We were getting into the heat of summer as we trudged through Northern California. My backpack was starting to rub my back raw and chafe was a serious issue. We tried to beat the heat of the day by getting up earlier and walking most of the day’s miles in the morning, just like in the desert. On the day we were to get to Sierra City, it rained on us for the second time in three months.  At lunch, we met up with Flower again and began the 4000 foot descent into the valley. We crossed over a creek a few times on bridges as we walked through the rock-faced canyon. We got to the road and walked the rest of the way into town. Tragically, the general store stopped serving burgers and fries, our town staples, just minutes before we got there. Left no other recourse, we had to go the the fancy restaurant for pork loin, potatoes, and pinot noir. This was one of the places our dusty, smelly garb was more out of place than normal. I could always gauge our grossness by whether Tinkle’s eyebrows were brown with dirt instead of blonde  and my glasses left brown spots where they touched my face and made the dirt and sweat run together.

I had awesome luck in finding a thermarest pad in the garbage by the general store. Even the squashed down foam was an improvement on my quarter inch thin foam mat I’d been using for breaks. The town church was kind enough to let hikers set up camp in their backyard and many, many of us took the opportunity. Almost every square foot of ground was covered with tents and the spaces between, people were cowboy camping (setting up just a sleeping pad and bag on the ground, in the open). There were also free showers, which I used to take the shortest shower of my life. The shower button started a stream of ice cold water that lasted 30 seconds. I think I pushed it twice. I also attempted to do laundry by putting all my clothes in a dry bag and shaking it up with shampoo and water. I’m pretty sure the only effect was that the intense sock smell sort of diffused through the rest of my clothes.

The next day, my journal reads “Went to bakery in AM and after eating, went to breakfast.” That illustrates town days better than anything I’ve written so far. Back at the church, Flower was trying to give away some of his extra food. One of the items was a a package of chili. I was familiar with the brand and said no. The issue wasn’t the taste. When I’d given myself this chili in my resupply, the farts were unbelievable. Literally astounding in quantity and quality. I won’t get into more detail, but I’ll just say I was never more afraid of attracting bears than when the chili farts came.

I got my first care package from my friends, Wisdom and Doug, from the post office. It included homemade lembas bread (Lord of the Rings reference), candy, and cookie butter. This post office was where Tinkle finally got her Swiss chocolate from home. This chocolate was of legendary acclaim by the time it arrived. It was originally sent to Kennedy Meadows, almost 500 miles behind us, and bounced around and was resent and finally arrived. Tinkle had held the promise of Swiss chocolate over our heads and threats to withhold. I think this is why we started called her “Boss.” All this lead up to the chocolate was worth it. Thanks to Christa, Tinkle’s mom, for getting it to us! We were waiting in the park for the heat to subside a little while I did some gear repair and Tinkle waited for her shorts to dry, hanging out in her underwear around town for a while. I miss those moments. There were literally no expectations of us hiker trash and people were still so nice to us. Within moments of putting our packs on, we were offered a ride back to the trailhead and then received trail magic there. Afterwards, we began a long and exposed climb through a green valley that led us to mile 1200!