So far I (Dingo) think these might have been my favorite 200 miles of the trip (although MudD has enjoyed this section, his favorite has been the Sierra). Although it has been a little hotter (lower elevation) the weather hasn't been too bad and the terrain has been getting a bit easier. It's good walking and great scenery. I have learned that although the views from the tops of mountain above tree line can be jaw dropping and amazing, I really enjoy walking through forests where we can't see much. Now my opinion is not shared by all... not even by most. Many other hikers we have talked to have not liked this section at all. They miss the hugeness of the Sierra. And I do too... I guess I just don't miss it as much as others. I think Northern California is pretty cool so far.
7/5 - Day 70 - 17 miles - 1093-1110
We had spent two days with my mom in South Lake Tahoe and Carson City and although it was nice to see her and eat everything we wanted to, we were anxious to get back on the trail. My mom dropped us off and we set off. We had left some things with my mom, including our bear vaults which we were no longer required to carry so our packs were lighter than they had been in a while. Ironically this first day without our bear vaults we saw a bear within the first 15 minutes of our hike. It was just a little guy/gal but it was not afraid of us at all. It just sat on a log and watched us walk past. We ran into a bunch of other hikers at Echo Lake, only a mile and a half into our hike that day. Chatting and catching up with these hikers really distracted us and we ended up accidentally spending an hour and a half there. It seems as though whenever we take off our packs and sit down time just flies and before we know it it is time to get moving again when all I want to do it relax just a little bit longer. So off we went, up and over Dick's Pass! My brother had told me to look out for Dick's Pass because there was a nice lake to camp by right around it. Now I don't remember which lake he said it was but it could have been a number of lakes. It seemed like all day we were hiking by lake after lake and we finally chose a nice little lake (with only a few mosquitoes) and had a great night cooking food and reading our books. We really surprised ourselves this day... even though we were kind of lazy all day and stopped early, we were still able to do 17. Pretty cool.
7/6 - Day 71 - 19 miles - mile 1110 to 1129
Well our laziness from the day before continued into this day. We slept in! A lot. Now I love sleeping and I am not a morning person at all but even I can't sleep too long in that tent once the sun rises enough. It's just too bright out. But even I couldn't believe that we slept all the way until 7 in the morning. That is the latest start we've had the whole trip! I loved it. Honestly we don't really remember too much about this day other than we took our time. We stopped at 4 pm at the last water source for another 9 miles and although it was early and we had only done 19 miles that day we didn't feel like dry camping that night so we decided we would just set up our stuff and have another great night. Although we had the place to ourselves when we first showed up, right around 7 pm a whole bunch of other people walked up into the campground so we had several neighbors that night. Most of them I don't remember too well as I haven't seen them much since but two guys, Veggie and Track Meat, we would spend a lot of time in the next couple of days.
7/7 - Day 72 - 30 miles - 1129 to 1159
What we didn't realize the night before when we stopped so early was that it would set us up to have to do a 30 this day due to lack of water. We knew about the first 9 miles from our campsite without water and we were prepared for it. But when we looked at the maps to see when the next water source was, we realized that we had plenty of water for the next couple of miles but then we had a long 16 mile waterless stretch. Really the only thing that made sense was to do 30. So we set off and started moving... fast. For some reason I felt amazing this day. We had a pretty steep 3.5 mile climb up to that last water source for 16 miles and I was flying. MudD even said he was struggling to keep up with me up that hill and that has never happened before. We stopped at the top of the hill at the water which happened to be right under a ski lift and had lunch with Track Meat! After we had finished lunch we took off to finish the last 16 miles of the day and I was disappointed to realize that my energy boost from the morning was over and I was back to moving at my normal speed again... which was unfortunate because we had another steep uphill to deal with. But we made it just fine to the first highway crossing (only 3.5 miles from our destination) where some nice trail angel had left a cooler of beer! After we finished our beers we headed off for highway 80 where there was a rest stop with water and bathrooms. We were flying towards that! A real bathroom! I couldn't believe it. We made it to the trail junction and knew the rest stop was only another half of a mile up the trail but somehow took a wrong turn and got really lost. We walked for 40 minutes uphill thinking maybe the rest stop was just around the next bend when finally we wised up and realized, hey we have been walking for 40 minutes when it was supposed to take five minutes to get there. We turned around and finally made it back to the rest stop at 10 pm. We cooked right out front of the rest stop and got some pretty weird looks but we did not care at all. We ended up setting our tent up in the backyard of the rest stop. It was 11 pm before we even ended up getting into the tent and then we were so razzled from the day that we probably didn't end up falling asleep until after midnight. Our feet were sore, we were frustrated, but at least we were in our tent. We ended up doing maybe 34 miles that day but only 30 on trail.
