Day 106: ⛺@ mile 1'463.9 - ⛺@ mile 1'489.9

Date: 22.07.2018 Miles hikes today: 25.5 Miles / 41.03km Total Mileage: Mile 1'489.9 We managed to get up early today. Mainly because I started to move and make a little noise which then motivated the others to move their ass too :) I was on trail by 6.05am, not bad! While hiking along I suddenly hear some noise, too little noise for a deer but may it's a bear? So I start looking around. We are in the middle of a large forest, it's steep uphill/downhill on each side of the trail and there are many trees and bushes. But really, there the bear is! I can spot him, not far away from me, about 2 meters up the trail, walking the same direction! I'm so excited, that's my first bear I spot on my own! I try to not make any noise while i watch him. We keep walking next to each other for a couple of minutes before I pass him, moving on a bit quicker! A couple of miles later I wait for Ruth aka Dutchess and Jonas aka Parmesan, my hiker family since a couple of days (flow and Jeremy are behind us due to having the noro virus! We don't know how many off trail days they need to recover). They heard the bear too but couldn't spot him. After hiking downhill since we got up this morning we have now a long uphill infront of us. It's not too hot yet, but it's also not even 10am. The uphill hike is not too bad but the chocolates from my mum weight heavy in my back. Also, it's a boring hike and it starts to get really hot now when we are not covered by some trees. There is some water in 5 miles where we plan to fill up our bottles and half a mile later there is a big spot to eat lunch. Checking the mobile app I see we have already hiked 18 miles! That's my biggest hike before lunch yet, however we only stopped for lunch at 1 pm, so quite late too. But that's incredible! So we only have to hike 7.5 more miles for the camp, juhuii. It's really really hot now, but in little less than 3 miles there is a river big enough to jump in. It's so hot that if you hike in the sun it feels as if someone blows hot air in your face. The heat wave is still on! I try to hike the sun exposed sections fast and reach the shady spot as soon as possible again! Faster than I thought we reach the river. I'm so sweaty and dirty, I'm really looking forward to the cool water. It looks very nice too and is so refreshing. Even if it's not a proper shower i feel so clean and refreshed again, and i also washed my dirty shirt too :) what a nice feeling. And even better, it's only 5 miles to the camp spot. Lately we have been camping together with some other hikers. All of us have always chosen the same camp spots! The spot we aim for tonight only 3 tents are listed. But normally you can pitch more tents than it's listed on the app. however, you never know for sure. Why is this, that we all end up camping in the same spots? First, water is getting scarce. So this river is again the last water source for 10 miles. You have to plan well where to set camp. Second, the camp spots are getting rare too, because we mainly walk in forests with steep uphills/downhills next to the trail with no tenting space. As we have already hiked for more than 20 miles today, we don't want to add another 10 miles (where there is the next water and also next tent site, but only for 1 tent apparently...). Also it's 2000 (+/-600m) feet uphill gain in the next less than 5 miles which is quite a lot. Furthermore, we don't want to hike that hill in the middle of the day when it's extremely hot as we have to carry enough water to hike the hill, cook dinner and hike to the next water source the next morning. I carry 3.7 liters of water, which is heavy :( but I don't want to run out of water. Not doing this again after my hike to the Burney mountain guest ranch! I've learned my lesson!! The uphill is quite steep for the first 2 miles or so but theb thankfully flattens out. I could not have hiked all the nearly 5 miles with my heavy backpacks on and that steepness level in one go if it would have not flattened out! Arriving at the camp site our friends from the last couple of nights are there too! What a surprise. And we arrive about 6:30pm, so very early compared to the last couple of nights. it feels so much better reaching camp at this time rather than only at 8pm! There is no hurry to pitch the tent, cook, chat, clean yourself etc. and I can even write my blog! And while we cook dinner one by one arrives. On that site listed for 3 tents we finally fit about 10 tents! :) you just have to make it happen! Tomorrow it's 12 miles to the interstate from where we hope to get an easy hitch to Mount Shasta - town time baby!!! :)