July 1, 2016 - Had a bad stomach ache last night, woke me up around 11pm, took some medicine and about 30 minutes later I fell asleep and felt perfectly fine in the morning.
The morning hike start off on the ridge for a few miles before heading down into the woods and back up to another ridge. On the morning I hiked through several ski areas. It always seems weird while hiking through these ski resorts in the summertime. Feels like hiking through a rundown and deserted town.
Most of the afternoon was the same as the morning, more ridge walks. It was very nice getting to see the surrounding area rather than just trees.
Right before my lunch break I had a big climb up to Tinker Knob where I got my last view of Lake Tahoe which I had seen for the last 85 miles.
Lunch was on top of a ski mountain. I thought I was following the PCT but somehow I missed the trail as I lost part of it on some snow. However, since I was close to the top I just decided to go all the way. Had a nice 360 degree view with a nice cool breeze in the shade while eating lunch.
On the way down, I was actually on a ski run, blue classification, so it was pretty steep. While hiking down I slipped on some loose rocks and had a nice fall, just a few scrapes and bruises. It could have ended up much worse so I was lucky. Had I been serious hurt it might had been awhile since someone found me as I was off the main trail. However, that was not my first fall of the day but my 3rd but by far the worst.
Finally back on the trail and 2 miles to Donnor Pass. I figured there would be water at the parking lot but I was wrong. While I was throwing away trash a lady asked if I was heading into town and she even offered for me to stay at her place for the night. I declined as I’m trying to get to Sierra City to pick up my mail drop by tomorrow night before the store closes. Plus it was a little early in the day when I like to stop so I kept moving. People are just so nice out here, they want to give help without even be asked.
After closing highway 40 it was a 4 mile hike to highway 80 that had restrooms and water. Anytime near big roads I would hope for a little trail magic. I got to the rest stop and found that the water fountain wasn't working so I had to go to the bathroom and fill up from the sink. While sitting inside drinking my warm water a guy walked in. He asks if I would like a cold drink. I jumped up and followed him outside to a cooler of trail magic. The guy is a former thru-hiker that has been driving to several spots to give trail magic to hikers but hadn’t really found many. I think this is the case because I’m ahead of the big bubble of hikers so the hikers are really strung out at this point. I enjoyed my nice cold coke and was off for my last 7 miles for the day.
The first 5 miles were all uphill. 3.5 miles in I came across this cool looking hut, only the 2nd one I’ve seen on trail. I checked it out and would have been a cool place to camp for the night as it had electricity power by solar panels. But I still wanted to get in a few more miles plus no one else was there so I hoping the next campsite would have other people to chat with.
Finally roll into camp and the mosquitos are just so bad I had to pitch my tent super fast and not spend anytime outside, they were that bad. I had few mosquitos get inside my tent so I had to spend some time getting them all out.
Planning for a very early start in the morning in hopes of waking up before the mosquitos.
