Making Miles

When I made it to the Donner ski ranch on the 9th of July I found Best Buy and RJ already there. They had hiked in earlier in the afternoon. I ate my grilled chicken sandwich and enjoyed their company. They had planned on going into town , Truckee, but the road in was closed and it wasn’t possible to hitchhike there without a lot of trouble. This was going to be a problem since I had no choice but to go into town since I desperately needed shoes. Mine had only lasted 29 days before falling apart. But I didn’t have to worry about it till morning. The ski ranch had a bunk room and I got a bed laundry and a shower for 30 dollars. Rj and Best Buy were staying there as well. As we tried to sleep the workers that lived upstairs decided to have a party and their loud music kept us awake for a while but eventually they quietened and we slept. 

The 10th of July I had officially been on trail for 1 month. I had hiked through Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite national parks and loads of wildernesses and national forests I had crossed the high Sierras and climbed Mount Whitney I had made it five hundred and one point three miles. I had taken 3 days off and was averaging 16.7 miles a day. I would have to do better to make the Canadian border before snowfall. It was still just over 1500 miles to the border and then another 652 across the desert to do the part I had skipped at the beginning I still had over two thousand one hundred and fifty two miles to hike. Wow that’s crazy. I try not to think of the overall numbers too often and just focus on making daily miles . They’re just too big. When I finish this trail I’ll have over 8,000 trail miles hiked on the Triple Crown that’s hard to fathom.  But for the day I had other worries I needed shoes and the road to town was closed. Looking at the map I realized I was going to have to hitch out the other way away from town and get to Interstate 80 and then try to hitch down the interstate to Truckee. It was a plan. I was up at 5 as usual and RJ was up as well he soon got Beat Buy out of bed they were hiking out early as they had to be in Sierra City before noon on Saturday (the next day) to pick up resupply boxes. They were soon out the door and on their way. I was going stir crazy wanting to get my day started but it was too early for traffic. At 7 I was out by the road hoping for a car. None came by for a quite a while but a little before 8 a nice lady stopped and asked what I was doing. I told her I had to get to Truckee f to buy shoes. She said “the roads closed” I agreed and explained I was trying to hitch out to the interstate so I could get in from there. She told me that was a solid plan and offered to take me to the on ramp at I-80. I got in and off we went she drove me to the interstate dropped me off and headed on her way. I sat up on the on ramp and was quickly scooped up by another lady heading into Truckee where she worked at the DMV. By 830 I was in town. I found the gear store but it didn’t open till 10 so I walked around till I found Wild Cherries Coffee shop. It was a great place and I got coffee and a breakfast sandwich and hung out there using the WiFi’s to upload pics from my phone for my blog. Soon enough it was time to walk back over to the outfitter and I was there when it opened. I told the clerk I needed shoes and she asked “thru-hiker?” I confirmed her suspicion and she asked my size and then went and brought me a pair of altra lone peaks . Apparently I wasn’t the first hiker she had sold shoes to. I bought the shoes and a new pair of shades to replace my broken ones thanked her and left. I walked back to Wild Cherries and had a sandwich for lunch. After lunch I started trying to find a way back to the trail. I heard a rumor from the teller that the road crew had knocked off for the weekend and opened the road till Monday but no one knew it was open so there wasn’t any traffic. I resorted to ordering a Lyft to drive me back to the ski ranch the road was open now and 20 minutes later I was back on trail with my new shoes and shades.