I awoke in the middle of the night. Half asleep I think: ‘Why does my tent smell like a music festival?’ Someone must have made a campfire, I eventually conclude and go back to sleep.
In the morning however, things turned out to be quite different. The whole valley and the woods were covered in a thick layer of smoke, obscuring the view of the further peaks. I feared the worst, the dreaded fire season might have started. The smoke made me feel slightly dizzy. Merlin tried to search online for a possible report on any fire but found nothing. We hiked on.
Another town was on our path today: Sierra City. ‘City’ might be a stretch. The place looked tiny on FarOut. At the road leading into Sierra City, Four Mil’s group was having a break. In South Lake Tahoe, they had met Smuggler, who’s dad was following him for 12 days with a car so he could slackpack ( = not carry a lot of stuff in his backpack) that section. And of course Four Mil and the others had tagged onto that. I felt slightly jealous as I saw them sit there with their packs almost completely empty, some of the group just carrying a tiny daypack.
Tourguide told me the smoke was caused by fires near Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe, most likely started by some overzealous 4th of July firework enthusiasts. Luckily nothing too serious it seemed.
In Sierra City, the only place worth going to was the general store, which had hot food, a decent resupply and held packages. All in one, very convenient. We spent a relaxed afternoon there, perusing the hiker box every time someone dropped something in there (which was very often) and eating copious amounts of food (there were milkshakes!).
Worth mentioning, suddenly I hear the following shout from the kitchen: ‘Ballsack! Order for Ballsack!’. Half and Half and I burst out laughing. My initial thought is that someone played a puerile but even so, hilarious joke when placing their food order. But no, a woman gets up and collects the food straight-faced. She had actually taken the name Ballsack after she kept hanging two massageballs in a bag from her backpack.
In the late afternoon we hitched back out and did a couple more miles, myself struggling with all the calories in my stomach. The trail went through forests with bright green lichen-covered trees. Camp was set on a dirt road amidst the low hanging clouds. Not the best, but whatever, it was a great day.