Trail Day 80: Meadow Lake Rd (mile 1172.3) to Highway 49 crossing (mile 1195.4)

23.1 PCT miles

Originally, I was going to get up before dawn again to start hiking. When my alarm went off I made other plans. My resupply box is arriving in Sierra City tomorrow and I was going to try to get there tonight. In my desire to go back to sleep I reasoned to myself that it didn't matter if I camped in town or a couple miles out of town. I convinced myself that there was no need to get up early.

I still ended up getting up before any of the tents around me. They must not have been PCT hikers. I packed everything up and started my uphill climb, seeing 3 deer along the way.

I walked a ridge for several miles getting great views. I was also making great time. When I stopped for breakfast, I thought I had gone about 3-4 miles. I checked my GPS and I had gone 5.4 miles.

View from the ridge.

Another view from the ridge.

I left the ridge and went downhill to where a creek was to refill my water and eat lunch. I checked my GPS again and found that I was less than 12 miles away from the Highway 49 crossing, which is how you get to Sierra City. There was a good chance I would get there today anyway, despite the late start.

Lunch spot.

After lunch I went through a forested area, down into a canyon, and accross a series of creeks. Lucky for me, almost all the larger creeks in this Northern California section have bridges.

Approaching a canyon.

View from the trail.

Bridged creek.

As I was nearing the road, I passed a couple that must have been locals. I greeted them with a polite, “Hello,” and they greeted me with “Welcome.” Not much further down from that interaction,  I came upon the highway.

Closer to the highway I got a view of Sierra Buttes, which I will get to climb after Sierra City.

The highway crossing.

Sierra City is only 1.5 miles away from the trail, so I had planned to walk it. I got maybe a quarter mile from the trail when a young resident of Sierra City slowed down and offered me a ride into town. My swollen feet liked that idea.

He dropped me off at the public restrooms next to the Methodist Church. I used the restroom and headed for the church’s lawn area, which they open up to PCT hikers for free camping.

There was only one other hiker there who introduced himself as One-Eleven. He let me know that even though the general store is closed, the internet is up and running 24/7.

He left to charge his phone. I set up my tent, took care of some trash, and went to check messages.

The general store not only has wifi, but is a Verizon hotspot. I was able to answer several texts. One of them was from my Trail Angel. He had forwarded a picture of my sutures to his doctor father and I had been told to wait another week before removing them. I was bummed by that news. I was really looking forward to having them out.

I needed to charge my phone, so I went looking for an outlet. I'm sure some were at the general store,  but they weren't obvious at that moment, so I went in the post office next door. I worked on uploading some of my journal entries to the blog and adding photos. My internet connection wasn't very strong and my phone was working so hard to upload the photos  that I was actually losing battery despite being plugged in.

After I did 3 blog entries, I went back to my tent and grabbed my food bag. There was an outlet and picnic tables by the public bathrooms, so I plugged in my battery pack and phone and ate dinner.

It was well after dark by the time I finished eating.  The public bathrooms also had cold showers, but I was going to wait until the morning to undo my bandages around my knee, so I just washed off the thick layer of dirt from my feet and legs. I was suprised at how refreshed I felt after that.

Then, I went to bed.