After failing to hike 30 miles yesterday, I had a new goal. Thirty-one miles to Sierra City. Luckily there was a lot less elevation today and it should be a lot easier.
I woke up extra early to catch up to Two Taps and Dirty Avocado. The smoke from nearby fires seemed thicker this morning and it actually obscured the other mountains. As I hiked into the next valley, I was actually kinda happy I didn’t make it there the night before. It was covered in frost and a lot of the swampy areas were fully frozen.
In the morning, I mostly hiked along ridges. There was almost no snow, until I got to the northern sides of the mountains. Then it was still pretty minimal. Eventually, the trail descended into the woods. One funny thing (funny to those of us that just crossed crazy rivers in the Sierra anyway) was all the bridges. There were bridges over every little creek, most of which looked like they would be easily fordable even if they were running much higher.
Because of my goal to get into town, I spent most of my day hiking. I tried to take more short breaks instead of one big long one. The strategy worked and we made it to the road before 6 pm. I got picked up by a thru hiker from 2016 and made it into town just in time to get a burger 🍔. I ordered the 1 lb gutbuster with fries, a milkshake, and a cherry coke. They gave me the milkshake and cherry coke right away. When my food was ready, they accidentally gave me another milkshake and another cherry coke. What luck! I’ll be honest though, I couldn’t quite finish the burger. It was outrageously huge and impossible to eat. Burgers that thick just can’t be cooked very well.
Then it was time to find somewhere to sleep. The church in town let’s hikers camp in their parking lot. There was still some time before dark so we hug out with other hikers. It’s pretty funny seeing that many people drink beers in a church parking lot.
Most of us just laid out our sleeping bags for some cowboy camping. We’re only at about 4000 feet so it’s the lowest we’ve camped in Awhile and it should be pretty warm.
Fun fact, I think today is the first day on trail that I never put on my sunglasses. It’s not that it wasn’t sunny, we were just in the woods so much that I didn’t need them.