Day 91: July 2nd
Highway 40 to Mile 1176.5
Today we met our friend Kaboom at the Highway 80 rest area. Deb had ordered a new Golite pack and Kaboom delivered it to us along with some food to make it to Sierra City which us just two days down the trail.
We are lightening Deb’s load and she has now switched to a Golite Jam 50 from the ULA Catalyst pack she was carrying. These packs are almost opposite ends of the thru-hiker pack spectrum. The Catalyst is a large pack for heavy loads while the Jam is a very light frameless pack. Deb also sent a few more items home and gave Lon the Jetboil stove to carry. Combined, this probably shaved about five pounds of weight from Deb’s base weight.
The new pack fits Deb well (surprisingly she uses a size medium) but she has used several other Golite packs in the past so she was familiar with the sizes.
She also has a trail name, Staying Afloat, courtesy of Neon, who hiked past us a few days ago after talking with Deb about trail woes by saying “stay afloat”.
The highlight for the day was a singing pine tree – yes, the wind was blowing at just the right angle through the wood cone at the top of the tree. Deb could swear she heard Bon Jovi, Lon was convinced it sounded like Bob Dylan.
Photo: Peter Grubb hut.
Mileage: 20.9
LonCooper.com 