Day 159

Day 159 (pct 49): 44 miles

I knew it was either gonna be a really short day or a long day. About 23 miles from my camp last night was the boundary to Lassen National Park and they require a bear canister to stay overnight there. Since I don’t have a bear canister I couldn’t camp in that 19 mile stretch of trail. I ended up getting to the boundary around 4pm and that was way too early to end for the day so I pushed all the way through the park before calling it a night around 1am a few miles after the park. There were a few spots right around the park boundary but I guess there was a lot of bear activity there last year and when I got there, there were a few sets of eyes looking at me from nearby. I’m not sure if deer in the area are a good sign cause if they’re not worried about bears nearby I shouldn’t be or if they attract their predators to the area. I really don’t know anything about hunting but might get into it after this.

40 mile days aren’t super hard if I get an early start to the day but I didn’t start real early today and days this long with a late start make it tough to have a good day tomorrow.

As I was night hiking I saw probably 25 sets of eyes. At first I just stare at them hoping it’s not a mountain lion. Then usually I’ll start to see a few other sets of eyes and relax cause only deer would be in groups like that. Toward the end of the night I ran into a couple night snakes. As cold blooded animals I’m not sure what they’re doing out at night. There was also a bat circling around my head for like 5 minutes. It was starting to get annoying and about made me go Manu Ginobli on his ass.

I came across a trash can in the National park and ended up dumping probably over a half pound of trash. I don’t even know how old some of it was or where it came from but I mentally felt much lighter after ditching it.

Earlier in the day I met a guy and after talking for less than 2 minutes he offered to help me when I get back on the AT. People are cool

Song of the day: Thot shit-Meg the stallion
I’m worried. I really feel like I shouldn’t like this trash song but I do