Day 100: Chester - Lassen NP Boundary Spring

Date: 16.07.2018 Miles hiked today: 15 miles / 24.14 km Total Mileage: Mile 1'346.3 Change in Elevation: +770m / - 520m Waking up all clean and in a real bed is wonderful! But while I don't have a problem staying in bed and nap on, other hikers get up early like at 6:30am. So I was the last one to leave the room and go for breakfast at 7:30am! And honestly, I could have stayed in bed much longer:) however, I want to be back on trail around lunch time and still have to sort out some things including picking up my new shoes at the post office! It's really time for new shoes, mine have fallen apart completely! Breakfast at the hotel was really yummie with cereal and real milk, coffee, bread and butter and bacon and yogurt etc. I eat as much as I could! Then I picked up my shoes and filled up my bounce box with some more clothes I don't need anymore (gloves, hiking long sleeve shirt (t shirt only is fine enough), very warm arcteeyx underpants, hoodie, thick socks etc.). My clothes bag now is really tiny! My new shoes look nice. As I had the men's model I now ordered the women's and a size smaller too. My feet were so swollen and full of blisters when I bought them in Lone Pine that I got them too big. I hope that the new ones are not too small and fit me perfectly. (I checked my feet size in a shoe store in South Lake Tahoe. I would be an 8 or 8.5. I've now ordered a 9.5 instead of a 10.5, what I had before! But the size also always depends on the shoe model.). I try them on back in the hotel and obviously they are smaller but should be fine. I can really only tell after walking in them for a while. I organise my backpack and use the good working wifi to upload my blogs. (I'm really sorry for not doing so earlier but I never had enough WiFi which allowed me to open the blog program and upload them! I've uploaded a bunch now, should keep you busy for a while!). It's 11 am and I'm getting hungry again. The plan is to quickly eat some lunch and head back to the trail. I want to hike 15 miles today. That's where the Lassen National Park boundary is and from where we have to carry a bear cannister again if we camp there over night. It's a 20 mile strech and as I've sold my bear cannister I want to hike it in one day and camp outside the boundaries. While I'm ready since a while and hungry too, the others (Flash, Parmesan, Ruth and Jeremy) are still sorting out things. Also i want to go to Subway and grab a sandwich (they are so yummie, didn't have one yet since I'm here in America and I can eat the sandwich as I go), the group wants to get a burger and fries. I decide to leave now and hopefully meet them later again to hitch back to the trail or on the trail. I get my yummie sandwich which reminds me to the times when I did the road trip in 2015, as we would often go to subway to grab a sandwich. The group is not ready yet so I'll try on my own to get a hitch. I'm also really lucky with a hitch back to the trailhead. I don't even wait for 5 minutes and get a ride. An elderly couple which is familiar with PCT hikers offers me a lift. By the time I'm back at the trailhead the group hasn't even eaten yet. So I'm actually not sure if they will hike the 15 miles today too. I start hiking at 1pm. It's a very hot day, over 30 degrees Celsius and very humid too. There are two small climbs of each about 1'000 feet (+/- 300m) within this 15 miles so no big climb anymore out of town as it was the case for example out of Sierra City or Belden. But with the heat any uphill climb makes you sweat immediately! After hiking the first hill I stop for a little break (again I bought too much food and my backpack is quite heavy, even so getting rid off some clothes this morning!), and Pinion and Amanda pass me. They join for a little break and together we hike 3 miles, down to a river where they set camp tonight. At the river I meet a couple of other hikers again. We all seem to aim for the same camp spot tonight but there might not be enough space. While I have to fill up my bottles with water they hike on. But I catch them soon later. It's 5.6 miles more to the camp spot from here. One mile before the camp site and water source they plan to camp as they are anxious of not having enough space for all 5 of them. As I'm alone I'm not much worried and I hike on. Better hiking this 1 mile today rather then tomorrow. And see there, 3 tents are here. But there is still space for about 5 more tents! They actually could have come here easily too. I get water, clean my dirty legs while being attacked by moskitos, pitch my tent and eat my dinner with Cashew, a Canadian hiker. It looks like the group will not make it here tonight so I disappear in my tent and enjoy being all ready and set for an early night!