25 Jun Day 62 – Spam Head

Under At mile 1566.1. Hiked 21.8 miles today.

I slept late, relaxed some and laid in my tent enjoying a bright red sunrise over Mt Shasta, while eating my triple pack of Raisins and Spice Oatmeal, 2 Strawberry frosted Pop Tarts, and cold Folgers coffee. Even after all that lounging around I was on the trail at 6:36 am and had done 10 miles by 10:10 am. The trail wound between and around mountains. With new views around every corner and new and varied wildflowers the walk was interesting. The trail was easy, flat with some rocky areas and the temperature was pleasant.. My pack is now lighter as the result of an eating binge the last couple of days. All this added up to one of the most enjoyable hiking days in some time.

Here are some new and interesting flowers. By the way, wildflowers have been with me since continously since day 1. I haven’t shown a tenth of the varieties. (Exception: There were no wildflowers under the snow.)

Wild Azaelas

During my 10 am break I sewed a button on my shirt. I had repaired a pocket on my shorts early in the morning before breaking f camp. The real challenge was threading the needle. I also worked on my blog. During the mid morning break I typically brush teeth, floss, wash hands. And take daily aspirin.

In my tent now and just finished a dinner of leftovers. I had a little cous-cous and stove top stuffing leftover. I added spam and wrapped it in a tortilla. Thru-hikers will wrap anything in a tortilla.

Cleaning up after dinner, I thought I would rinse out my pot. I swished water around and scrubbed some with my fingers. Leaning against a rotten stump with the intention of tossing out the greasy Spam water, the rotten stump gave way. The water went flying up into my face and soaked my hair. Dripping with Spam water, I had to carefully watch where I dripped as I reached into my tent and backpack to retrieve my wash cloth. If a bear comes along it will seek out my deliciously smelling Spam head.

I finally laid down for the night. It seemed that whenever the wind blew, a pack of coyotes would screech, them bark a little. I was thankful to hear the barks which assured me it wasn’t a wildcat.

Here is my daily Mt Shasta. Oh yes, I could still glimpse Mt Lassen at just the rare right spot.

Here is Mt Shasta using mun Peakfinder App. Thumb Rock is a bump a little higher up the mountain than shown. I think? Shastina is in foreground and don’t forget Mt Eddy

Here is the trail and mountains.

People:

As I was taking a break Peter Pan and Big Foot came walking up SOBO. Last time I saw them was near Bucks Lake, a couple hundred miles south going SOBO. Peter Pan explained that they had hopped over this section (Oregon to Dunsmeir) due to snow and were back to hike it. 

Peter Pan went on to tell me that Peer Pressure was a Con, not a PCT hiker. He had been doing it the last 3 years. He pretends to have his pack, wallet, etc stolen and then uses sympathies of hikers, etc to receive money and the like. Makes sense because last I heard he was in Quincy and had his wallet stolen. At one point I had considered going into Quincy with Peer Pressure in order to buy sunglasses. Had I done that, PP may have had his wallet “stolen” and I might have helped him out. Obviously, a lot of the stories and facts surrounding PP were made up. I already had hints of that. The funny thing is that I was the only PCT’r to camp at the PCT camp that night in Sierra City. Camping with me were a boy who had been hanging out there 5 days while “looking” for work, a Con man, and a drug addict.