Day 108&109 miles 1196-1233

Start: 1196.5 End: 1210.9 Total: 14.4

We woke up in the pebble palace of Sierra City around 6. What we had nicknamed the little PcT patio they have there. I did a little work on my blog while I made some instant coffee as nothing in the small town opened until 8am. Once the shop opened I bought some coffee and a burrito and Mantis bought a couple more days worth of food. 

After that we headed out of town and got a ride 1.5 miles up the road to the trailhead. Bombadil, Jeffers, J-Lo, Beer Run, Payload, Mango were all there as well getting ready to hike. Bombadil hiked with us for a couple of the switchbacks before going ahead. It was a steep climb but the switchbacks made it feel pretty gradual. We gained about 1000 feet in 3 miles then the trail steadied out as I crossed the 1200 mile marker. 

After that the trail was a bit steeper and much more exposed to the sun, gaining another 1500 feet in another 3 miles. We stopped to get more water halfway up and Mango, Beer Run and Payload were soon there as well getting water. It was a very exposed spot so I didn’t stay longer than what it required to filter my water before continuing the climb. 

We got to the top and were rewarded with more trees and therefore shade and began the descent down. A couple miles later we stopped for lunch at Tamarack Lake. I went for a quick dip despite comments warning about leeches. Then we had a nice long lunch break, stretching and playing rumie. 

After lunch it was still so hot but we only had 5 miles to camp, 2 going down then 3 more going up. It was such a hot climb but we made it up. Someone left a comment that there was a good site towards a lake that was off trail so I went to scout it and did quite a lot of bushwhacking. I didn’t see any good sites but I found the lake and it was beautiful. I went for a quick dip before heading back, but this time I realized there was a trail and followed that back. I did find a good tent site but there were no trees for Mantis and his hammock. 

I went back and reported my findings and we back tracked .2 miles to the last campsite we had seen. We got set up and then went to the creek which was overgrown with brush, requiring that we duck and bend between trees and branches to get to the mosquito infested stream. We then had dinner and were getting ready to go to bed to when to my surprise I heard Kiki’s voice. Who I thought had left the night before from Sierra city. 

He said they had also tried the shortcut which didn’t end up being much shorter but they made it up the most extreme bushwhacking he said he hoped he would ever have to do. He said they made it up a side trail to the fire tower and spent the night there. Then in the morning he realized his precious hat, which he had been collecting signatures on for the entire hike, had fallen out of where he tucked it on the bushwhack up. 

He said he made the decision to leave all his stuff on the top of the mountain, go back down, hang out in Sierra city for a bit before doing the same insanely steep, rock climbing, bushwhack again, trying to stay on the same path to find his hat. He however could not find the exact path and did not find his beloved hat. He had a good attitude about it all, saying in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big of a deal but I could tell how disheartened he was. 

He went off to camp solo and make peace with his loss and we went off to bed. 

Day 109

Start: 1210.9 End: 1233.3 Total: 22.4

We woke up and got on trail pretty quickly, right around 6:30. Mantis left camp just before me and when I had caught up him and Kiki were walking together. We all hiked together for a bit before Kiki stopped to take off some layers. 

We had a good uphill to start, it was warming up quickly. At the top there were some wide open views showing the surrounding mountains and lakes. 

There were still some good snowy patches at the top that we had to be extra careful walking over. Kiki soon caught back up and we hiked together for a bit before he continued on his quest. We were all hoping to be able to attend this music festival happening July 3-5 in Quincy. Other than that thought our paths will likely no longer cross again on trail as he will be picking up the miles and Mantis and I will be taking it slow until he can get his trail legs. 

We stopped at a spring 7 miles in but then went on another 4 miles before stopping for water. We took a small break before going another 2 miles to the top of a steep, hot climb. We took our lunch break and had beautiful views but the flies were so annoying we didn’t stay there long. 

I gave Mantis some Spanish lessons on the descent from there and we took a couple breaks as the heat of the day was so intense. On one of those breaks we did some recon into the closure that lay ahead for the next day. We decided we had better hike past the planned camp spot for that evening to lessen the miles we would have to go to get out of the burn zone the following day. 

We had a pretty chill 3 miles downhill and we arrived where we had wanted to camp that day, 17 miles in. We took another long break, from about 4:30-5:30 and made dinner before starting the climb up. 

It was a pretty steep uphill for 3ish miles and the heat of the day had not yet completely faded into the background. There were some cool rock formations at the top and hardened sand. We finally got to the top of a climb that never seemed to end and were rewarded with a beautiful ridge walk in fading sun. We took another small break on top of that ridge before going one more mile to camp near a dirt road. 

Sadly the water source was another .3 off trail down a steep slope. I made the journey before making part 2 of my dinner and going to bed. We shared the campsite with another hiker named Snowqueen who had passed us the day before.