Slept in until 6 again. Got to Old Station at 8, right when the store opened, lucky me. I resupplied one day here to get to Burney Ranch which is 36 miles away. And of course I pigged out here and charged my phone. I called the Chester PO to try and bounce my missed package, but I couldn’t. Looks like I’ll lose the package, that sucks but it was just four days of food and a trash compactor bag. 

Left at 10 after eating a little more. Had to take a .25 side trail to a water fountain at 11. Filled up 4.75 liters for the next long dry stretch. There was a side trail there that leads you into a cave so I did that while I was there. It was pretty cool. Got back on the trail at noon and from there it was all open an exposed for the rest of the day. Reminded me how much I hated the desert. This was my first big water carry since SoCal. 
At 5:30 I hit some nice trail magic and a water cache. Ate a little bit and drank .75 liters. Felt rejuvenated after that to finish out the day. Found a small camp spot right off the trail a little after 8PM so I stopped there. 
Only about 9 miles to Burneys Guest Ranch where I plan on resupplying along with showering and laundry. I hope this place is better than Drakesbad. 

Slept in until 6 since I had a short 12 miles to Drakesbad Ranch. Got there at 10:30. That’s where I made some big changes to my day. 

The whole mail drop thing there is really confusing. Nobody delivers packages to their ranch. And of course there’s no cell service or wifi to try and straighten things out. All packages with their address gets left at the Chester PO, even UPS. But even then they apparently put the packages next door to the PO which is a hard wear store. 
So my package doesn’t even arrive until the following day and when I checked the tracking days prior it said “by end of day”. Which means the people at Drakesbad would probably get it the day after. Which would mean I would be forced to take a zero here. And there’s absolutely nothing to do here. 
I looked into my food bag and find I have enough food to make it to Old Station which is only 23 miles away. So I decide to just leave Drakesbad. I will try to contact the PO to bounce the box but worse case scenario I lose the box which was only four days of food, of well. Time is money and I’d rather lose food money than my time. 
Before I left I went to shower. They had an outdoor shower for PCT hikers with no soap or anything. I saw two real showers that were open so I grabbed a pool towel and went in there. Other hikers told me there are no laundry services so I washed my underwear in there with me. It felt great to be clean, even though I had to put on dirty clothes again. 
I finish in time for lunch at 12. I go in to pay but apparently they have to serve the guests there first and any PCT hikers last, so I had to wait an hour where I spent my time listening to music and typing this up. 
I go up for food at 1PM and the woman said they’d charge an extra $7 if I went up for seconds. Good thing she told me that because I loaded up my plate with probably 5-8lbs of food. Ate it all in about 10 minutes. 
Got back on trail at 2PM. Did almost 20 by 8:30. Trail was nice and flat. I’m only a few miles out from Old Station. 

Broke camp at six. Trail was pretty easy to hike today. For some reason my stomach felt like crap for most of the day. Kind of like a nauseous feeling. Because of this I took a ton of breaks throughout the day. Pretty happy I still managed to do 34. 

I got great reception on top of a mountain where I took about thirty minutes to update my blog. First time in a while I could actually upload some pictures. 
Later in the day at a highway crossing to go into Chester I ran into some trail magic. In a cooler there were Pepsis and only one Powerade. The soda looked nice but I impeded at the Powerade because of how my stomach was feeling. I filled up my 24oz bottle with it and drank the rest. In the hiker box there were cookies and Dorito crumbs so I ate it. It kept me full the rest of the day which meant I save money on my own food. Also had an orange. There was a couple there that got a ride into town, the driver asked if I wanted a lift. It was really tempting but I had no reason to go and I would just waste money. 
Drinking the Powerade definitely made me feel better, it had the potassium, sodium, etc to help out my stomach. Ended the day a little after 8PM. Only 12 miles to Drakesbad Ranch where I’ll have to spend the night to wait on my package. I hope I get it on the sixth. 

Started hiking at 5:30 and got to Belden a little before 9:30. There’s a huge Burning Man Festival going on. Loads of people. First place I’ve been where people don’t stare at the thru hikers. There was a woman that was on some serious drugs. 
First thing I did was hit up the general store. Bought a can of Sprite and some Pringles. Another hiker told me about a “breakfast buffet” going on for $13 so I got on that real quick. Turns out you can’t go back for seconds, lame, what kind of buffet is that? 
Went back to the store and got some chocolate milk. It’s a great recovery drink for the unaware. Has the calories, sodium, potassium, carbs, sugars, protein and of course calcium. After downing that I did some thru hiker chores (toilet, brush teeth and washed my socks). Went back to the store and bought a 32oz Powerade and finished the rest of my Pringles. Moved my stuff inside to get out of the sun. 
Left around 1:45, it was nice to chill out for a while before this long climb. I bought another 32oz Gatorade, butterfingers ice cream and M&M brownies before I left though. This is why I try to avoid towns. 
The 13.5 mile climb took me until 7:30, took a few breaks going up of course. Since I was in town for a while I hiked until 8:45. I’m sleeping without my rain fly tonight since its been hot out and it doesn’t look like it’ll rain. 
Should hit the half way point tomorrow. 

Started hiking at 6. Today was easier than yesterday, probably because most of the day was in the shade. Had to do a seven mile climb. It was all switchbacks so it wasn’t bad. Tomorrow there is a 12 mile climb out of Belden, not looking forward to it. 

Apparently the trail goes by a little general store in Belden. I’m definitely going to be there stuffing my face before that climb. Hopefully I can charge my phone too. I am ahead of schedule so I could take some more time there. It’s only 12.6 away so I’m going to wake up at 5 and get there ASAP. 

