Day 74 ~ 1177.5 - 1197.5
We were both startled awake at 3am by some large mechanized vehicle very closeby, and the sounds of branches cracking. We popped up to look out of the tent; had we mistakenly camped on a road? Was someone driving right through the woods? Turned out that we were camped about 100 yards to the south of a very active logging road. The loggers started at 3:00 sharp and were going non-stop. In hindsight, we should have just gotten up, but instead we tossed and turned until 5, while getting small bits of sleep in between loads of timber rolling by.
The hike into town wasn't too strenuous, other than the extreme heat. We hiked along to the sounds of chainsaws, and large trees falling to the ground. We were looking forward to cooling off in a swimming hole on the way into town, which hastened our pace. An alternate route into town led us through a campground, where the creek had been dammed to make a swimming hole. Several campers were relaxing in their beach chairs on the bank. We were so hot, we didn't hesitate to jump right in. The campers offered up a cold one, and of course we didn't turn them down. That's been happening a lot lately, we must look thirsty!
After cooling off, we mosied into Sierra City, a tiny, quaint town, where we saw lots of unfamiliar hikers, and a few familiar faces. What a weird feeling, who are all these people? We want our old crew back! There were no inexpensive rooms available in town, so we pitched our tent in the backyard of a cafe/inn. We ended up at the local watering hole for food and drinks, where all of the new faces had also congregated. We had a really great time, and stayed up far past hiker midnight. Maybe these new hikers aren't so bad after all.
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