Week 10: Chester to Truckee

September 6

We got into Chester around 4pm in the afternoon, and our first stop was for milkshakes at Pine Shack. These old fashioned milk shakes were delicious!

One of the best milkshakes I've ever had!

While our original plan for hitching into Chester was to buy our resupply boxes for the remote Sierras and mail them ahead, we arrived right as the post office closed. We didn't want to spend the night in town and lose another morning of hiking, since we are on a strict 20-mile per day minimum average to make it out of the Sierras in time before it is likely to start snowing, and this includes any time spent in the multitude of towns we are running into in Northern California.

We remembered a website another hiker reccomended, Zero Day Resupply, which allows hikers to build their resupply boxes from the trail. We tested it out by building our box for Soda Springs and the interface worked great - they had all the essentials for hikers and they even included sorting options for Calories per Dollar and Calories per Ounce. We figured this would be how we approach the tricky resupply of the Sierras.

We also took care of laundry and showering and charging our devices - town chores. Another thunderstorm had started to roll in so we decided we better get back on the trail as it was getting dark. Luckily, a local saw us trying to hitch and kindly gave us a ride back to the trailhead.

When we got to the trailhead, who did we see there but Dan! As luck would have it, he actually ended up being at the exact same spot as us that night so we ended up camping together again.

September 7

The next day we had a good time hiking together - we even spotted a black bear on the trail and Dan was able to film it for a second. That marks Bear Sighting #3 for me on the trail. I'm just happy they've all been from a comfortable distance!

Dan hiking, neon-green lichen covered trees looming.

We also reached the halfway point today. In one small step, we went from "not even halfway finished" to "almost done" with the trail. This was a huge morale boost for me and Radio.

Someone left a mini plastic moose in the trail registry box. Of course we let him in the photo!

The rest of the day went pretty well. Although we wanted to do 30 miles today, it got late around the 25 mile mark and we found a nice campsite by a horse spring. I felt a little bad being such a bad influence on Dan's mileage, but he made camp with us again that night.

September 8

We had 18 miles to do into Belden, a small resort town on trail. The morning went okay, but the climb down into Belden was hot and steep.

My parents and the Dela-Moore's also sent a care package to Belden, but when I called the store that accepted the package, they had prematurely set up their "closed for the season" answering machine. I left a message anyway, saying that I just got to Belden and if there was any way I could get the package. I thought they were closing this weekend, and it was only Friday. I also got some very sad news about a cousin, so when I sat down to have my chicken burger at the restaurant I was feeling pretty glum. The old drunk man who joined our table didn't help things much either.

Belden was not a great stop, and it lived up to its reputation as not being very hiker friendly. As we impatiently waited for our phones to charge so we could get out of there, the lady who had my package called me back. She had one box for me and kindly drove down and hand delivered it to me immediately! Caribou Crossroads definitely is doing something right to earn their friendly reputation.

The plus side of stopping at a not-amazing town is it is very easy to leave. We planned on doing 6 miles out to a tentsite. The first five miles were hot, and very steep. But once we crested the hill... it was as if we were transported to Ireland. The scenery and sunset was absolutely breathtaking.

This little deer was hanging out in the trail and was really curious about me!

The only bummer about this evening was that Dan must have hiked on beyond the 6 miles we had planned on. However, he had a tighter schedule to get to Sierra City than us as we were also planning on stopping at Bucks Lake tomorrow.

September 9

The other upside to having a beautiful sunset at camp was an equally beautiful sunrise.

Radio enjoying breakfast - Carnation Instant with protein powder. Usually we also add coffee, but we've been out for a week or so.

We had a beautiful morning with great views of several awesome lakes as we made our way to Bucks Lake.

The road was only 12 miles away, and we got there around noon. The town was about a 4.5 mile walk, but as soon as we reached the road I heard a car coming and thrust out my thumb. The lady pulled over. Sometimes even I can't believe my luck with this.

We got dropped off right in front of the lodge where we sat at the patio, watched boats and ducks, and ordered some delicious food. We also plugged our phones in to charge and our waitress was an absolute sweetheart and made us feel welcome to hang out as long as we needed.

We needed to stop at the general store to get more food to make it to Sierra City, and another kind couple saw us walking and offered us a ride. We bought our food and set out for the trail.

