Category: Walking

Day 95: July 6th
Mile 1238.7 to Mile 1260.7

Today’s highlight was the very refreshing Middle Fork of the Feather River where we soaked, cleaned up, rinsed the dust out of clothing, and relaxed for a few hours.

Water was more plentiful today as we crossed several lush and green creeks after the Feather River, including Bear Creek. We had views of wooded canyons all day long and although we were doing a big 8 mile climb after leaving the Feather River, we seemed to stay midway up all the mountains we rounded, never quite reaching a ridge with an open view.

We also saw our first rattlesnake today, which is amazing considering how far along in the hike we are. It’s not uncommon for Pacific Crest Trail hikers to see a half dozen rattlesnakes before leaving Southern California. I guess our early start (April 3rd), and the cooler weather, cut down on our sightings.

Photo: Bear Creek

Mileage: 22

Day 94: July 5th
Mile 1216.1 to Mile 1238.7

Today was a pleasant day of hiking mostly through wooded mountains. We saw few other hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail today as most of them probably stayed in Sierra City for the Fourth of July. They will catch up to us in a few days however.

For the past 500 miles we have had little worries about water, but that is changing. This section is dryer with water sources farther apart. Not Southern California dry, but we do have to think about where the next water sources are. We also started treating our water with Aqua Mira again which we didn’t do in the Sierra to Echo Lake sections. The lack of easy water is also making it harder to stay clean. Our last shower was in South Lake Tahoe and our next is probably in Chester: Deb envies Lon’s short hair!

Mileage: 22.6

Day 93: July 4th
Sierra City to Mile 1216.1

We awoke on the Fouth of July in Sierra City to find that the electrical power was out for the whole town. This caused us to cancel holiday calls home (Verizon cell service was down too, we were surprised how well it worked yesterday), breakfast at the Red Moose Inn (the cafe was closed), phone charging and blog updating.

Not much we could do but eat some pastries Deb bought yesterday and hike the Pacific Crest Trail where electrical power is never an issue.

It’s pretty big climb out of Sierra City. The trail gains about 3,000 feet in the first seven miles as it winds around the massive Sierra Butte. Deb and her new ultralight pack almost flew up the trail.

We do need to pick up our pace if we are going to reach Canada before the snow starts flying. 22-24 mile days should become routine. We are both optimistic that this is possible now.

Today we passed the 1,200 mile mark.

Photo: Sierra Butte.

Mileage: 18.6

Day 92: July 3rd
Mile 1176.5 to Sierra City

Wow, what a difference Deb’s new pack has made. She is practically skipping down the trail. Lon may have to put rocks in it to keep up.

We easily made the 21 miles of pleasant hiking in time to pick up our resupply package from the Sierra City store.

The community church allows Pacific Crest Trail hikers to camp on the small lawn so we set up our tent along with 12 others for a restful nights sleep.

Photo: Camping Sierra City style.

Mileage: 21

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

Day 90: July 1st
Mile 1129 to Highway 40

The trail walk in the morning continued to give great views of Lake Tahoe until the PCT departed the Tahoe Rim Trail. We then began walking the trail as it wound on the west side of the mountains, until we neared trails leading to Squaw Valley ski area. At this point the PCT wound its way quite steeply up to an incredible ridge line where we had beautiful views east and west. All the hikers talked about this endless climb because the top was such a great reward for all that hard work.

We stopped at the top briefly to cook dinner, hoping the dark clouds would stay at bay, which they did. We hurried down the ridge many, many miles all the way down to Donner Summit at highway 40. This was a marathon day for us, a first for us, 26.4 miles! By the time we found water (a hose at the closed ski chalet) and made a stealth camp, we crashed: Deb with sore and tired legs,but Lon exhilarated by the day.

Mileage: 26.4