September 19

Louis and I managed to power out of camp by 7:00 am and with the thought of grandma's cookies once again to lure us to town, hiked hard all day. So hard, in fact, that I blew by two fresh springs to grab water at our ad hoc lunch spot at Summit Lake. The lake turned out to be more of a pond and instead of fresh mountain spring water I had murky pond water that tastes like dirt with a side of floaters. I put a pack of tropical Emergen-C and the rest of my coconut hydration supplement and fruity electrolyte water with an aftertaste of pond sentiment. A strange combination indeed. 

We left our lunch spot sure it would only take us a few hours considering we only had to go 9 miles. We even found a shortcut that would take us down an old 4WD road and straight to the post office. This being the case, I left with half a liter of water and hiked on in good spirits knowing I had 4.5 hours until the post office closed and less than 9 miles to hike. The trail tends to have its own agenda and this case was no exception. First, the trail was full of huge rocks which kill my speed as the rough terrain hurts in trail running shoes. Then, we reached the 4WD road. It is not even a road at this point. It is completely abandoned and overgrown with bushes and so steep I wonder if any vehicles ever made it up even when it was brand new. We half slid half bushwhacked our way down and finally came to signs that read "this is not the pct trail, private property ahead". Louis and I were at the point of no return already, having no more water and behind schedule to reach the post office in time, so we kept going. After one more sign saying the same thing, we came around a corner and walked right into two Rottweilers. Fortunately, they were friendly and one even started licking my leg. The owner, however, was not hiker friendly. He started yelling at us to go back where we came from and wouldn't let us pass by, even on the road. I asked for water for the hike back and he wouldn't even give us that. Louis and I asked nicely, said please, and still got turned away. 

We both think exactly alike, however, and in heading back we stopped at a dry creek bed that we passed on the way down, dropped into it, and followed it down to the main road. We made it to the post office at 4:25 pm only to find out it closes at 2:00 pm now. Frustrated, hungry and completely dehydrated we went to the Red Moose Inn, where I had called the owners (well-known trail angels) the night before to let them know we were coming. We have been received well here, and encourage anyone traveling through Sierra City to stop by and look at all of the letters from hikers they have in their little inn. They let us camp free in their back yard and pointed us in the direction of food. We both got a "gut buster" burger (3 beef patties) and ice cream. Louis had a sunday for an appetizer and I had a blackberry shake for dessert. Everything went well tonight and after hearing some news about grandma's package possibly being stuck in Sacramento, I can't imagine anything else going wrong. After dinner I did almost pass out and luckily Louis had done water and there was a chair nearby. I'm sure it was dehydration and a huge quantity food, even though I finished off 1.75 liters of lemonade before I ate. I'll be more careful next time.