JUNE 29th

The thunder and lightening was amazing to watch last night and I was so happy to be waking up in a nice comfy bed haha.
My 7 am alarm went off I snoozed it and dozed until almost 8am. Okay lets see what the free breakfast is like !
There was coffee and orange juice, I poured a glass of juice ,drunk it and poured another.
I then toasted two bagels, put butter and jam on my plate grabbed a Danish and a banana and headed back to my room to devour my gains. The bagels were really tasty. Once finished I had chores.
I needed to send a 2 boxes* up trail, but only one was ready.
I set off with a carrier bag full of food to transfer to a box and my Ice axe to send back to my friend in Texas. 
The post office was much nearer than I expected , I asked the post lady for two boxes  and began to build the first box and then  loaded it with the food.

I then sealed that one up. Normally the post office has long rectangular boxes but they were out and so I spent the next 10 minutes making a box for my ice axe, when completed I paid extra for insurance and then I was done. 
I headed back to my hotel, dumped the spare box and headed across the road to the shop and dashed around getting the last bits to fill the other box.
God the time had suddenly vanished and I needed to be out of my room. I raced around stuffing things in my pack, at last I was done. I hoisted my pack grabbed my sticks the box and left over food and headed downstairs 
The owner was really chilled and said I could have left a little later…….
I marched back to the post office , which luckily was empty and sent off the other box. This one to Big Sandy Lodge.*
Phew all done, I walked a little way up the road until I came to a huge rock, just perfect to sit on.
I took out a spoon and finished off my potato salad and smoked ham followed by a satsuma. 
Sadly the satsuma was a little dry oh well.
All done I  hoisted up my pack and continued up the road, dumping my garbage in the first dumpster I passed. 
Okay lets find the trail, there is a local trail that feeds into the Cdt.
Okay got it , I had to cross several very busy roads, on the last crossing I pushed the button and waited patiently. 
When the sign said I could walk I began walking but a lady in the red car was not watching and tried to get me onto her bonnet.
Luckily I always  look before I cross. But gave her the Paddington Bear Stare!!!!!
The trail wound its way around several streets before becoming a dirt track, a very very steep dirt track.
Typical I have full tanks as I’m not sure of the water situation and I have resupplied so I am heavy and climbing. But hey no ice axe bonus lol.
The higher I climbed the more expensive the houses seemed to be omg there were some stunners. Oh and wow the views behind me also became more amazing. 
The lake I saw earlier is a dam I didn’t know that earlier. Looking back it seemed such a busy  town with construction happening everything.  But the buses are free.. let me say that again THE BUSES ARE FREE…Wow love to see that happen back at home.

I resumed my climbing meeting numerous dog walkers coming back down. I asked one about the weather. It’s hit and miss but 3pm is normally rain time. I continued climbing until I needed a break. Well I hadn’t connected my hose to my bladder and so I was parched. 
Whilst I sat on my rock I remembered my apple and cut it into quarters with my knife. Mmm that’s a very tasty apple don’t sure why but apples seem very expensive here for some reason .
OKAY Miles to walk. The trail now meandered through the woods  but it was hot I wish I had taken off a layer but now I didn’t want to stop. I passed many people, several runners flew past me and several families heading back from their hike.
At last I came to water, I stopped and filtered a litre before adding 2 electrolytes tablets to it. Being ill has probably flushed all the good stuff again so I thought it would be good to replace. Okay onwards and upwards. 
Later in the day I met two locals on their way down, they were very helpful.  One said there were some good flat spots in 3 miles (when the trees start to thin) Rain is due at 3 ish and they both advised not to go past the tree line after 3pm just in case the storm hits.

Good advice if you ask me. I pushed on and up. Walking through several burn areas. These always make me sad. This seemed fairly recent as you could still smell the Ash and smoke in the air. I kept following the trail  up and up. In a clearing sat a man.
Great spot I said.
NO ENGLISH  he said.
No problem I said and pushed on and on
Phew it’s bloody hot. I passed several flat spots, but  far too early lol so continued my spiralling up, occasionally it was a switch back but  still continued up.
Later the foreign  man caught up with me (not bloody difficult,) We attempted to have a conversation  and we smiled and laughed I worked out that he was from chez Republic  and was 70.
He took several photos of me and was excited that I was a cdt hiker going to Canada from Mexico 
Or maybe he was taking  about worm racing it was hard to tell.
I left him to carry on his walk I also got he was heading to the top then back down. 
Okay 4pm  flat spot please . Mmm maybe there.. I went to  investigate. Yup.
That will do me, I put down my ground sheet then did the check for rocks, pinecones, sticks or anything pointy.
DONE.Tent up and relax.

By the time I had set up, fixed a guy rope, changed Into my camp shoes and hoovered the surrounding grass My friend had returned.
We had another attempt at a conversation. He seemed impressed that I had set my tent up on the side off the mountain.
Well let’s hope its still here in the morning!!!!!.
Again he took many photos of my tent the scenery and this strange English man .
We laughed managed to say goodbye to each other and then waved.

I love a good surreal conversation 😌 
Okays  all distractions done i got into my tent, fired up my stove and made a cuppa, Yorkshire Gold tea….Nice.
Then it began to rain and thunder although the rain was quite light, Perhaps we may get more later!! (Lets hope not)
But from the weather forecast Friday is looking quite scary. 
Oh I’m going to have a beer now as I packed one out from town, this is the first I’ve packed out so I will  enjoy

Night all 

Mileage  7 (Nero,)