No luck hitching this time (I'm hoping I didn't jinx it!) so we walked on the road for 3 miles until it reconnected with the PCT. Soon we reached Lookout Rock where I got this picture:

...and we also spotted Bear #4, making quite the ruckus south of us on the trail. Luckily we didn't run into him any closer. We set up camp shortly after and tucked in for an early night.

September 10

We did 25 miles today and met a few other SoBos - a really sweet girl named Dimples, and two other guys who blew past us.

We took a really long lunch break - now a rarity for us on the trail.

Half of the day was a really steep descent down to this river, and the other half was the climb up. Thankfully, it wasn't too late of a night for us.

September 11

We had planned to do another 25 mile day today, but for some reason we just were not feeling it.

We also probably dawdled a little bit looking at all these amazing views.

When we reached 22 miles we hit our water source for the night, and planned to do a 3 mile uphill carry to dry camp. But, we were tired. We decided to stop early for the nights and make up the extra miles tomorrow.

That turned out to be an amazing decision. When I went to the lake to grab some (less than ideal) water, I saw a few mountain cows with cowbells around their necks. I tried to get closer to take a photo of one, and he looked at me, paused, and took off running. All of the herd followed suit and it sounded like a domino effect of a church bell group gone haywire.

After scaring off the cows we set up camp and had dinner. I'm obsessed with the Backpackers Pantry Chana Masala I picked up from one of our last resupply points - so delicious and relatively healthy.

Later on in the evening, Dimples and her friend Whistler showed up and camped with us - but it also had just started to thunder, lightning, and rain. Thankfully our tents were already set up and we were in a sheltered area. The storm lasted all night.

September 12

We woke up early to catch a beautiful sunrise and to time our descent into Sierra City, where we were planning on grabbing a meal and food to get us to our next resupply box in Soda Springs, near Truckee.

We descended down a road walk into the quaint Sierra City.

There were a bunch of other hikers here - people who have passed us the past few days. We are definitely in the SoBo "bubble" where the herd is. We checked out the general store and got some goodies. Radio picked up a fresh pair of shoes and we ran back into Dan at the store!

Gatorade, milkshake, and Oreos. I also learned that "one serving" of Oreos is 2 cookies. One hiker serving is an entire sleeve - don't tell anyone.

Like true hiker trash, we sit outside while our electronics charge.

Once we got situated, we headed out to the trail with Dan to do about 13 and a half more miles. It felt so great to be back with the "family" and we laughed until we started crying while hiking.

We were in awe of the gorgeous sunset surrounding us as we crested the ridge.

It did start to thunderstorm a bit this afternoon as well, but it stopped before we were ready to camp. By the time we finished our 30 mile day, it was dark and we set up camp on slanted tentsites - most of the other good spots taken by other hikers.

We still made time for family dinner though - which was instant mash potatoes, a giant bag of SunChips, and the rest of the Oreos. Life is good.

September 13

When we were in Sierra City, we learned that our Yosemite resupply stop would be closing September 23. That means we need to pull minimum 25 mile days every day until we get there from here on out. As we still needed to stop in Soda Springs to get our box, we decided we would leave early, spend the night in nearby Truckee, and get our box in the morning. The post office closes at 3pm and there's no way we could walk the 27 miles before then.

We said goodbye for now to Dan (again) and set off. We had great views in the morning, and today the trail reached above 8,000 feet - the highest it's been the entire trip, including Oregon and Washington.

I was flying today. I definitely feel like I've gotten my hiker legs under me and can finally keep up with the boys. We did over 10 miles in 3 hours with me setting the pace, and finished our 22 mile day before 3pm - including walking through a hail and rainstorm.

I'll get to that in a minute. First, some more pretty meadows:

When it started to thunder around 1pm, we thought it was our everyday thunderstorm, which would blow over shortly. However, we were on the top of a pass when it hit, and suddenly, the raindrops got bigger, fatter, and... made of tiny, BB gun pellet sized balls of ice. It was actually hailing.

In this photo, the white is little balls of hail.

We ran down the mountain past flooding creeks in the pouring rain. When we got near the highway rest stop, an older couple asked us for help. They were on a day hike and got lost. We helped them find their car and they gave us a lift to Truckee, where we got a room at the Inn. I showered, moisturized, conditioned my hair and it felt amazing to be in a real bed. It's been a while!