Start point
Mile 1180.7
End point
Sierra City, mile 1196.5
Miles hiked
15.8, plus 1 mi road walk
Wilderness area
Tahoe National Forest
People I met
Rob
Scott , Hannah, Stasi, and a few others
The day on trail
I chose my campsite really well last night. Well, it was a combination of luck and choosing. I woke up fairly dry, with minimal condensation inside my rainfly. I didn’t really need to air anything out to dry, which is always welcome in this kind of weather. The cold nights can really make exhalation turn into wet, soggy condensation inside your rain fly. The more you ventilate your tent, too, the less warmth it retains. So there’s a push and pull with warmth vs condensation.
I like to err on the side of warmth, because I have a double wall tent. This means I have the main tent, with its mesh, and then a rain fly outside it. Lots of hikers have a single wall tent, with the rainfly integrated into mesh. Condensation can pool up on the floor of single wall tents where it would just drip down the rain fly slope of a double wall. Double wall tents weigh more and take up more space in the pack, but it’s well worth it to me.
There was a really nice clearing and I’m really glad I was able to find it. I’m getting pretty good at this route finding stuff!
I started off. I was aiming to skip Sierra City and head to Quincy for my resupply. I’ve heard really good things about Quincy and it sounds like a charming, fun town.
The snow didn’t start off too badly. I needed microspikes for maybe a mile, then I was able to shed them for a bit.
After the first stretch of snow, there was a hollowed out log. It reminded me of one in Redwoods National Park where you could crawl through. There were little protrusions of wood in that one which would grab stray hairs. When going through it with a headlamp you could see hairs dangling that it claimed from others. This log was way too thin to crawl through, and the tunnel didn’t extend all the way. I like seeing how things form, though, and it got my interest.
I passed by a restoration area, where a forested area needed gentle treatment to come back to thriving life.
There was a meadow and some signs I passed by. I love a meadow but I didn’t have the time to stop by. I had miles to do and didn’t know how much snow there would be to slow me down. This area overlapped with a local trail which was overseen by a trail association (excuse me, “counsel”)
And some mushrooms growing on a dead tree! I’m not familiar with these guys, but they’re everywhere!
I came across one of my favorite things to find: snow plant. It’s a fungus that can’t photosynthesize, so it pairs up with evergreen roots. It breaks down nutrients to give to the tree and the tree gives the fungus nutrients from photosynthesis. This is a small one. When they mature they look like someone threw away meat. They’re so red and weird looking.
There was another field of snow, and it got fairly deep. You can see the top of a trail marker through it, about 4’ tall.
I was crossing some snow when something scary and dangerous happened. I postholed. I fell through a hidden, weakened part of snow. There was a log under it which warmed a pocket of snow under the surface, melting away the support. When I fell through, my leg went under the log and I fell back. My backpack jostled off my shoulders pulling me back, leveraging my leg forward and up, pinning it under the log.
I had to take a minute. I did a self check to make sure nothing was broken or sprained. I needed to find a way to sit up, get my balance, then push myself out of the posthole without stepping down into another. The sunken log was so expansive that any step with my weight would concentrate my surface area into a small spot, causing another posthole immediately.
I ended up sitting up, getting my leg free of the log and my pack on me, then leaning forward and spreading my weight across a large area on the snow in front of me. This let me crawl forward until I was clear of the log and could walk again.
It’s hard to see, but there was a good amount of bruising above the lower cut.
I decided I’d stop at Sierra City to take a proper shower and clean this up. It’s shallow enough but I wanted to make sure there was no wood stuck in it.
Ugh.
I made the most of my hike the rest of the day, which wasn’t hard to do. I was safe and it was pretty out.
I crossed bridges, danced around blowdowns, saw more mushrooms, found a tree with a forest boundary marker.
I found one bridge I just loved.
I don’t know what it is. I just like bridges. Here’s another.
The size of some of these blowdowns is astounding.
And they’ll occasionally fall and lean on other trees.
I was getting closer to my exit and I was excited. I wanted to get cleaned up from the fall.
There were some flowers. And I missed flowers. All the snow buries these delightful bursts of happiness.
I ran into some day hikers before I crossed the final bridge, and this one was huge.
After that bridge crossing, I got to the highway that lead to town. It’s about a two mile road walk, but I wanted to hitch. I started walking and would turn around and try to get cars to stop. People here apparently don’t have a trail hitching culture. One guy did stop after I walked for a half mile or so. He owned the resort in town and drove me to the cheap hotel there.
At the hotel I met Rob, the owner. He told me to set my pack in the room I wanted (cheapest, thank you) then get across the street to the general store. The general store was getting ready to close and they have a hot grill, so I could order food.
I got a burger, some candy, and a six pack of lemon lager brewed about 50 miles away. I went back to the porch of the Sierra City Hotel and tucked into my food. About that time, Abraham, who I met outside Big Bear, came in. He hiked the Sierra solo and acquired the name Snow Leopard. It was really cool to catch up with him. He went across the street to get a hot meal before they shut down.
Back on the porch I met Scott and his wife (Anne?) and their daughter Hannah. I also met their long time friend Stasi. We, and Rob, talked for a bit. After eating, I went to shower and attend to my leg. Then I went back out and Rob gave us all some whiskey, and it was such a cozy place to hang.
Rob, Hannah, and I stayed up until about 2am talking, playing pool, and just rambling about life. I went to bed around then while they didn’t.