Days 87
Start: Mule Ear Creek
Finish: Sierra Buttes North
Daily Mileage: 19.4
PCT Mile: 1199.8
After a minor cold snap, the nights are getting warmer again. No condensation either way which is excellent. Cookie Monster and I were up early to make a run into town. In any case it was 16 miles to town and we had to make the Post Office before it closed.
The trail today was mostly a long gradual downhill with a couple small bumps along the way. It was also snow free for once. This all made for excellent cruising. The views were the trees or occasionally forested hills blanketed by trees, so not the most exciting terrain, but I was feeling good hiking fast. The miles ticked off faster than I even thought they would.
The trail did pass through some more sections of selective logging. I will have to look it up, but I don’t know if selective logging goes through a forest more often than if it was just clearcut, but the selective logging sure tears up the forest. Streams were rerouted, there was an oil slick on one, and the ground was rutted and slash was scattered everywhere. We need lumber as a society, but there has got to be a better way.
But nothing could stop me from flying down the trail. I did briefly wait for Cookie Monster, but decided to press on because I was making great progress.
Down, down, down, my pace never slowed. Even when a sign said the trail was closed ahead because a bridge was damaged, I took that as a suggestion and forged ahead. The bridge did take a good hit from a tree, but looked plenty good enough for some foot travel.
Then I got to the road into Sierra City. It was only 1.5 miles to the town, so I started a walking hitch, and glad I did since only a few cars passed my entire walk into town.
We stopped at the general store to resupply and eat at their deli. First was an enormous burrito promised to be 3 pounds which of course I easily finished. I was frustrated once again with the resupply though. A really annoying habit some of these small town California stores have is having no prices listed anywhere. Shelves and shelves of food, but not a single price in sight. And you know the prices are high because it is a small remote town. How do you shop without knowing what anything costs? I would never go to a grocery store at home that didn’t display prices. It doesn’t seem like it should be legal, especially for food.
So I needed about 5 days of food, and that worked out to $130 since I had no idea what was expensive or not. It was crap food too, candy bars and trail mix, but they’ve got you over the barrel so there is nothing to be done. I can afford the cost, but disagree with this business practice since it seems deceptive and predatory.
I grabbed a sandwich for the road and we first tried a route up a forest road since that would get us back to the trail sooner without hitching, but that ended in 4 signs very clearly saying private property and no PCT hikers, so we took that as a sign to turn around. We started walking back to the trail and got a ride halfway there.
We were headed straight uphill. We have food for 136 miles of trail, which is probably the longest stretch for the entire remaining hike. However, I did mail home my bear can, all my cold weather and snow gear, and got a smaller battery bank that should put my pack base weight less than 14.5 pounds which is pretty nice, in addition to losing the bulk of the bear can. That offset the greater food weight, and the carry wasn’t that bad going straight uphill out of town.
It was a good haul, but no views but the trees until we got to our campsite, where it immediately opened up. We are circling the Sierra Buttes which are quite striking and a nice change in scenery from the forest.
I liked the fast pace today down into town, but was obviously soured to the town by the general store pricing. However, the day ended on a good note camping under the Sierra Buttes.
