vacation is over

Day 80 ~ miles 1289.5 - 1296.4

We woke up early at the festival, but had no problem going back to sleep for a couple of hours after a run to the port-o-john.  We eventually packed up our stuff to find that we had inadvertently set our tent up on a pile of puke in the dark last night. Luckily, the Tyvek ground cloth was the only thing that touched it.  A few swipes of a sanitizing wipe had it back as good as new. The smell that followed the unearthing required an immediate evacuation of the area.

We said our goodbyes to Gregg and the others that we met at the campsite. We left out of the festival grounds with a vague recollection of how to get back to downtown Quincy.  We got directions from a guy hitching up his camper on the side of the road, and we were off. We walked the whole way in because we thought it wasn't worth trying to hitch. The grocery store came into view after about a mile of walking.  After picking up a few odds and ends, we started our search for "the Mexican restaraunt on Main Street". We walked down and back in the blazing heat, but no Mexican in sight. After asking a local on the sidewalk, we discovered that the restaurant was in the shopping center with the grocery store. It was too far and too hot to go back. We had to settle for Subway because it was right there and conveniently on the road we had to get a ride back to the trail on.

Since there were a lot of people leaving the festival and heading back to the Bay area on Highway 70, we figured it would be no problem getting picked up. We were mistaken. There were lots of people leaving, but no one stopping. One nice woman offered us a ride, but was unfortunately taking an exit before reaching Belden. Then, out of the blue, Celeste, who gave us a ride to the festival yesterday, pulled into the gas station to pick us up! She and her friends just so happened to be going back up to Belden and hanging out at the river. It was perfect, and we got to catch up on everyone's good time at the show last night.

The beach and the river were calling our name once we got back to the trail and we succumed to its draw. It was the hottest part of the day, and the high was 104 . After swimming and hanging out for a while, two more people that we had met at the festival showed up at the river.  We bought an awesome t-shirt from last night.  They print them with hand carved linoleum plates that they hand paint each time. They do a lot of work for Lagunitas which is one of our favorite breweries. It felt strange but awesome to know several non-hikers hanging out this afternoon.

We were finally able to get our packs on at about five and start trudging up the hill. The climb was 12 miles and 4500 feet. It didn't take us long in the blazing heat to realize that we weren't making it to the top. There was a campsite 7 miles in, so we stopped there. The mosquitoes were thick and relentless. Our chores were done while under attack, and dinner was eaten in the safety of the tent.

-Moonshine

Ain't Life Grand

Day 79 ~ miles 1272.5 - 1289.5

There was a short climb today before we began our descent to the Feather river in Belden. We had heard of an electronic music festival/rave that was going on over the weekend at a resort, which the trail passes right through. We figured we would get to see the residual effects of what had gone on over the weekend once we got down there. The last 5 miles of the hike in were extremely steep and hot. Poison oak lined the trail so constant vigilance was necessary.

When we arrived at the  Belden Town Resort, we saw all of the weekend's attendees milling around and waiting on the roadside for their rides to come pick them and their stuff up. There were people in costumes, bathing suits, and other rave attire. A good portion of them looked to be in some form of altered state, and we felt sort of the same way, but our brains were fried by the sun.

We made our way to the restaurant where we took a seat off to the side and just enjoyed being motionless for a few minutes. We saw some familiar faces, including our old friend Midway, who had enjoyed the weekend festivities along with some other hikers we knew. They all had a blast and were heading back to the trail today. We decided to get something to eat with Pixel and Shazam, and there were burgers all around.

During lunch a topic of conversation that has been popular for the last few days came up once again. The High Sierra music festival was going on in Quincy, 30 miles away, and today was the last day. Widespread Panic was headlining, so it was a very tempting proposition. Sideways began to look for tickets on Craigslist and Stub Hub, but there was nothing in the price range we were willing to pay for single day passes. By the time we got there, Widespread would probably be all we'd see. It was a great opportunity though, and Sideways had been bugging me to go for several days, so I said, "Let's go try to hitch." We quickly ate our last bites and we were on the highway with thumbs out.

Our excitement faded as the clock ticked on the burning asphalt. An hour had passed and no ride had come along. We were just discussing giving up when a gold Mercedes with a single female pulled up to the exit of the resort. She was going down to the High Sierra Festival, and had room for the both of us. We both rode in the back seat since there was stuff in the front, and I tried to maintain a conversation over the wind coming in all four windows that had deafened Sideways next to me.

We made it down to the festival grounds around 4:30-ish and parked right outside the gate.  We scored VIP wristbands and strolled through the gate. "Is this really happening?!" we thought. 

We contacted a friend from Reno, Gregg, who we figured was likely at the festival.   He was, and we found him pretty quickly.  After a few minutes of catching up over a beer, we stashed our packs in his friend's VW and headed into the festival grounds just in time for Trampled by Turtles, a great band that we've seen several times before.  In the VIP area, we ate free sandwiches, as many as we could, and enjoyed being close to the stage.

Between bands, we wandered around and saw some fellow hikers.  We returned to our stageside VIP spots for Widespread Panic.  The show was awesome!  Somehow, we managed to find our way back to our belongings after the show.  We setup our tent and crashed out hard after an extra exciting day.

-Moonshine