July 5:Sierra City, CA & Fires

We woke up early and were hiking before 6am. We hit Hwy 49 around 7am, where we met up with a couple hikers who were headed back to the trail. They filled us in on what they'd heard about the fires ahead. We had been hearing rumors about fires and parts of the trail being closed, and we were eager to know what was going on and how far we could hike before being booted from the trail. They also told us about a PCT section hiker who had rented a place in town and who had opened it up to any thru-hikers coming through town to stay, take showers, do laundry, and hang out. It was a sweet little apt that she had rented for the weekend; it had a full kitchen, living room, and plenty of spce for hikers to sleep on the floor. She just asked for a small donation because the renter asked for $10 extra/person for the use of utilities, etc. She and her partner went hiking for the day and we got to hang out and get cleaned up.

There was plenty of talk all day about what to do about the fires. many people had chosen to hitch around the fire to the town of Chester, skipping 100+ mils of trail, and hike north from there. Others had chosen to hike the 37 miles of open trail north of Sierra City and take their chances on what to do then. They could either walk/hitch on a dirt road to the town of Quincy, or they could do a (horrendous) 80-mile road walk on a paved highway to Chester.

We went back and forth on what to do, and their were way more considerations than it makes sense to record here. But the important ones were safety and air quality. We didn't want to get stuck somewhere near the fire if the wind changed directions, and the smoke was already thick in Sierra City. We didn't want to be breathing that air for 100 miles.

After much debate we decided to hitch around to Chester and come back in a few weeks when the fire is contained or out and hike as much of the trail as we can. The sad part is that we would end up in Chester, the town closest to the halfway point of the trail, and not actually have hiked there.

We spent the day chilling out. We watched the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which I, Jess, would not really recommend. We cooked up a great dinner and finally crashed on the pullout couch, very thankful for the amazing trail magic we weren't expecting.

Total Miles:1097.3
Miles Today:3.6
Camp 69:The Buckhorn- Sierra City

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