[Paste in part from a previous entry about sleeping in, waking up, eating, and being on the trail at 7:30am]

I could hear the traffic from I-5 when I was about six miles away. A girl came up the trail heading southbound, wearing turquoise cat eye glasses and all purple clothes. Finally some style on the trail. Her trail name was Aquarius and she had been hiking since Tehachapi. I can't remember the details but she was hiking southbound to the Oregon border (25 miles or so), then turning around and heading north again. She was going to stop wherever she was at the end of August. She said Callahan's had a breakfast special for hikers, $10 for eggs, bacon, and all you can eat pancakes.

I got to Highway 99 (which parallels I-5) around 10:30am. It was another mile walk off the PCT to Callahan's restaurant. Since I was not on the PCT, nor even a trail, I had no problem taking the shortest route there. This involved walking down Highway 99, climbing over the guardrail, walking down I-5, then down the embankment to the underpass.

The staff at Callahan's were really friendly. It is very posh inside and I felt a little out of place, but everyone was so friendly you soon forgot about it.

It was between breakfast and lunch when I got there. I told the waitress Sarah that I would have a Monte Crisco sandwich and could wait a few minutes since they were probably switching the kitchen over.

A few minutes later Sarah came out with three eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Turns out the cook decided to make me breakfast anyways, and my sandwich+fries would be coming soon. How nice of them!

Two hats came by a while later, he had gotten there earlier this morning. We talked a bit as my food coma set in (and he ordered lunch). Texas Poo and Soulshine showed up a while later. It was good to see them again. They had spent two days in Ashland.

We got caught up on stories. Their ride from Etna summit to Etna was a bit chaotic. The guy who picked them up was incredibly drunk and asked if they would mind if he "drove a little slow". They made it to Etna safely though...well, after the guy stopped at a swimming hole to go for a quick swim, naked except for his shoes.

Around 2pm a woman named Crystal showed up. She had been reading this blog and we talked on email a bit (Hi Crystal!). She asked if I needed anything from the store...so she showed up with hand sanitizer, a marker (marks-a-lot medium chisel tip), and AAA batteries. That was very nice of her. Her son Clay eventually came in and sat with us. We talked about the PCT and I gave her a few trail stories that I can't really put online.

Sent out an email to friends in Portland about having them come out and meet me around Mid August when I'm up near the Portland area. That will be a good time and I hope it works out.

Spent a bit longer there charging stuff and eventually TP, SS and I all left about 5pm. It is good to be on the trail with them again. We hiked until a bit after dark until we got to a spring.

The smoke from the fires makes it so we can't see much. Normally we would be able to see the north face of Mt Shasta bur now there is nothing.

I asked TP how he liked his new tent. He loved it. Soulshine said he loves it too since it is one less thing he has to hear TP bitch about.

Oh, another thing, today was another historical day. Around 7:00pm we all had a milestone. We finally met a southbound hiker who had left from Canada! His name was Bobcat. He gave us an update on various hikers. Chief is a couple days ahead of me. Whitney Houston is going to be the first one to Canada (shocking) who didn't skip any part of the trail. I asked him if he met Anish and he was bummed that he missed her. When he was at Elk Lake Resort she had gone by. TP asked Bobcat what the trail in Oregon was like. Rather than saying the typical "flat", he said the trail was "crusin'".

In slower news, it looks like we are about 93 miles from Crater Lake where the next resupply is...so it looks like we will be rolling in there on Saturday afternoon.