Day 14, 2022 - Back to the trail and Wingman’s Sprint Home - Running Lite.

Today seems a bit of a weird day for us after three zero days. We got on the road heading back up to the PCT early and Runningbird put her feet back on the trail to finish her final section of California. From the reports we’ve had the trail here is a mess with downed trees, scorched earth (making it hard to find the trail), and post-holing snow. There is no access to the trail for 50 miles.

We had discussed plans for this section on day one of the three Zero days here in Etna. Runningbird ate well and got plenty of rest. She would be carrying extra food and take her time traversing the stretch so there would be no pressure to hurry and risk injury. She would have plenty of water available and the elevation gain would not be too drastic. The real challenge will be the northern exposures with the snow depth and the downed trees. We knew this would be an issue at the start but thought the warmer temperatures would have melted it away by now. Not so lucky.

After the drop off Beau and I headed back to the RV park for a quick walk and potty break then headed back out the highway through Fort Jones to Yreka and I-5. We made pretty good time and the slowly the rain started in Oregon and continued on and off into Washington. Beau is doing great riding in the truck now and I didn’t even give him the CBDs like I used to and he did fine. We had a couple of stops at rest areas and he got to play with another puppy for a few minutes at one of them.

I have appointments the next couple of days and then we’ll shoot right back down. Runningbird and I discussed how this would work and it actually takes a lot of pressure off her and allowed her the zero days. It’s the same worrying for me, just from a greater distance. Arriving home Beau and Simba (the cat) had a great reunion and I got right to work doing laundry and mowing the wet, overgrown lawn. After getting some food I checked the SPOT and her progress appears painfully slow. We knew that would be the case but still, it’s painful.