Day 73, 17.38 miles

I had a pretty easy morning today with Sierra City as my goal! I didn’t see any hikers for a few hours, and actually snuck up on a family of three deer! I didn’t even see them because it was around a blind corner! Two of them ran away but one stayed behind to pose for a picture...

There were a few small climbs and drops in the morning, but nothing crazy. The trail went through some old dead-ish trees and I had thought how easily some of them could fall. Well, I definitely found out! I stopped to re-tie my shoe and heard a mighty crack. When I turned and looked, I saw a tree falling! It wasn’t the largest tree, but when it hit the ground it still shook the earth! It was about 30 ft from me, and fell near the trail. After the dust settled I went to take some photos.

Tree that fell

It was cool to see!

This tree didn’t know what was going on... haha ¿

The rest of the trail meandered through forest and across and along a bunch of nice small creeks. People complain about this “boring” terrain, but today was the first day that really reminded me of Oregon! (boring, Oregon!) haha. Also, the trail grade was so nice, the miles were flying!

It’s like I’m in the Columbia River Gorge!

At one of these rivers, I ran into Toga! I met Toga back at Hiker Heaven and hadn’t seen her since. We caught up for a bit and I told her about Julian getting off trail. Soon after, I had her take a picture of me on a tree that was way too perfect to not climb and sit on!

Monkeying around...

A couple miles later I was already at the road to Sierra City! I stood on the road for a few minutes trying to get a ride, but soon found that the walk most likely had to happen. Not too bad, it was only 1.4 miles! At least it wasn’t after a 25 or 30 mile day! I roadwalked the 1.4 and got to Sierra City by 1pm.

My phone stopped working after the last pic, so I couldn’t take any pictures of the town, but it’s a quaint little town consisting of only a few businesses. The town strip is really only about 1/4 mile long, and the general store is where everything is at! I ordered a 1lb burger and a chocolate shake, and then scored some chili fries and onion rings from other hikers! Food coma!

I went into the back of the store since I had two packages I was expecting there. Their “system” here is to just have the hikers go through the 200+ packages on the back and try and find their own, haha. I found my mom’s after about 45 mins, and about 1/2 an hour later, I went to the front and asked if there was any other place that I could find some more boxes.y sleeping bag had come in a HUGE box and was behind the counter! It’s so light, I’m so stoked!!

I found out that the Post Office closed at 2pm, and at this time it was too late to send home my old bag. This actually turned out for the best! See, there is free camping in town behind the church, and there is even a cold public shower. I was able to set up my tent in a nice spot, take a nice body wash, (I’ll wash my hair in the morning so it can dry), and then charge my devices and (slowly) upload my blog! It’s turning out to be a nice “forced rest”! Tomorrow I will hit the Post Office at 10:30am right when they open to send home my bag, and then hit the open trail again! 

Today was a great “half “ day, and for doing over 17 miles by 1pm I feel pretty good! I’m going to feel well rested tomorrow and get another 1/2 day up the big notorious 8 mile climb out of Sierra City!

P.S. There seems to be a new fire around the Oregon/California border that is at 0% containment and its heading straight towards the PCT. they are considering evacuating Callahan’s Lodge just before Ashland (the place where I’m supposed to meet mom!) We’ll see how it all plays out. One thing I learned from 2016 is not to stress about things you can’t control, and just hope they work themselves out before you get there! 

Thanks for reading!!