We hiked the first 7 miles or so and took our first break at the Benson Ski Hut. The Sierra Club maintains 4 huts in the mountains that are open to day use and can be reserved in the winter for backcountry skiers. They are fairly rustic and basic, yet nice as well. We even found a little food in the cupboards, and Mark and JZ enjoyed some oatmeal, while I tried to make coffee, cowboy style (grounds in the water- although they never really settled to the bottom so I could drink it).
We hiked along the crest, with views to the west thick with smoke from all the forest fires raging in northern cali right now. To the right a light fog blanketed the mts; it was really beautiful.
Our next stop was Donner Pass, where the Donner Party was stranded in the winter back in the days of westward emigration, and they survived by eating the flesh of those fellow travelers that died. Mark commented how we should have taken a picture of him pretending to bite my arm, but we just didn't think of it at the time.
We had the easiest hitch ever. The first car we saw going our way stopped after we nonchalantly stuck out our thumbs. It was great! We got dropped off at the store, where I (Jess) got a fresh sandwich (with avocado...yum) that felt like it weighed 3 lbs! We also got some ice cream before hitching back up to the trail and heading 3 more miles downtrail to the I-80 rest stop.
This was exciting because there were bathrooms and water fountains- imagine...water we didn't have to treat before we drank it! It was great.
Then it was only 4 more miles or so before we came upon another Sierra Club ski hut, the Peter Grubb Hut (named for an avid Sierra Club member who died at the age of 18 in 1937). There were already a handful of hikers hanging out here, and we got sucked in once more to stopping early. We thought it would be fun to stay in a hut, since there were mattresses upstairs and moquitos outside, but we also realized that we could. Since it is the 3rd, the PO in Sierra City, our next town stop, will be closed tomorrow, so we don't need to get there until Saturday morning.
It felt like a rest day, in some ways, because of all our breaks and the fact that we stopped hiking today at 4:30! It was a really fun day, and tomorrow we will put in a bigger day in order to set ourselves up to be only a few miles out of Sierra City on Saturday. But tonight we got to enjoy time with other hikers, indoors, with a wood-burning stove to keep us warm (I mean overly hot).
In the evening thick smoke moved into our valley and we were glad to be sleeping in the hut. This is the thickest smoke we have encountered from all the fires. The direction of wind plays a big part in were the smoke goes.
This was also the day Mark surpassed his mileage from his 2003 southbound PCT hike of 1157 miles. So, he is now on his longest hike ever and has hiked more miles with Jessica than anyone. Sorry, Coach D you got the boot.
Total Miles:1063.0
Miles Today:20.0
Camp 67:Peter Grubb Hut
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1 comment:
I can't think of any person I'd rather outpace me with Mark than YOU Jess! -coach d
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