The Result of Addition (i.e. this is a SUMmary post)

7/29: (19 miles) This morning I hung around Chester some more. Had some cereal for breakfast at the trail angel's house, then went to the famous Pine Shack Frosty for a milkshake, then Burger Depot for lunch. Got back on trail about 12:30 and IT WAS HOT! Slow progress the rest of the day but made it all the way to the drive-in campground for the night.

7/30: (19.4 miles) Started out the day in the best way: hiking about 0.5 miles backwards to Drakesbad Guest Ranch for breakfast. Buffet style with French Toast & continental everything else! Delicious! Sat on their measly Wi-Fi for too long (couple hours) then started  hiking at about 11. At this point it was WAY too hot and I stopped for breaks often. Was still so full from breakfast that I skipped lunch. It was a boring, flat hike out of Lassen Park and I set up camp next to the "famous" (in reference to Wild) Hat Creek. Gonna get to Old Station in the morning!

7/31: (15.3 miles) Low day, but a high day considering that I'm doing it out of a town. Hung around in Old Station for a while. First stayed around the post office waiting for a box till 1:30 (my food was already there, but I had bought new socks and they had yet to arrive). Once I got the socks I headed down the street to another small store/resort that let me use their Wi-Fi. I stayed there chatting to the owner and using the Wi-Fi for about 5 hours. Then headed out and met some other hikers at JJ's restaurant for dinner. I got a burger (a really good one, but still not extraordinary) and all of us split the cost of a tray of cinnamon rolls! The girl who was waiting our table was astonished with how fast I ate mine. Then I headed out and night-hiked the remaining 8 miles or so till the campsite.

8/1: (22.1 miles) the miles of today were done not because I'm being ambitious but out of necessity. 0.7 miles from last night's campsite is a canyon where you can hike down a steep and treacherous 0.5 mile trail to a water source. Not ideal at all, but it's the last water source for 21 miles. So I did it. Fortunately some trail angels have placed a cache 8 miles into that stretch so I only carried about 3 liters. Had lunch at the amazing cache (not just water- there were chairs, a trail register, and it was all enclosed in an arrangement of sticks making it look like a large beaver dam). Cameled-up and hiked the next section. There was a cache next to a paved road about 8 miles later and it was also awesome (perfect timing too- I had about 1 liter left and was getting worried). Saw an amazing sunset and pushed on into dusk before I set up camp. Burney tomorrow!