Day 62 | mile 1174.9 - 1207.3 | 32.4 miles

Woke up at 5:10. Very tired but very alive. The animal was harassing me all night. The animal was a deer. Ugh. (Note the giant stick by my sleeping bag in the photo above.)

Mosquitoes buzzed around my face, limiting my hearing. Then I’d hear footsteps breaking twigs. I didn’t bother turning on my headlamp because the moon was bright. It kept coming back to the spot where I had peed. It is startling to turn your head and have an animal staring at you 5 ft away from your head. It dug at that spot for what seemed like hours. Gross, deer! Lesson learned: don’t pee where you sleep.

Oatmeal and English muffin with the last Nutella packet. Going into Sierra City today to resupply.

Finished Grit by Angela Duckworth this morning. I really liked it. It didn’t start out great, but I thought part 2 was much better.

Pretty easy 20 miles into town today. I saw another bear! This one was gnawing on something. We stared at each other for a minute. Then, as soon as I moved, he booked it up a hill. It was impressively fast. 

see it?

Got to Sierra City at 1-ish. I was very hungry. I left my stuff at USPS to charge. Just brought my prepaid debit card to the general store.

state of jefferson

Got a burger, fries, and drink for $14. I missed the part where I could pay another $2 to get a milkshake. Really fucked that up.

There were a lot of hikers there. I met Taco, Smoke Break, and Garbage Disposal (GD). I had heard about GD before. He used to be part of the big group I met coming out of South Lake Tahoe. I’m glad I caught up to him.

 (that's GD)

I made up for not getting a milkshake by getting 2 ice creams: orange creamsicle and Twix bar. So good.

Chilled at the closed USPS by the outlet until 3:30 to leave. It was hot and there is a long, exposed uphill right out of Sierra City.

It wasn’t so bad. The loose rock sections were annoying and didn’t feel good on my left ankle.

12 miles to a campground. The people I met stayed 2 miles behind. I wanted to get to the campground because I was betting someone would have a fire.

I was right! I met Raleigh II, III, and IV. Grandpa, father, and son group out for a fishing trip. We chatted for hours around the fire. They fed me hot dogs! I tipped my pot and spilled noodles everywhere. Ended up eating noodles and dirt.

So tired. Going to bed. Feeling much safer tonight.