another swimming hole kinda day

Day 75 ~ miles 1197.5 - 1200

I awoke early and wandered around the quiet little town until Moonshine finally crawled out of the tent.  Over breakfast, our jaws nearly hit the table as we viewed the local meteorologist tell of the forecast: the high temperatures would range from 98-103 over the next week, including today.  We had to conquor a really big climb coming out of town, and we didn't want to do so in 100 degree heat, so we decided to wait until it cooled off a bit to hike out of town.

After finishing up our town chores, we went down to the local swimming hole in the RV park.  It was awesome!  Papa Bear joined us as we cooled off in the chilly water.  We relaxed on the porch of the general store with sevetal other hikers for the remainder of the day.  Moonshine gorged on the Gutbuster, a one pound hamburger, while I sprung for the smaller version (one of the best burgers we've had on the trail!).  It was finally beginning to cool off a bit around 6, so we decided we better make our way back to the trail.  One last stop before we got back to business, a Moxa treatment for Moonshine.  Moxa is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that entails burning dried mugwort against the skin.  Moonshine has been having some left knee pain.  Moxa, a hiker, is currently studying Chinese medicine, and offered to give him a treatment.  It was awesome to watch, hopefully he'll have good results.

Once back to the trail, we began our ascent.  Darkness was falling quickly, and I hoped we'd find a place to camp soon.  I am not so keen on night hiking, as my lack of coordination and clumsiness make it difficult enough to hike in the daylight.  Just as it was getting dark enough to require use of our headlamps, we found a small flat spot, not a bit wider than our tent.  We made it work, and we'll finish out the climb tomorrow.

an unexpected alarm

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.