Day 95, The Mountain and Me

Part 3, Northern California, Day 95

The Mountain and Me

Miles: 17.58

Total Miles: 1516.28

Shasta was a very successful nearo. I woke up and tried to hitch out of town early, but there was little traffic. As I walked down the road, I saw Mario, who persuaded me to eat breakfast with his crew and then catch a ride from the shuttle guy. I took him up on his offer. 45 minutes later, I was headed to the trail. Numerous hikers were hanging out at the trailhead, but I wasted little time. At 11am, I started the climb up. 

I quickly passed another milestone: 

1500 miles! Woo-hooooo!!!! Whatever. I kept climbing. The morning was already very hot in the mid-90's. 

I entered the Castle Crags Wilderness:

I was really thirsty and I failed to bring water, so I was relieved to get to a creek. Something deep inside my head told me not to drink the water. 

There was this strange red dust covering everything that surrounded the creek, like  a red paint bomb went off. I was tempted to filter the red water but chose to keep hiking.

I saw the group from earlier at a bridge. Mario is from England, Scooters's from Germany, and Molly is from Seattle. I call them "The Europeans."

Bad picture, but it's for the best; Scooter is being obscene. The climb continued, and I started to get views of the rock formation above.

I made sure to camel up here, because there would be no water for a few blazing hot hours, and I was climbing steep trail. 

The Castle Crags rock formations are impressive. They are much bigger in person standing directly beneath them.

It was so hot... I ran out of water fast, and the climb lasted for hours. I sat on a rock and just sort of dazed off for awhile. Here's me delirious with heat and thirst:

I passed two ladies working on the trail. They were having fun, even in the heat. They hauled up lots of tools and were a bit dejected when I told them the trail was overgrown for miles below. They'd been working for hours on a 10 foot section of trail. They had their work cut out for them. I continued up and finally found the spring I was looking for. It had very small flow, but I filled 4 liters. 

I saw The Flintsones (Bam Bam and Pebbles) at the spring, as well as Raingear. Hikers tend to gather around water. 

The rest of the hike offered amazing views of the Crags.

I came to this view of both Shasta and Castle Crags:

I found a flat spot with this view of Shasta, and knew I'd found my camp spot:

The sunset was awesome. It was cool tonight, for the first time in a long time. I watched the fiery sky until dark before going into my tent.

This was a good night!

Speaking of good nights....Good Night!!