Memories from July 6
Sierra City is just over 40 miles after highway 40. I’ve been wanting to bag a 40 mile day and so decided to go for it. Here’s the waypoint view from my app filtered to show highway 40 and Sierra City 42.07mi north. Start time is 5:39am.
One rule I have for this hike is that I always have to have time for pictures. There wasn’t so much that was eye-catching which made the distance challenge a nice distraction.
I’d made it a little over 25 miles by lunch at around 12:30 pm which stretched until 2pm since it was my first rest break. There was a lot of jogging on downhills to bring up my average speed and my legs froze up over lunch which made the post-lunch miles particularly slow. Fortunately, at that point it was mostly downhill.
I camped here last time I passed this way.
The first time I’ve ever seen a rock climbing fisherman.
And here we are. Unfortunately, it was just after 6pm and the General Store in town was closing soon so I didn’t have time to find a hitch. The walk to town probably puts me over 43 miles for the day.
The General Store sells the largest single-patty burgers I’ve ever seen. The call it the Gut Buster. I had half and then shared the rest with some hikers who had gotten in after closing. After ordering I had a sudden bout of light headedness like an extreme version of when you stand up too quickly. It was accompanied by a little nausea and I had to go outside and sit down to get it to pass. Apparently it’s not completely unheard of for this to happen to a well fed and watered hiker after a hard day.
There’s a small church in Sierra City and they let hikers camp in their yard for free. This is doubly nice because there are public restrooms next door. The guy cleaning the restrooms told me there was no laundromat in town but that I could use his washer and dryer. I even got a shower out if it. Here he is. Bill, the trail angel who didn’t know what a trail angel was.
Isaac Takes A Hike 