miles: 21.5
Turns out, Ben and I both slept terribly last night. Despite this fact, we both woke up at 5:00am and were walking out of Sierra City at 6:00am sharp in order to beat the heat. There was a pretty decent climb first thing in the morning that we wanted to get over with in the shade, during the coolest part of the day. It gets boiling hot by 9:00am these days and we are walking as fast as we can, hoping that a car happens to drive by at this disgustingly early hour.
We get about half a mile up the 1.5 mile stretch of highway leading to the trail head and who appears in a van? Dennis, the man who drove Chik Chak, Smiles and I INTO Sierra City. I forgot to mention in my previous posts that Dennis just happened to be the husband of the owner of the Buckhorn (the establishment across the street from the Red Moose Inn, the place with fantastic breakfast). He drives between Sierra City and Truckee daily and just happened to be on his way to Truckee at 6:00am.
Hopped in his van, and were shuttled the mere mile to the trail head in no time at all.
Thanks Dennis! Wherever you are.
The climb wasn't so bad! We reached a really spectacular area up high where we witnessed the beauty of the Sierra Buttes in the dawn-light.
Shady Acres also managed to get out early this morning, and we leap-frogged with him most of the day.
Another character that has yet to be introduced is a sweet woman named Nurse Betty. She is a Vet-Tech from Oklahoma (who specializes in large animals aka horses, I later found out). She is slack packing this section to Belden thanks to her friend Craig, who drove from Oklahoma in order to help her out! We had never met her, but only heard her name thrown around a bit, and she's super nice!
Anyways - the climb was minor and was over before we knew it. It was the sun beating down on us that became brutal by 10:00am but luckily at that time, it was somewhat shaded.
Slept by our lonesome (no other hikers nearby) for THE first time on the entire trip. I had never thought about this fact, but we have camped near/with/within proximity to other hikers the entire length of the trail, but tonight - just the two of us in a meadow. We blasted our new speaker we had ordered and sent to Sierra City, and it was really, quite a nice night.
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| Hikers sleeping in the church lawn. |
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| The view of Sierra Buttes from Sierra City. |
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| A desolate town on our 5:00am hike out. |
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| Climbing in the a.m. |
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| Always filthy legs. |
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| !!!! Lakes Basin. |
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| We had a few problems with bikes during this section: I had headphones in and one flew within 1 inch of me. |
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| Fire in the distance. |
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| It got hot. |
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| These rocks are cool. |
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| When the trail looks like this (overgrown)... |
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| Filled up our water bladders. LOOK HOW COLD THE WATER IS!!!! |
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| When Ben takes a glamour shot. |
4 comments:
As usual, great pictures and story! Wish I was hiking too.
Brian-Portland, Oregon
Hello Thyra,
Your journey sounds amazing. I cant believe you have been gone since April. I'm glad there are so many kind people helping you.
Take care! I love you! I will try to post more.
Holla Wolf Pack!
It's Sour Cream here, I'm so happy to see you guys through pictures and read about your adventures through text. I miss you guys soooooooooooo much! I am so proud of you guys, you truly inspire me. I'm adapting well to city life, volunteering and rock climbing lots, but the urge to put on my backpack is always present. My life will never be the same now that I met you guys, you incredible people! Although my 2013 PCT session is over, I have the goal of completing the whole trail, and when I come back to the West Coast, as soon as I can, I so want to meet you guys again.
Keep on having a blast amigos!
Love,
Dom
Lolll it's the BEST glamour shot. That's what.
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