PCT: Day 118

Today was a push to get to Sierra City to pickup a resupply box before the restaurant it was shipped to closed at 3pm.  I was originally planning on getting there tomorrow morning but ended up camping 25 miles away last night.  This was too close to split into two days so I decided to go for it.  The trail today was only supposed to have 2500ft of climb compared to the 4000ft+ I’ve had every other day lately.  I was also banking on the transition from rocky trail to a smooth dirt path which has been getting closer every day.

Once on trail I was greeted to miles of the smoothest continuous trail I’ve seen in more than  a month.  I turned on some music and started cruising faster than I’ve been able to in a while.  Before I knew it 5 miles, and then 10 miles were gone.  It was easy walking until the last major descent through rocks and scree fields.  This slowed me down but I still managed to hit 20 miles by noon.  My feet were a little achy but everything else felt fine.  The last few miles took a little more doing as the trail dropped to around 5000ft elevation and the temperature started to climb.  I pushed through lunch and got to the restaurant by 2pm, completely exhausted. 

I ordered lunch and picked up my boxes.  I also ran into Mike (Mando) and Allie who I was hoping to catch up with.  I was originally going to push a few more miles, but at this point have reached the beginning of the 15 miles stretch we jumped to as a family to avoid Sierra snow.  I decided instead to sleep in a bed tonight and then jump forward to where we left off.  Sierra City was completely booked, but Blue Lizard found a room in Graeagle if I could get there.  I packed up my resupply and hit the road with my thumb out.  Within about 10 minutes I got a ride from a trail angel, Donnie, who lives in Graeagle.  The only catch was he was taking his kids to swim in a nearby creek first. I couldn’t pass up the ride, and the chance to wade in a creek to rinse 4 days of filth off of my legs was an added bonus. I got to the hotel around 5 and did absolutely nothing the rest of the night.