5th July
Well I took ages to get off to sleep but the good news I wasn’t blown about.
YES alarm set for 5 am I get up at 6 am  I was just emerging when White Angel came past I was getting up early I said. I packed up and took I off i was on the trail by 6.30. .and the sun was already hot ..The first part of the trail was badly over grown so you never know where you are stepping which can be scary. .2 miles on and a sign for a spring great as I was fairly low on water I wandered down the track and found the spring  I gulped down a few cups then  filled up  5 litres. Now that’s probably far to much but Hike your own hike.
I like to have 2 litres of lemon drink and the rest straight water in my bladder which I drink  but when I stop for a rest I like to glug down a litre so I carry it most hikers make do with 2 litre maximum.  But I’m not most hikers. Soon it was my Breakfast stop cereal  yummy oh and lemon  to drink. Back to the trail i was climbing a smallish hill when I stopped in my tracks my next foot would of landed on a snake a rather big snake i backed up and this time took pictures.

It looked like he had just eaten as his skin was stretched do he must of been resting in the sun .But unlike me  who is resting in the chair after my lunch
They move very very quickly when you jab them with your hiking pole in fact do. Not try this  unless you can run fast. A he wasn’t very happy.
Lesson learnt...
Back to the trail I was busy  and zoned out when a man appeared from beneath a tree  it was a trail man  a man who helps look after the trail  in fact there was about  9 of them men and woman cutting and hacking and making the trail great for us hikes to walk on
I thanked them all for a great job  as they are mostly volunteers
Oh and I asked what the big mountain was called it’s Mount shasta so now you know. Further on the trail i caught up with white Angel who had stopped for a break we were to play leapfrog all day..
I passed her as I was trying for a big millage today and to camp by water but I knew the rest of the day was going to be climbing. I marched on  waiting for my watch to let me know when it was lunch time..
At last, I ate bagels with sweaty cheese and smoked salmon from a packet chugged down with more lemonade. I also took the opportunity to charge my phone in the sun.
Later I caught White Angel again, she had just topped up from a spring. So i headed their too. After filling i made my way back to the trail i just turned a corner and there was a bear walking towards me.
I looked at him, he looked at me, I froze he legged it down through the forest, branches cracking  as he fled .
That is the closest bear meeting  so far! and i do not want to get closer, This chap was a big blondish orange fellow. But it made my day and put a huge smile on my face
It seems my fellow hikers, that a bear wants nothing to do with smelly Hikers so we are all safe.
Also a ranger that i met , tells me that the mountain Lions are so busy with road kill that they to don’t fancy any smelly Hikers either lol
I am not sure on the snakes point of view but the Mosquitoes say fuck it blood is blood.

Soon it was back to climbing ,at least there was shade unlike this morning. It was 4.30, I was still on target, but this climb went on and on. The trail had recently been worked on as it was so nice to walk on and i came across several tools left out on  the trail.
I was beginning to tire,although i was short of my target, I came to a dirt road there must be some where I can put up my tent.
It was still fairly early but this will do me for today
I put up my tent , made tea then cooked rice even though I was low on water decided that i needed another cup of tea
I decided to sleeping with my fly off and as i was writing this a deer walked straight past me