September 7th, 2018
Buck Lakes Rd mm 1268 to Middle Fork Feather River mm 1250
Distance: 18 miles
1100-1800
I lollygagged around all morning. The hotel had a pretty good continental breakfast. Plus, I was waiting until 10 am for the Sierra City post office to open. I would be getting in on a Sunday and didn’t want to wait around until Monday for a package I had sent there. I called to see if they could forward it ahead to South Lake Tahoe, and it was no problem. Mission accomplished.
Flowers had decided to take a zero to rest his hurt foot, so I set out alone to get a ride back to the trail. I only waited about 10 minutes until another lady in a nice Subaru stopped. The women of the Quincy area are awesome! Thanks for the rides! Diane was on her way to her cabin and said she loves giving rides to hikers to hear their stories. Well, the ride wasn’t long enough for all mine but I pointed her towards my blog. I also gave some insights about trail running shoes, since she asked why her toes hurt after wearing her hiking boots. I am not a fan of boots, to say the least.
We arrived at the trailhead just in time to see Twist shoot across the road and head down the trail. I was excited to catch up with her and did so at the first stream. We had lunch and laughed about how my tortillas and refried beans were actually hers, which she had discarded in the hiker box at Burney Falls. She had recognized the tortillas when I pulled them out a few days ago. Since I am not sending boxes throughout CA, I get to scavenge off others, and both Twist and Flowers always get rid of good stuff.
As we were having lunch, the German twins passed by and then 4 more guys showed up. One was Kid, which I wasn’t expecting. He was at least a few days behind after visiting with his parents in Dunsmuir. He had done many big days to catch up. The other 3 were Suehenga, Toad, and Tone, a few from the big group that was at Belden. Many of that group were just ahead and would be camping at the river, same place I was planning. Suddenly, I was in a SOBO bubble.
Twist and I walked and talked the rest of the day. The trail was all woods and mostly downhill. At the river, we set up close to each other and a little ways away from the big group. I went for a swim, had dinner, and then finally went over to socialize.
It was dark by then and I couldn’t make out faces very well. Nor did I get many names. I counted at least 8 people, mostly young guys. They were all very nice but the atmosphere was a little bro-ish for my inclinations. No knock on them, it’s just what tends to happen on these trails when guys often outnumber the ladies, especially the young 20-something guys.
Everyone was already getting ready for bed so I shortly went back to my tent and did the same. The sound of the river provided perfect white noise the rest of the night.
Sorry I didn’t take many or any pics today but here is the saddest trail magic ever…a good thought but I have ebooks to save weight and I can’t eat paper books, so they are kind of useless to me. Hopefully someone likes it.
