Chester to Sierra City

Transcribed:  September 21, 2013

From the Journal:  September 7, 2013

We got all of our things together and had an awesome breakfast in Chester this morning.  The people sitting next to us anonymously took care of our meal.  I am continuously blown away by the kindness and generosity of the people I have met along this journey.  A very nice man named Shaun took us back to the trail after a brief hitch, and we were on our way.

After meeting up to go across the Hat Creek Rim, Ben and I have decided to walk this journey together.  I am very happy, our time apart made me miss him and our ability to work as a team.  This opportunity seems too long in the making to not take advantage of.  We reached the signpost for the PCT about nine miles into our day.  It is surreal and exciting to be more than half way done as I write this.  There is much to reflect back on and more to look forward to.  I think the best thing is how much connected and present I feel in this lifestyle.  It took awhile and I finally feel like I have settled into the trail or the trail has settled into me.

September 8, 2013

As a reward for doing 28.5 miles by 7 pm, Ben and I are sitting in Belden, drinking a cold beer and waiting for our burgers to arrive.  Despite snoozing this morning and getting the day started an hour later than planned we have been very productive.  We even made it through Myrtle Flats alive, the area where there has been a cougar stalking solo female hikers.  My body feels stronger than it has after our other long days, which is encouraging.  I hope the trend continues tomorrow.  Usually after walking close to 30 miles, I am collapsing in a heap on my sleeping pad after dark.  Really, the only bad part about today is that as we dropped elevation into town, the evil, evil gnats started relentlessly flying into my eyes.  Sitting inside now, about to eat an awesome dinner, life could be far worse.

September 9, 2013

This morning we climbed up out of Belden, from about 2,000 feet to 7,000.  This allowed me to escape the bugs and get back up on the surrounding ridgelines with some very lovely views of alpine lakes and what appeared to be granite rock formations.  It is very hot today; it would have been a great day for the lakes to be on the trail instead of inaccessible below.  This evening I took a detour to road walk and pick up a pizza, and I will loop back to meet up with Ben about five miles south on the trail.  This is two miles longer but well worth it for pizza.  Chester to Sierra City is nearly 140 miles (one of our longest stretches) and we have had town food everyday so far.  I am feeling like a very spoiled thru-hiker.  My body feels tired today and I am definitely moving a little slower after the long day yesterday and the climb this morning.  I will still do 27 miles for the day, which I am very happy with.

September 10, 2013

My side trip of last night was going great until it started getting dark and the junction from the road was super confusing.  I was misplaced for about 10 minutes but I knew I was in the very near vicinity of where the trail crossed the road.  I was having all kinds of catastrophic thoughts of never finding Ben when I spotted a blaze on the north side of the road and I was back on the PCT!  Now I felt at home and only slightly worried about being in the dark.  After a few minutes I saw a light.  Before I could even think “oh, thank God, it’s Ben!” I realized it was a pair of glowing eyes staring at me.  My heart leapt in my chest, but it was just a deer.  A terrifying cougar-deer.  This happened five or six times before the light was actually Ben and we had pizza and pop and all was right with the world again.

Today bugs tried to fly in my eyes much of the day, which made me intermittently pretty grumpy.  The highlight of the day was lunch at the Middle Fork of the Feather River, which had fantastic swimming holes.  We were able to escape the heat and the bugs for a couple hours, splashing around and floating downstream.  It was very, very tempting to spend the rest of the day here.  We were very responsible and hiked on, 23.5 miles for the day.  Today was the first day since northern Washington that we didn’t see another person all day.  I love it, and I hope the trend continues.

September 11, 2013

Today moved really slowly for some reason.  We only walked 13 or 14 miles by 3 pm.  Then for some reason, we started talking about walking all night and doing a 40 mile day to get close to town.  The walking in the evening was beautiful, high on ridgelines with phenomenal views.  The moon was illuminated in the sky as daylight faded.  We took a dinner break at 25 miles, I was spacing out and exhausted and just wanted to lay down.  I did feel better when we started walking again, and rapidly became convinced that walking all night was probably a terrible idea for my body.  We camped at Summit Lake, calling it a day at a little over 29 miles.  As this leg from Chester to Sierra City goes on, I can feel my body protesting.  I feel worn down.  It is the first time we have walked mid to upper 29’s for several days in a row.  We have walked 109 miles in four days, averaging over 27 miles a day. 

September 12, 2013

This morning I woke up with horrifically painful feet.  I felt like they were swollen and getting shoved into my shoes.  We walked a very slow and painful 15 miles downhill.  Going down is so much harder on the body, especially when the trail is rocky.  I am sounding quite the complainer today.  On the bright side, we walked around these beautiful rock formations called the Sierra Buttes.  I actually spotted them on the horizon several days ago, their craggy outline calling to the climber in me.  Little did I know we would be walking right beside them.  After descending we walked the highway into Sierra City to discover that the Post Office closed at 2 pm instead of 4:30 as listed in the guide book.  Maybe it is a blessing that we are stuck in town for the night.  We had pizza and root beer floats, did laundry and then went across the street to the Old Sierra Hotel for a burger and a beer that turned into a couple beers and couple shots of Jager.  We had the pleasure of visiting with locals and other travelers passing through.  While we were eating a storm passed over, complete with thunder, a downpour and a double rainbow.  It felt so peaceful to sit on the patio and watch the rain fall, warm and dry and content with nowhere to go and nothing you need to do.  After the rain passed we set up camp on the backyard of the church and shared a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Peach Cobbler ice cream.  We have been craving it the whole trip and it has taken us nearly 1,500 miles to find it!

Double Rainbow - Sierra City PO