Day 11 - Sierra City Here We Come!
Start Mile 1190.73
End Mile 1195.4
Total Miles 4.67
I woke at 5-30 am and was eager to get into town. I normally take a little time to get going but not this morning as I wanted to get into town. According to my calculations, we only had 4 miles to go, and as I suspected no one else was awake, I decided to have a small breakfast which consisted of cold oatmeal out of a plastic bag with a little water added to give it texture. I also added a Larabar and a swallow of water. I started to pack and was shocked that I was ready ahead of Marvin!
We set off at around 6-40 am, and although Early Bird wasn’t quite ready, we knew she would not be far behind us. The walking was very pleasant, and according to my notes, we would be heading downhill all the way. Unfortunately, I have learned not to trust my notes, and we soon started to climb, and then we climbed some more. Even though we were going up the trail, for the most part, was very pleasant. In two hours we managed to cover the 4 miles to the road that led into Sierra City, the big problem was which way was town!! We tried to flag down a couple of vehicles but without luck. Suddenly a truck pulled into the layby, and several young hikers climbed out and pointed us in the right direction. As there were so few vehicles going in either direction we decided to walk the short 1.25 miles into town, which fortunately was all downhill. On the way out of town, we met a hiker we had spoken to a couple of days ago, and he clued us into a coffee shop called Mountain Java where we stopped for a delicious cup of coffee. The young lady, Sierra, who served us was extremely pleasant and could not have been more helpful. I asked about hotels and accommodations, and Sierra recommended My Sisters Cottage and Sierra Pines. Sierra said if we had a problem to return and she would make some phone calls After our coffee we walked down the road and went directly to My Sisters Cottage where they only had one room available. I insisted that Marvin take the room so that he could take care of his ankle and I would see if I could find a hotel elsewhere. I started to head downhill in the direction of Sierra Pines but turned around as it looked a long way down the hill and didn’t fancy it without knowing for sure I could get a reservation. Everything in town seemed closed, and I found myself back at Mountain Java where Sierra very kindly offered to phone around to find me a room.
I was in luck as Sierra had found me accommodation at Sierra Pines so off down the hill I trekked again, and this time I did not stop until I reached my accommodation. After checking in, I had a wash, grabbed my phone and food bag, and went back up to My Sisters Cottage to get Marvin so we could go for breakfast. Everywhere appeared to be closed apart from the General Store, which we really didn’t fancy as you had to eat outside on the veranda. We opted to return to Mountain Java, where Sierra made us a cream cheese and Avocado toasted sandwich, which was delicious. We also learned that the building was originally built by Wells Fargo, and it was impressive in its construction, and the floors were thick solid pine boards although they are certainly not original. Afterward, we walked back down the road to the Post Office to pick up our food parcel and then returned to Marvin’s accommodation to get it sorted. We threw the food on the bed and horror of horrors there were no dinners. We had the right number of breakfast’s, and trail mix and Larabars, and even lunch fillings but no dinners. We were scratching our heads at the missing dinners but could come up with no real answers, and so we will need to go shopping tomorrow. After sorting the food out, I left Marvin to tend his ankle and returned to Mountain Java for another coffee and to knock out more blogs in an effort to catch up. With tomorrow being a rest day, I should be able to concentrate solely on relaxing. After blogging, I made a point of stopping in to thank Sierra for all her assistance and wished her well on her return to being a school teacher next week. The coffee shop will certainly miss her.
I returned to Sierra Pines to see if I could get my clothes washed, and to my amazement, Cindy, the part-owner, offered to do it at no cost. Cindy and her husband Glen were absolutely brilliant, and I cannot thank them enough.
While I was waiting for my laundry, I started my blog, and now I’m finishing it several hours later.
Wanderer.
