September 5

I had the trail almost entirely to myself today. I met two nobos one of which is still hanging on to the idea of finishing even though she would be looking at a November finish in the north Cascade Range of Washington. I wouldn't want to be there at that time of year. October in the high Sierra Range sounds cold enough for me. I saw bears 5 and 6 of my hike today. One was a small cub running for all it was worth ahead of me the other was the mother sow running at a perpendicular angle from the cub which thankfully was away from me. I hiked 30 miles by 6:30 pm and decided to camp because it doesn't matter if I do more at this point. Either way I'll be spending Saturday night near or in Castella and getting back on trail sometime Sunday afternoon. Louis is 8 hours ahead of me which means he is still closer to 20 miles ahead and might choose to go into Castella late tomorrow night. I'm going to have to do 30 or 35s to catch him after Sunday, but I proved today that it is doable without hurting myself. I have a couple days of extremely flat ground ahead of me with no climbs whatsoever, but all will change when I hit the Castle Crags area. The name alone is a little intimidating but I am excited for the views.