Starting the day, I had no idea how it’d eventually end up. A road that would take us to the town of Etna, CA was slightly less than 6 miles ahead, and Sandman and I agreed if we could get a hitch in less than 15 minutes we’d go into town for some quick food. Otherwise, we’d keep hiking. It’d been a dreary wet and snowy morning so I was sending out all da vibes for a ride. 

The road was very lightly trafficked and looking off way in the distance it seemed unlikely we’d get a ride. But alas in just a few minutes, a two cars pulled into the trail head. Two hikers were dropping a car off at the trail head and then were going back to town AND they offered to take us. Clutchhh!

We head into town via the 10 mile, windy mountain road and see two other we assumed were the 2 PCT hikers, Mr Ranger and Veggie Tales, that we’d been hearing of on trail. Sandman yelled, “Mr Ranger??”, to which he said yes. We were dropped off to catch up with them and get food from the nearby bakery. 

Sandman and I headed off to Dollar General for a quick resupply only to decide to stop at a breakfast joint for a quick bite to eat and to charge our electronics. At the restaurant, we ultimately decided to spend the entire day in town doing some trail chores, like washing our stuff and getting some rest before Oregon, since the next few resupplies weren’t really towns so much as little stops. 

In an effort to save money, we ate lunch out of the grocery store instead of the restaurant-- check out the lunch menu for me: 

It didn’t stand a chance.

After laundry, I bought an electric razer from Dollar General to get rid of the beard. I was getting too much food in it and plus, I didn’t feel like myself. It feels good to be fresh faced! 

I headed to the brewery in town for dinner solo and ran into a few day hikers we saw the prior day. They invited me to eat with them and we had wonderful conversation ending with them buying my meal. Unexpected, but amazing. 

I stopped for a pint of ice cream on the way back to the city park where we were camped and fell asleep soundly and fully satiated. 

Miles: 5.8

Total Miles: 1,831