Day 7 & Etna

My sleep is as all nights on the trail until now. Light and interrupted. When I look out of my tent at 5:45 a.m. I realize that one more tent and mine are the only ones around. The other hikers must really have left at 5:30 a.m. I didn’t feel like starting the day so I turned around and after a short breakfast without a hot tea (to safe some time), I was on trail at 7:40 a.m.

Again it has been a good idea to listen to my body the day before and stop at that tent site. The first few miles to Paynes Lake, where I wanted to set up camp initially, were quite nasty. A lot of downed tree over the trail, elevation gain, burn area and sometimes a lot of stones on trail. Or a combination of the above just to make things really interesting.

After more ups and a few downs of mountains I finally arrived at the parking lot which was the end of my first trail segment. I was happy to have made it. There were 2 other hikers with me, who wanted to hitch a ride to Etna. The first car that arrived was heading in the wrong direction but they stopped and offered us a cold beverages which I couldn’t refuse.

At around 10 a.m. I arrived at Payne Lake. It’s a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and trees. The fishes in the lake were jumping out of the water. So unfortunate that I didn’t had a fishing rod with me 😉

The next car stopped and the driver just told us that his dogs wouldn’t like us to join him and shortly after he spoke they started barking aggressively. The third car though stopped and took us to Etna. The driver didn’t want smelly hikers in his car, so we sat in is truck bed.

The road from the parking lot to Etna winds down the mountain for over 10 Miles and I was very happy to not being forced to hike that section. Also the elevation dropped significantly. From approx 6000ft/1800m to 3000ft/900m.

The driver stopped in front of the museum in Etna and we headed directly to the bakery. I had a delicious, freshly made sandwich and a cold soda.

Earlier today I got in contact with Jeanette. She arrived at Etna the day before and was staying at a private residence / bed & breakfast in Etna. As chance would have it there was a room available at the place where she stayed and I could stay there.

After I had eaten my sandwich, I met Jeanette downtown and the hikers with which I drove to town plus Jeanette and I went to a locale brewery for lunch, even though it was already after 2:30 p.m.

I had a very delicious burger and a beer plus coke. After our lunch, Jeanette and I walked to one of the local grocery stores and after the the the house of Wendy and Andre. Andre gave me e very warm welcome and showed my the room I could stay in. After I had unpacked my backpack, I immediately went into the bathroom and took a long shower to scrub of all the dirt. It was exhilarating to shower after one week and to see all the dirt being washed away.

After me feeling clean again, I tried to take a nap but that didn’t work so well. But at least I was resting.

For dinner I went to another brewery in town and had a sandwich plus a Cesar’s Salat as a side. The sandwich was big, so I had to take half of it as take away. After the dinner I went back to my room and tried to sleep.

Etna

In total I stayed three nights in Etna. I was pretty exhausted and also my feet were sore.

The first day without any trail miles (my first zero), I spent more or less in the house and washed my dirty hiker clothes and made a few calls home. Once my clothes were dry (which went very quick with the California heat) I went to the local outdoor outfitter to buy a long sleeved sun hoodie, went to the third brewery in town for lunch. They had very delicious spare ribs and beer.

Once I had finished lunch I went back into my room to take a nap and talk with Jeanette and Andre.

For dinner I went back to downtown Etna for a pizza and beer. The pizza was so big that I was only able to ear one third of it. The rest I took back to my room.

My second zero wasn’t much different. I slept the longest of everybody in the house, had a late breakfast and slow start, went to the outfitter and supermarket again.

It got a bit stressful because I wanted to start my first bounce box and the post offices normally close at 5 p.m. A bounce box is a premium mail box sent via US Postal Service sent to a post office along the trail addressed to yourself. I put a few items in there from my backpack, which I now knew I wouldn’t need plus some excess items from my resupply which were just to much to carry in the next stretch. I have sent this box to Ashland. For dinner I had left over pizza from yesterday. I also started packing my backpack, because tomorrow I wanted to go back to trail again.