August 1st - Girard Ridge to Castella

Woke up before sunrise in order to make it to town when the post office opened at 8:30am. Had a cool view of Mt. Shasta from our campsite. We could see the faint lights high on Mt. Shasta - we assume they were climbers hoping to make an early summit.

Hobbled into Castella soon after the post office opened. We were battered - both mentally and physically. The last 10 days have been brutal- both with the heat as well as the overgrown trail. There were several other hikers sitting outside the store. Turns out they were just as beat up as we were. Glad we weren't the only ones.

Got all our packages from the PO, sorted through them, and then mailed out what we didn't need. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent lounging out in front of the stor on a grassy area under a huge shade tree, pigging out on all the main junk food groups - soday, donuts, chips and ice cream. Castella is basically just a gas station/store and the post office so it was a super-easy resupply. It was nice to be able to spend the majority of the day relaxing.

About mid-afternoon, we headed over to the Castle Crags State Park Campground, just 1/2 mile from the store and PO. Took showers - washing both our bodes and our clothes since Castella does not have a laundromat. Felt like hiker trash walking out of the shower building with dripping wet clothes on.

There were 9 of us staying at the PCT hiker site at the campground. Ended up having a big ol'weenie roast for dinner, adding to the already long list of junk food previously consumed that day.

~Tori