Destination: Sierra City
Starting Location: Bridge over Milton Creek
Today’s Miles: 4.20
Trip Miles: 1198.70
Milton Creek (1193.4,4990) to Sierra City (1197.6,4570) ascent (433) descent (1086)
Another great family visit with lots of good food and hospitality for everyone. My nephew Chris and his wife Korbi provided shuttle service to and from town for Post Office and store visits. While hiking I think a lot about family and even though it is difficult to express in person simply seeing each of them means a great deal to me. So Mom, Dad, Sheri, Chris, Korbi, and Ryan thank you very much for making the trip. Having your support is huge – it is not what you do but that you support me in what I am trying to do. I hope I can return this enormous gift. Oh yeah – the food iss nice also and kudos to Chris for the awesome BBQ job.
I tried to secure a room and shower but no way on a Saturday night so we are in the campground. $18.00 a night for a pit toilet, water faucet, and table. Seems crazy as we are accustomed to free wilderness but these services do cost money and Pang “Yogied”(asked/gave someone an opportunity to hep us after some – well begging) us a ride to the trail head for 6:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Our 25 mile a day, 6 days a week strategy, on our first leg starting tomorrow does not work. We need to reach Belden Post Office on Wednesday and they are only open until 1:00 p.m. So we must do 3 27 mile days and then 11 miles on Wednesday morning. 27’s hurt.
Yesterday Swiss Miss stopped abruptly and pointed to an M&M on the trail. We studied it for a moment, speculated that it was likely dropped by Rita (M&M) and then I figured that the 3 hour rule (like the 3 second rule at home) applied, reached down, picked it up, and ate it. Tasted good and was good for a laugh!
We have a new trail song that I can whistle pretty well but I am having a tough time getting the Swiss words. Pang wrote it out for me and that made it worse because the letters have different sounds in Swiss vs. English. The song is about a beautiful place in Overland Switzerland and it has a contagious melody. We sing it a lot and as it could raise the dead spirits it is always good for a smile even if I am hurting.
Stupid. I forgot to put my crocks (camp shoes that weigh 11 oz.) back into my bounce box my Dad has. Now I must carry these blasted things until Old Station – 9 days ahead. They are very comfortable but not worth the weight. I did swap out my 15 degree bag for a lighter 30 degree bag. That mitigates the shoes but I wanted less no the same.
4400 feet, oak trees, and water warm enough to swim in. We have not been in such a low elevation for 26 weeks and the contrast is dramatic. We now travel in this zone (4000-7000 feet) for a few hundred miles. While the elevation is lower we are seeing species of plants that only occur at higher elevations farther south. This latitudinal shift in vegetation will continue or our entire journey and farther north we will be in thick coniferous forest at this same elevation.
Sugar and I are taking a gamble on our resupply strategy going forward. We have greatly varied reports regarding if we can resupply in Belden or not. We hope we can as we are only taking enough food to get there. I we are wrong – we will go to plan B which has not been formulated yet. Others sent food to Belden via the Post Office, but we had an alternate plan involving Lucky Liz that fell apart because we got behind our schedule – no worries.
Robert Francisco 