July 24th 2022, 5:06 am

The plan to wake up early failed. Hitting the trail at 7:30 I moved quickly to make it the 16 miles to the river before the hottest part of the day. Along the trail a buck with massive antlers stood ground as I approached. With a sheer drop to my left and steep rock to my right we stood looking at each other for a bit before I understood I'd need to accommodate him if we were to reach any conclusion. So I stepped back a few feet and scaled the rocks to open the path for passing. Slowly but confidently he walked past my position crouched in the rocks continuing on his way along the trail south.

At 1:20 I arrived to a disappointingly muddy river. Burrita and I took shelter under the bridge and expected to eat lunch there but having no water and unprepared to run the murky McCloud water through my filter I went in search of something better. Down the path I found it. So I returned to Burrita inviting her to pack her bag and follow me to paradise. There we ate lunch and swam in the clear water. Expecting the others to arrive soon and with Burrita heading on I set some markers for them to find me at the stream. 4 hours later they still hadn't arrived. I had time to catch up on some journaling but got antsy and figured they must have passed me by. Asking around however I learned that Benji was still back up trail. When they finally did arrive one by one it was already 5:30. Reconvened we decided to hike two more miles until dinner and another 5 after to camp. It was well past sunlight when we arrived there. Exhausted we pitched tent and head straight to bed. Tomorrow is our final push toward the road to Shasta, either arriving then or taking the early morning bus Monday.