Days 104 - 109 (Aug 5 - 10): Miles 1506 - 1606

We had a great breakfast at Lily's on Sunday morning. John, the guy that gave us a lift into town, also happened to work there. He offerred to give us a ride out of town after his shift ended and we accepted gratefully!

So to pass some time, Rian, Sedartha and myself went to the theatre again (the 3rd time for me and Rian). We then played some pool and had a few beers at the vet's club. John arrived to drive us out in his caddilac and soon we were in Castella and getting ready to start hiking. We only hiked about two or so miles up a road that ends just below the pct.

On Monday morning I followed Sedartha up to the trail. He stepped on a nest of yellow jackets and got stung several times. He warned me just in time and I walked around it. Later that day Rian told me that he got stung a few times as well, so he must have followed the same route.

That Monday morning I also saw a couple of bear cubs and their mother above the trail. I heard them before I saw them because the cubs had already noticed me and crashed through the brush to climb a tree. Mother bear stood guard close by the tree and I made sure to keep my distance.

The rest of this week has been fairly quiet and the walking was fairly easy most of the way. My shin splint is slowly healing and Rian has pretty much recovered from his stomach bug.

On Thursday night we camped next to Paynes lake and had some great views of the cliffs across the lake.

We had an easy 6 miles to Etna summit on Friday and even though the road was very quiet we got rides to Etna town fairly quickly.

Rian met his folks and Kayla, his girlfriend, in town. Kayla will be hiking a section of the trail from here with Rian. We got rooms at a motel and went to the local pub later that day. They brew their own ales, so we ordered the tasters option and tried each one!

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