Day 74 - Saturday, July 10

Cowboy camping on a ridge (mile 1202.4). Walked 17.7 miles today.

We left camp about 6 am with 12 miles to go until Sierra City. Most of the trail was downhill and we made decent time, getting passed by Hannah who was in a rush to pick up her package at the post office.

We reached a stream where we found J-PRO and found out more about his pink blazing quest.

This one seems more promising for him and we wished him well before pushing on. After a few miles, he caught up to us and we began walking to the road together. We started the 1.5 mile road walk, throwing out our thumbs when cars would pass. After about a half-mile, a van pulled over and drove us the final mile to town. It was great to have A/C for a minute as it was really hot out. We got to town and went to the General Store where I picked up a couple of resupply packages and Frank got a new backpack as hers had been falling apart.

We organized our stuff and met Snapshot an older hiker who was trying to figure out which food to ditch. I went through my resupply and put some extra food in the hiker box, forgetting that Frank had asked for my extra food. Luckily she was able to grab it before anyone else...oops. We finished atthe store and Frank, J-PRO, and I went to the Red Moose for lunch. It was really good and we were the last order of the day because they had to shut the kitchen early because it was too hot in there. It was over 100 degrees outside, so I can only imagine what it was in there.

The restaurant was really nice and the staff super friendly. We then went back to the store and used the Wi-Fi for a while. J-PRO headed up the mountain, but we decided to wait out the heat.

About 4 pm, we decided to head back to trail. We stuck out our thumbs and got a ride from the second car past. The driver, whose name I didn't get, took us to the trail and we began the 3,000 foot climb up the trail. After a number of switchbacks (which were thankfully in the shade), we entered an exposed area, but the temperature was less now that it had been.

It was rocky and difficult terrain. My phone app cut out here, so Frank let me use hers to keep track of where we were. Here, we saw several tanker airplanes going to douse the nearby fire with water or flame retardant.

Along the way, we also came across a small rattlesnake.

I didn't expect to see any more after the desert, but there was one in the rocks. It's my second rattlesnake on trail and Frank's 10th. A bit after this encounter, we had an incident. After some discussion, we've decided to tell the story like this:

A root jumped out of the ground and grabbed Frank's shoe. She tried to shake it off but it wouldn't let go. It ended up bringing her to the ground, tearing a hole in both her shoe and her leggings. She hobbled up and I stepped on the root to let it know who was really the boss. We then continued up the trail to a site 3 miles away (2 miles earlier than we wanted to stop). We set up here and had a great view of the sunset.

Frank was feeling a little down from her fall and her sister had probably the most encouraging and humorously sarcastic words for her: "Do better."