I had been looking forward to Sierra City for weeks, not because it was particularly exciting (though it was a cute, tiny town) but because Ben was coming to visit and this was where we were meeting. I had four days to travel just over one hundred miles, a relatively leisurely pace for me. This turned out to be nice, as California’s (and the country’s) brutal heat wave continued this week. Though the heat was not nearly as bad on trail and in the mountains, it was not great either. The shorter days let me take longer breaks, especially in the afternoons, and hike at a bit of a slower pace.
Getting back on trail, I hiked by Echo Lake and realized that I had been there before. The very first backpacking trip I had done, ten years ago, was partly along the PCT. For some reason, I had thought it had been further north, but I immediately recognized the lake. There is a resort on the lake, so the edge is dotted with charming cabins and now, as I had ten years ago, I thought they looked deeply inviting and would be a nice place to come back to. The trail along the lake is the access point to the Desolation Wilderness, one of the most popular backcountry destinations in the area. As it was now Sunday of Fourth of July weekend, approximately one thousand weekend backpackers were now hiking back out to their cars at the lake trailhead. Watching them, and having vivid memories of hiking out the same way myself, I had to keep reminding myself that I would not be hiking back along the lake, excited to get to my own car, in a few days time. Instead, I kept hiking into the wilderness, which is characterized by rocky alpine landscapes and lakes. After a bit of a reprieve, the mosquitos had also returned with a vengeance, so I focused on camping high on ridges, which had the added benefit of being scenic.
As the trail continued around Lake Tahoe, we got a scenic tour of a variety of ski resorts and plenty of views of the lake. The ridges also tended to be a bit cooler and have a breeze, offering some relief from the heat. One of these passes even offered a surprise in the form of trail magic – a former thru-hiker, an older man with the trail name Story Time, had set up a whole station, grilling hot dogs and offering chips, cookies, soda and beer. It was a nice excuse to stop for a while and chat with him and other hikers. On hearing the kind of miles I had been hiking and the fact that I was a long distance runner, he bet me that I would do a 50 mile day in Oregon. So that remains to be seen.
After another relatively easy, if warm days, and I made it to the road crossing for Sierra City. Because we are telepathically linked, Ben and I arrived at the exact same time, 15 minutes before we had actually agreed to meet. After a charming breakfast at the Red Moose Inn, clearly the place to be, as it was full of both hikers and locals as soon as it opened, we headed out of the mountains to stay for a few days in Chico – home to numerous groceries and restaurants for me and Sierra Nevada Brewing for Ben.
The next day, I took my first zero of the hike and took the day to go with Ben to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Though I will hike through the park in a little over a hundred miles, the trail goes through a small eastern section of the park that was badly burned in a fire two years ago and doesn’t go through the more popular areas or anywhere near the park’s scenic road. So I spent the day being a more normal National Park tourist, driving to scenic overlooks and doing short hikes. It was also nice to just take a break and spend time with Ben – and spend more time in air conditioning. Sadly, tomorrow Ben will bring me back to the trail and head back home. While it will be good to get back to hiking, I will have to go back to counting days until he visits again, in another 6-7 weeks – so a lot of days to count.
