22 July
Today I was on a mission I had a lot of chores to do and check out  of the hostel
I woke about 7 grabbed my clean laundry and filled my pack. Stripped my bed.put water in the fridge to get cold
Repacked a bounce box to send to Shrek then it was mission time.
I planned to ride the bus to Metford to swap my tent at REI.
I walked into town and waited at the stop. Great the bus is here. .I asked for a day pass but you can only get them at the station but its no problem sir and I was off on my journey.
We passed the hippy commune then the bus turned into  a village/town called Talent. Very pretty but I had to laugh at the police station sign
It just read “Talent Police”   well I thought that was funny
At last. We pulled into metford bus station. I brought my ticket then waited for the next bus to take me to REI. I didn’t have to wait long for that bus either. But I did have to wait out I REI as I was  early.
I went to the counter and swapped my tent then I got some new trail runners. Same as before Solomon’s .

Great all. done now home then post office  .again my timing was good today as a bus pulled up  straight away. I was back in Ashland by 12.then headed straight to the post office. But as i passed the yogurt shop Juicy caught me .i told him.my plan and would meet him later at the post office.Dam the post office was packed and I ended up waiting 30 minutes just to buy packing tape.
I headed back to the hostel and assembled all of my gear outside on the deck. I filled all the boxes labelled them.dumped my trash and then I was ready. I struggled off back to the Post office several cars beeped their horns and yelled good luck Pct hiker.
The post office was still heaving but people were moving I posted two boxes the third I have to use UPS. And yes its the other side of town far away.
Juicy was done and on his way back.
While I waited Freedom arrived we chatted a while .I lent her my phone so she could find her mates
Then juicy arrived and OMG he had only pushed the Safeway cart/trolley all the way to town from Safeway

Bloody good idea though..juicy sorted his resupply and boxes while I  sat in the sun chatting to freedom until  Frederick arrived with several other hikers
Right juicy was done .off to Ups and then back to the trail
I put my UPS box in the cart and juicy then pushed it back to Safeway. We then grabbed a bus  that took us to UPS and the freeway.
We both mailed our boxes up the trail then it was time to walk to the freeway and stick out our thumbs
We got a ride straight away and he dropped us off at Callahan’s.
We went in dropped our packs and sat on the deck .They  really look after hikers , we got our first beer free and the” Hiker special” which  is a bottomless bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce

I managed two bowls but then had to sit a while lol .The record is 4 bowls OMG they a huge bowls too.
on the deck they have bird feeders  but ones especially for hummingbirds and so you can watch these magnificent creatures quite close.
But  its  no good we need to walk so we  to leave at 6 pm . We both hoisted our packs onto our backs and head out.then it began to rain and thunder  Bollocks I said, ” great timing”. We walked the 2 miles back to the trail head in the pouring rain..

I decided the first flat spot i saw i’m camping .but I didn’t want to put my shiny new tent up in the rain but oh well! !!  I wished Juicy good-luck  as he wanted to crush more miles and watched him go
I got into my tent shut the door took off my wet shorts next minute I was gone zzzzz