Date: Wednesday, August 9th 2023
Day 126
Miles Hiked: 31.4
Miles: 31.4
Total Trail Miles: 1693
Ascent/Descent: 7403/5036 ft
Start Time: 05:38
End Time: 21:00
Temperature: 19°C (66°F)
I started a little later than planned after hitting snooze a few times, the evening climb last night had clearly worn me out. I had about 6 more miles off the big climb to do and was glad to get it out of the way before it got too hot. There were some annoying stretches with overgrown sharp bushes to push through and blowdowns to climb over but other than that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My shin preferred the uphill to downhill too. The Oregon border was just 31.4 miles away and part of me wanted to try to reach it today if my shins held out, ticking off my belated birthday challenge and finishing California all in one day! There were a lot of miles to cover though and my morning has been slow. I tried to keep my breaks to a minimum from lunchtime onwards. It was hot and a lot of ups and downs, my shins would play up every now and then, getting a bit more sore as the day went on. I caught glimpse of large snowy mountains in Oregon though which was exciting. I didn't reach the border until just gone 8:30pm - but I did it! I have officially hiked the length of California. I was on a high. It was just another C 0.4 miles to a campsite and I set up a quietly as I could in the dark as there were a couple of tents nearby