Start point
Sierra City, mile 1196.5
End point
Sierra Buttes Road, mile 1203.5
Miles hiked
7
Wilderness area
Tahoe National Forest
People I met
Cinderella
The day on trail
What a late start I got!
I woke up and kind of wandered around. Going to bed so late always messes me up in the morning because I’m often not good at sleeping in.
I went to Red Moose Cafe for breakfast and was super disappointed. Every single meat they have is pork, and they don’t do substitutions. I settled for an extremely underwhelming veggie omelette with some “chiles” in it. It had about as much heat as an Antarctic winter.
The company there was nice though; I sat with Scott, his wife (still can’t remember her name), and Stasi. We just chatted about life and the trail. They had lots of the usual questions. It’s nice to hang out with people while sitting in chairs at tables. Those are two items that are few and far between on trail.
In the late morning, Rob drove Abraham to trail. Abraham woke up early then realized he wasn’t in the Sierra and didn’t need to start at 2am anymore. He delayed his departure to rest a little more.
Stasi and company went off to a mining museum, leaving their dogs with Rob. I’m order to save logistics, he didn’t want to take me to trail until they got back, so he wouldn’t have to wrangle four dogs in his truck. No worries.
It was taking a long time, so I went to the deli to grab a pastrami sandwich and a few provisions for resupply, including some vegan protein bars called “Off the Farm”. They were calorie dense, 3oz each, and super delicious.
The pastrami sandwich was…a lot. I got it with all the toppings and between the mustard, horseradish, pickles, and other things, it was too much. The flavors weren’t cohesive, but I knew I’d need the calories.
Partway through the sandwich, Stasi and the crew got back. I finished the sandwich and fries, said my goodbyes, and Rob took me to the trailhead.
It was so nice to be back on.
Almost immediately, I found a broken trekking pole someone discarded. Guess I’m carrying a broken trekking pole now. Hooray.
The trail started off dry, and it was glorious.
There was one section that was a little washed out, but nothing too bad.
I met a hiker who did the PCT in 2021 named Cinderella. She got her name because she lost her camp shoe, a sandal. A guy behind her picked it up, and ended up finding her further down the trail. The name stick when he realized it was her shoe and it fit like the glass slipper from the Cinderella story.
She gave me some good beta on the snow conditions for the next section. A day hiker a bit behind her gave me some less-good beta about the snow. It’s really interesting how two peoples’ perspectives of conditions can vary based on experience. I’ll always pick a thru-hiker’s information because they’re skill set more closely matches mine.
There was a really clear creek flowing down the mountain and I’d worked my way through my water thanks to a night of drinking and a ridiculously salty pastrami sandwich and fries. So I stopped to filter water.
I don’t know why I haven’t talked about my filter system. I use a Sawyer Squeeze filter and two water bladders. The bladder with the orange cap is my dirty water bottle.
I fill it with unfiltered water and then attach it to the intake side of my filter.
Then I attach my clean water bladder to the output, filtered, side of the filter.
Then I hang the contraption and let Sir Isaac Newton do the hard work for me while I sit back. Gravity rocks!
I drank a liter and packed out two — it’s a three liter setup.
While I was filtering I was visited by the biggest, hairiest fly I’ve ever seen.
I continued on, enjoying easy hiking, some minor washed out trail, and sweeping views. It was so great to look back and be able to see trail I’ve covered. I really missed seeing trail.
I was getting close to the point where snow was starting, I’d worked through a little more than a liter of my water, and there wouldn’t be another water source for a bit, so I filled my dirty bladder with another three liters from a creek.
I proceeded to the spot that I thought would be a good campsite based on my map and the beta I got from Cinderella. On the way there I found some bumblebees. I love these fat bees. They’re so cute with the big fuzzy butts and hectic yet graceful flight patterns.
When I got to the campsite I could see snow just past it. I searched around a little bit to make sure it was going to be the right spot. There was a spot lower, by the snow, and one hiker, among some trees with a rock outcropping blocking some wind. I elected for the higher one so I could catch more morning sun and get my tent warming up earlier. I love a warm tent in the morning.
I set up my filter one last time for the day, poured a little drink, and tried to sunbathe while working on my journal. Unfortunately the mosquitoes came out, so I had to nix the sunbathing. The site was apparently only isolated from people; insects were a different story.