July 12th – 15th, 2022 by Jon
When I woke up in the morning, I had a text from our Garmin messenger. Singsong and Biscuit both felt like crap and needed to get off trail. Unsure if it was a stomach virus like I had, heat exhaustion, or both, they felt bad. We made a plan to meet at a small primitive campground up a forest road that was only a mile from where they were. I borrowed a car and went to get them about 2 hours later. They had made it to the campground earlier and had been sleeping since then. We got back to Redding and spent the rest of the day napping, drinking fluids, and doing some sorely needed self-care. Big shout-out to Jasmine and Isaiah, who let us stay in their house for so long.
The next few days were spent resupplying and lying around, waiting to feel better. It took a lot of rest and fluids, and finally by Friday night, we were feeling ready to head back out Saturday morning. One very important update: Missile is back! He missed trail life and wanted to hike with us again, so on Thursday afternoon, we picked him up at the Redding airport, and he will be hiking out with us.
Our time in Redding was very restful, and we got to spend time with many of Singsong’s siblings and parents. We had a lake day at Whiskeytown Lake, watched movies, and ate some amazing meals. I got a haircut too! We’re excited to get back to the trail and continue making progress on the 2nd half of this trail. We will be getting back on at Old Station, partially because it will be significantly easier for Singsong’s family to get to and drop us off, but also to skip the 31 remaining miles through the burned section.