Didn’t fall asleep until late, probably because of all the sugar and caffeine I had in town. Got up at 5 which is the earliest since the desert, felt pretty well rested. Finished the remaining miles of the climb. Trail was easy to hike which was nice. Took a break at a water source at 10:45 and got moving by 11:15. 

The heat is picking back up. It went from 60s in the Sierra to 80s and 90s. I hit a wall around 2PM but kept moving after a ten minute break. Took another twenty minute break at 5PM. Can’t sit still for long because the bugs will get you. Ended the day around 7:30. 
I didn’t intend to do a big day today. I forgot that my package doesn’t get to where I’m going until the sixth and I’ll probably be there on the fifth. Don’t really like having my days dictated by anything but me. But I guess that will give Sonic and Junco time to catch up to me. 
The new pair of shoes I picked up from Sierra City are great. Same make and model but it feels great to have the cushion again. I’m going to try and make this pair and another last the rest of the trail. So I’ll need to get about 725 miles out of both. 

I woke up 15 minutes earlier today because I just wanted to get to Sierra City. I booked it and got into town before 11. There were a lot of hikers there, I never see many hikers on trail but I always see them in town. 
I immediately start eating. Ordered a burger, a raspberry milkshake and drank a Monster energy drink along with a Arnold Palmer. From there I resupplied and did the regular hiker chores. I saw some Gain laundry detergent in the hiker box and there was a giant bucket and a garden hose next to it so I took this golden opportunity to wash my socks. My socks and underwear are the two things I like to have clean. There was a public restroom not far from the store. There was water and outlets over there so I brought my stuff with me since there was less people 
One of the bathrooms had a shower. You had to push a button and ice cold water would come out for 30 seconds. It actually felt really good since it was hot out. I rinsed out my underwear in the process and then dried out with paper towels. After that I ate a pint of B&J ice cream, a bag of Doritos and a can of Sprite. At 4:30 I ordered a breakfast burrito, got it at 5:30. It weighed about 3lbs. It made me thirsty so I bought a Gatorade. I’ve spent over $100 in this town and I’m not even staying the night. I’m about to do a 152 mile carry so I guess I can splurge a bit. 
A man showed up and was offering rides back to the trail so I jumped at the opportunity. Hit the trail at 6:45. Sonic is taking a few zeroes to see friends so this is the first time in a while I’ll be hiking alone, probably going to be boring with nobody to talk to. She’ll probably catch me in Oregon, maybe Junco will be with her. Did a little over three miles all uphill. Got to a campsite at 8PM. I wanted to keep going but it looks like it’s all ridge walking and I didn’t want to get stuck there 
Pitched my tent on a hard rocky surface, I hope there’s no winds tonight, pretty exposed up here. Today was a pretty good day. Spent eight hours in town and still did almost twenty miles. 

Had to deal with a little bit of snow today but the trail wasn’t bad. There were some muddy parts but it didn’t last long. Didn’t expect to hit 35 but inflate I did. 

Only about 15.8 miles plus a 1.5 mile road walk to Sierra City. I plan on staying there for most of the day. I hear their general store has some nice burgers. I’m going to eat and drink so much there. I’m also picking up new shoes, been wearing the same pair since Mojave now. Time to retire them. 

Got moving by six and just did a little over 15 to a road crossing by 11. They had toilets there but it was locked, bummer. Took a break there for about forty minutes and talked to some other hikers. 
From there I did about 13 to the base of a mountain, got there around 4. Had to deal with some snow but it wasn’t too bad, nothing like the Sierra Nevada. Took about an hour break before heading up. The climb wasn’t too bad. Met an ultra marathoner at the top who was doing some training. From there it was 4.5 to a campsite. 
Pretty normal day of hiking which was nice. It went by real quick, around 3:30 I thought it was still noon for some reason. 

Slept like a rock last night but I didn’t get much sleep. Stayed up until 1:30AM using the wifi. There’s pretty much zero service in the Sierra so my eyes were glued to my phone once I got to town. 

Sonic and I went to a nice diner down the road, had some coffee for the first time on the PCT. After that we went back to the hostel and grabbed our Sierra gear to mail home. All the post offices were far away but I spotted a FedEX across from the diner so we went there. Cost me about $45 to send home my ice axe and spikes, sucks living far away. My pack is now 1.80lbs lighter!
After that we went to the Sports Ltd store where Sonic bought some Altra Lone Peaks, switching from the Brooks. A guy working there mentioned we could take advantage of the Darn Tough lifetime warranty and get new socks for free. My eyes lit up. I had just gotten holes in some of my socks and thought I was going to have to wait until after the trail to exchange. On our way out of town we went back and I got two new pairs of Darn Tough Socks. And to think I wasn’t even planning on going into South Lake Tahoe. The stop was well worth it, I like these big tourist towns. 
I resupplied about four days of food to get to Sierra City which was around 100 miles away. I also bought a pint of half baked B&J ice cream and destroyed it back at the hostel. Took one last shower and left. We called a trail angel and got picked up and brought back to the trail. 
About a mile into the trail we hit Echo Chalet, they had a very limited resupply so I’m glad I didn’t go there. They also had ice cream so of course I had some of that. From there we did about 18 miles. I believe we did the final big pass of the Sierra Nevada. It wasn’t too difficult after all the other ones. Stopped hiking around 8:20. It’s 9:20 right now so I guess I should try and get some sleep.