Day 83
Mile 1189 to Sierra City (mile 1197.5),  8.5 miles
Cost: Stayed at GG’s ski lodge in Truckee for the 4th July, $10

It was terrific sleeping in just my net and being able to see the stars all night, although the little blue pill that Mrs Smith gave me (Tylenol PM) definitely helped me to sleep a lot better than usual. 

The alarm was set for 5am because we were all excited to get into Sierra City for breakfast. 

We had a small ascent then most of the remainder of the morning was downhill through a beautiful rainforest  with moss covered trees, banana slugs and across 3 bridges. It was lovely and  cool. 

A banana slug – I put my foot there for scale

     We hit the road then turned left and walked the 1.5 miles into Sierra City. The name is a little deceiving, it’s a tiny little town with a population of 250 but it’s incredibly quaint. It’s an old gold mining town and a lot of the buildings are from the mid 1800s. From what I could see there was a library, a visitor centre, a general store and a couple of restaurants. 

This was a photo on the wall inside the Red Moose Inn

The old miner’s hotel built in 1886

 We went straight to the Red Moose Inn for breakfast, it was very hiker friendly and the food was good. Our next stop was the Sierra City Country Store to pick up our resupply boxes and buy extra food. Mr Smith got a piece of cardboard and a marker and Mrs Smith made a sign saying Truckee then we walked down the road a little and tried to get a hitch. It wasn’t easy! 

After about half an hour a young guy called Reese stopped and picked us up. He was heading to the mountains to go fishing for the weekend and he was incredibly kind to go an hour out of his way to take us all the way to Truckee… We hadn’t realised just how far away Truckee was! Reese took us to the ski lodge and we dropped off our packs then took him to the local pizzeria and bought him lunch to say thank you. Thanks Reese!

On the walk back to the lodge, we stopped via a supermarket and bought some supplies to take with us to the lake to watch the fireworks then back at the ski lodge we showered, did laundry, backflushed our water filters, I washed my stove then it was almost time to think about dinner!

Taco Bell was on the way so we had a quick dinner there before continuing onto the lake and found a good spot to watch the fireworks. They started at 9:30pm and lasted for half an hour with a chorus of people shouting Happy 4th July.