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I left Sierra City into a long, hot 3000' climb, starting right at 4 pm. It honestly wasn't as hard as it sounds. I ended up behind Third Wind and Maverick and ahead of Jon, and haven't seen any of them since. I also saw my 4th rattlesnake that day, and got rattled at for the 3rd time. Still not a good ratio. Got a good tentsite near a lake at the end of the day, but didn't do any swimming. (Swims are reserved for the heat of the day for me.)
Then I did a longish day through some cool old burn areas that were also being logged. The orangish brown of dead pine needles combined with the black of burned bark was very Halloween. The talk of the day was the upcoming wildfire, though there was no official communication from the PCTA (as far as I saw) at that point.
Early the next day I decided to try out a 32 mile day, and the PCTA recommended not hiking north of Belden. Which meant a 32 mile day and then a 19 mile day into Belden to resupply. I had barely enough food for it, but was struggling hard when I rolled into lunch (18.5 miles in) and met Cheese Slice, AM Drive, and Magnet. They saw my sorry state and gave me a Honey Bun and some Pop Tarts, which put me from "barely enough food" to "hiking is fun". I ended up not camping with them because I Zen'd passed the campsite we all intended to camp at.
They beat me out of camp this morning, so I was weirdly alone for the first 12 miles. I saw the smoke from the fire when I got on a ridge, and also got cell service. I learned that the PCTA closed the section of trail I was on, while I was on it. The smoke also looked extremely worrying, not that I'm an expert in how wildfire smoke looks. At that point I had 6.5 miles down to Belden or 12.5 back out of the closure. (And there was a typo that confused me about the southern edge of the closure.) Naturally I decided to descend into the valley at double-time. And by double-time I mean I was running most of it. I made 6.5 miles in about 80 minutes, passing some of the friends I made the day before.
Now I need to figure out how to get past the fire closure. (More free miles! Now that I don't need them anymore...) I'm currently thinking a stay in Quincy with hiker friends, then the bus up to Chester and a hitch to trail. But the plan is still flexible.
- Happy Meal, 1033
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