Day 122 (19 August) - Mile 1516.43 - 1537.19

Several small campsites with views of Castle Crags and Mount Shasta to Paved Parks Creek Road (Stayed in Weed)

I woke up feeling great. I got a great nights sleep and the mice stayed away. As I was packing up I assumed Share Bear and Brad had great nights at this awesome campsite, but then Brad blurted, "That night sucked!" And Share Bear agreed. What are they talking about?  "Huh?", I said. I guess the wind blew pretty good last night making Share Bear and Brad having to get out of their tents and adjust them. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and a breeze went through my tent and I thought it felt good and went back to sleep...very weird.

With Share Bear and Brad being grumpy, plus we had cell service, we weren't ready to hike until 7:42 AM.

Ready to hike

When we finally got on the trail we were happy to have the cover of pine trees for a while. It is supposed to get pretty hot today.

Nice, cool pine forest.

Most of today's hike kept us on a ridge with incredible views.

Wow.

The view from the trail

At about the 5 mile point I was staring at the trail while hiking and was startled to see Tim sitting on the side of the trail. He looked at the map for the day and noticed a road he could get to, so he decided to surprise us on the trail.

Mount Shasta behind us.

In case having Tim meet us isn't good enough, we will now be able to slack pack for the last 15 miles today...awesome.

After a nice break with Tim we headed back on the trail and was rewarded with yet another great view of Mount Shasta.

Mount Shasta

We hiked an extra 0.2 miles to Porcupine Lake for lunch. It was way worth it.  

Porcupine Lake made a great lunch stop.

After lunch we passed by Toad Lake, another beautiful lake in the area. 

Toad Lake

Around 7:00 PM we finally made it to Parks Creek Road where Tim met us.  I decided to go back to the hotel with Tim and Share Bear and Brad decided to camp at the trailhead. We will return tomorrow morning at 7:15 AM.  Until then...