watched a bunch of Leverage episodes online. I started playing FarmVille again. I just wanted to relax! Not hike, not type of blog entries, but--perhaps for the first time on the trail, do nothing.

And yes, I knew my crops would wither. I wouldn't be able to harvest them for weeks--of course they would wither, but I didn't care. I hoped someone would unwither them at some point before I got online again making it a moot point. =)

The weather forecast for Quincy soared well above 90 degrees. On the trail in the mountains, it would likely be cooler, but it would still be very, very hot, and I wasn't anxious to throw myself into it. Taking a day off in an air-conditioned hotel room seemed like a swell idea. =)

But, late in the afternoon, I had to do something. Not because I wanted to, but rather because Amanda had to leave. It was time to drop me off on the trail again, with a full pack, not to see her again for weeks.

Before we left Quincy, we stopped at Subway so I could pick up dinner for the trail. A sandwich seemed like a much better option than the usual dehydrated stuff I usually had for dinner. Then it was off to the trailhead at Quincy-Laporte Road where Amanda picked me up two days earlier.

We arrived at the trailhead at about 6:30 in the afternoon, which didn't leave me much time for hiking the rest of the day. We picked up the ice chest of sodas and candy we had left two days before, which had been completely cleaned out. Avo, Cubby, and Boston had written words of thanks on the ice chest, so I now knew those three were probably a day or so ahead of me.

I headed off to get in at least a few miles of hiking before stopping for the night. Amanda stayed back a bit to do some letterboxing, but she'd leave soon thereafter to drive back to Sacramento and fly home.

The trail followed the paved road a short ways from the
trailhead before going back into the woods here.

The afternoon's hike was uneventful. After about an hour, I caught up with two hikers I'd never met before--Johnny Law and Missing Link, who invited me to set up camp nearby. Sure, why not? =)

About then minutes later, Croatia and Not a Chance caught up with us, carrying full soda cans that looked suspiciously like something Amanda had in the rental car. They had found her on the trail before she left, and she loaded them down with goodies. Johnny Law and Missing Link were probably a little disappointed that they missed the trail magic by *this* much.... If only they had hiked a bit slower that afternoon!

Croatia and Not a Chance decided to continue a bit further before calling it a night, but a few minutes later, just after sunset, Running Wolf also caught up with us.

"Did you meet my girlfriend?" I asked.

He seemed confused with the question. "I don't think so...."

I shook my head sadly. "That's too bad. You missed out on some great trail magic!"

"Do you mean that girl who was handing out cold sodas?" he asked.

"Oh! So you did meet her!" =)

The hike today wasn't especially exciting....

I don't know how he didn't know she was with me. Amanda always tells people about me. People I don't even know have walked up to me on the trail and wished me a happy birthday, after all. In any case, Running Wolf decided to continue hiking into the darkness a little longer.

I pulled out my own little bit of trail magic for dinner: the sandwich from Subway. I guess I hadn't worked up a sufficient appetite from hiking, however, because I could only finish half of it. The rest of the sandwich I decided to save for breakfast the next morning.