THAT WAS HARD.

Hi everyone! Alicia here, guest posting to the blog (as you may have guessed from the entry's title).

Arlen and I just finished the section between Old Station and Burney, about 33.8 trail miles, with 0.5 miles road walking to get to the trail head and a detour to the Subway Cave. The Subway Cave is a winding lava tube, but it wasn't possible to take photos since it is underground and quite dark. Here's our daily mileage breakdown.

Day one: 9.5 miles
Day two: 11.5 miles
Day three: 14.3 miles (I really wanted to shower and sleep in a real bed...)

It was a pretty flat section of trail to join in on, but it was still desert-like conditions. By the end of the third day, I developed a strategy of scurrying from shade to shade, but the terrain certainly featured long stretches without trees or bushes to hide on. As a result, I have a stellar burn/tan (even with the intense sunscreen application that I implemented, every 2 hours) and also some very large blisters from trying to push through to the next line of trees.

I did really enjoy the challenge, even though it was difficult, and Arlen tells me that he enjoyed his few "easy days" so it was a great trip for both of us. Plus, getting to see each other for close to five days was a treat that we weren't expecting to be able to pull off, but we're glad we did.

Below, you'll find photos from our 3 day trail trip. Tomorrow morning, I'll drop Arlen off at the trailhead where we finished and he'll continue on for about 2 months while I journey back to Maine.

Enjoy!
- Alicia

Reunited after three months apart!! Arlen might just be excited about the cheeseburger he had previously ordered though... ;)

Clouds are an unusual sight in California, as was the 3 minutes of rain that we were treated to on the first day. It was welcome to this non-hiking gal during the only uphill of this section, though.

Arlen took a bunch of photos of me, I always seem to be pretty far behind him, for some reason!

More desert-y trail.

View from camp on night one. Ain't bad.

I yelled "oh my gosh, these blueberries look delicious!"

Arlen yelled "THOSE AREN'T BLUEBERRIES!' before I ate any. Phew!

I caught up, eventually.

Yes, I did pack in and out a gigantic beer. This is my summer vacation, after all.

It's so nice to be in nature surrounded by... cars? This part of the trail crosses a paved road, we'll let it slide, this time.

Searching for shade to scurry to!

Delightful lake that we stopped by to let the noon - 4 P.M. heat pass. Then on to town!

I met a Ward 3 Lewiston voter while on trail - looking forward to earning Bam Bam's vote in the fall!

We also met another Lewiston resident, earlier in the day, at a water cache. Small world!

A drive up to Mount Shasta provided Arlen with new shoes and this impressive view of the mountain, for which the town is named.