7/8 - Day 73 - 22 miles - 1159 to 1181
Because of our huge day the day before we took it easy today. We breaked a lot and really enjoyed the day. We were walking over rolling hills, nothing too steep, nothing too hard on our knees. Just easy walking. This was our favorite day of the trail so far. We found a great camping spot near a stream and had amazing stars that night.
7/9 - Day 74 - 16 miles - 1181 to 1197
This day flew by because we booked it as fast as we could to Sierra City. We had heard really good things about this town and we wanted to know why. Everything we had heard about Sierra City was true. It is our favorite town of the whole trip so far. Why? Because it's tiny. Everything is right there! The trail angel, the deli, the postoffice, and the bar were all less than a 3 minute walk from each other! It was so easy! And everyone was so nice! We ended up at the bar that night, hanging out with the guy who had made us burgers earlier that day, playing great songs on the jukebox and playing pool.
7/10 - Day 75 - 0
We had so much fun in Sierra City the day before that we decided to zero there and hang out a bit. Great decision. Everything about that little town was amazing. That night we even got to attend a cello concert put on by a fellow hiker. This guy is a really great cellist and has been mailing his cello from town to town and playing concerts along the trail. We had missed all his concerts up to that point and this one was a very special one because his wife (who plays the violin) would be joining him! It was the final straw - we had to stay. So we did and had an amazing time!
7/11 - Day 76 - 14 miles - mile 1197 to 1211
It was pretty darn hard to pull ourselves away from Sierra City but finally at 1 in the afternoon we finally got our stuff together and headed off in the heat of the day for a large ascent. It actually wasn't too bad and those first 8 miles of uphill was over before we knew it. We had great views, it was a great trail, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool. That night we camped at a little pond with sort of sketchy water but it was wet. MudD fell right asleep as soon as we were done with dinner and I wasn't too far behind.
7/12 - Day 77 - 26 miles - mile 1211 to 1237
What a great day. There was nothing too spectacular about this day but we loved it. We were just in the zone and moving. We had to eat dinner a little early by the last water source we were going past for the night and then hike on and dry camp for the night. We both carried three liters of water to our campsite and we had way more than enough water not only for that night but also for the next day. We didn't have to stop for water until noon the day after that. All day long we walked through beautiful forests with huge trees, some of them with really green moss growing all over them. There was nothing really special about the day to talk about but it was really fun.
7/13 - Day 78 - 24 miles - mile 1237 to 1261
Again, this was a great day of walking through forest after forest over mountains and hills and on top of ridges. The best part of the day was our break at noon. We had walked about 14 miles already by our lunch break and took a break by this beautiful river. It was a gorgeous break and we spent over 2 hours there when normally we try to keep our lunch breaks to an hour. It was just too beautiful to pack up! After lunch we had a large climb ahead of us that went by a lot faster than I was expecting it to. Again we had to eat our dinner early at the last water source of the day and moved on to dry camp. We found a great spot right across from a place called "Lookout Rock" (appropriate name) and had amazing views of not only the sunset but also the sunrise the next morning. Neither of us slept too well though because all night there was some animal visitor making noises around our tent. It was probably just a deer but I was convinced there was a bear stalking us.
7/14 - Day 78 - 28 miles - mile 1261 to 1289
When we woke up this morning we had no intention of walking the 28 miles into Belden Town. We told ourselves that we would just go with the flow and keep walking until we wanted to stop. It just so happened that we wanted to stop at the restaurant in Belden Town. The 28 miles this day was an easy 28 miles. We had a couple of climbs and then it was downhill all day. But again, the uphills were well graded and gradual and the forests are just very fun to walk through and so the miles fly by. Even though it is getting hotter outside (by the day it feels like) it feels really good to sweat and we just have to make sure we are drinking enough water. After we finished dinner in Belden, my mom called saying that she was going to visit us one last time before she flies back home! So now we are in Quincy on yet another zero day hanging out with my mom at this awesome motel. We saw an okay movie but we are excited to hit the trail again tomorrow! Our next stop is Burney Falls State Park which is over halfway done with the trail! WOOOOOOO. I can't believe we are so close to being halfway done. After this the next big milestone is getting out of California at mile 1698 but we shouldn't count our miles before they are walked.
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