We got a late start out of Sierra City. We were expecting a resupply box, but the post office there doesn’t open until 10am. I still woke up at sunrise and it was nice to relax all morning. We took our time making coffee and breakfast.
While we waited for the post office to open, Rob decided to try some Soylent powder that he found in the local hiker box. Somebody left behind 3 or 4 bags of the stuff. It’s not supposed to taste like anything but it reminded me of drinking pancake batter. Or at least what I imagine drinking pancake batter would be like. It also immediately upset Rob’s stomach. The rest of the bag went back into the hiker box.
It took us a while to sort through our resupply box, but we were back on the trail sometime before noon. The trail climbs nearly 3000 feet up towards the Sierra Buttes.
Between the late start and the substantial climb, we only made it about 14 miles before setting up camp. Over the next two days we managed to hike between 22 and 26 miles per day.
In this section we said goodbye to the Sierra snow. We may hit more snow patches further north, but for now we have many miles of snow-free trail ahead of us. We have some lost time to make up for after all those mountain passes and creek crossings, but the trail seems to be getting easier.
Just… awesome. This is the PCT I daydream about while sitting at my desk (the Tuolumne section and all the snow, not so much!). I noticed you haven’t mentioned other thru hikers much, do you have any company out there, or are you still ahead of the wave?
… and “Soylent Powder” for cryin’ out load. I guess only us middle-agers and older remember the movie. Sounds like it is aptly named.
Haha, at least it’s not called Soylent Green. And it’s mostly oil and maltodextrin, not people.
I think we are still ahead of the large wave of hikers, but there are a few others around us. A lot of people skipped sections or flip flopped this year to avoid snow, so people seem to be scattered all over the trail. Many of those we’ve met north of Tahoe are the super athletic hikers who go 30-ish miles per day and started the trail weeks later than we did. They fly past us pretty quickly.
Glad to read that the trail is getting easier. Great shot of the fly! We are now swatting mosquitoes.
The mosquitoes are bad here too!