Day 16 May 22, 2017

• Daily miles 19
• Total miles 282
• Hours hiked 9:30 am to 6:00 pm

Today featured breakfast with trail buddies, easy downhill trail and unusual trail magic.

Woke up early at the hotel and got a few minor chores done.  The plan in my mind had been to relax around the hotel until check out time and then head out to the trail.  Went in search of breakfast and heard my name (yes, the trail name, not the one my parents gave me) being called from Denny's.  It was the trail bubble I have been hanging around since pretty much day one.  Had a fun breakfast with them and then went back to the hotel to relax.  I think I have forgotten how.  Was out the door and hitching a ride by 9:00!

Me (Canada), Ben (France), Tyler (Kansas), Madison (Colorado), Max (Washington), Justin (New Zealand) and Neal (Australia)

I like to call the group that I am hiking with in the picture above four greyhounds, two whippets and an old silver fox.

Caught a ride with a really cool guy by the name of Vince.  Turns out the trail head was not anywhere near where he was going but he gave me the rise anyway.  That got me back onto the trail by 9:30.  Figured I would do a reasonably easy 15 miles or so due to the late start.  Then the trail turned into a walk in the park, so I let the ponies run and ended up at a pretty nice spot with about 15 other hikers.  About the only negative about the trail today was there sections where the tread was pretty bony.  But that is pretty minor.

Fast, easy trail

In the afternoon, the trail went through a very large old fire.  When California has a forest fire, there is nothing small about it.

Old fire section

We were all just sitting around relaxing when a hiker came strolling into camp from the north.  We all thought he had a kind of funky set up on his pack as he had some sort of sack hanging off the back, but who are we to judge.  Well, it turns out he (trail name Goaltech) is a section hiker who hands out north bound hikers a choice of a bag of chips, a Starbucks Via coffee pack or a third choice which I forget because he had me at chips.  I mean how cool was that.  Probably the best bag of Cool Ranch Doritos I have ever had.

Goaltech and his bag of hiker treats

The trail is pretty easy for the next two days as we slowly give back the climb that we made up Mission Creek a couple of days ago.

Home for the night