Hidden gem unlocked, the Sierra Buttes are beautiful!! Read on to find out why :)
Day 77: 7/26/2025; maybe 2 miles hiked
If a stranger asked me to describe the PCT to them I would pick today as the perfect embodiment of the ins, outs, ups and downs of the trail. Today featured free beers and a kind waiter, a lost dog and a ferocious one, new friendships and goodbyes to solid friends. This morning was glorious as we did not have to hike into town. Yesterday may have been exhausting, but we were content to lay in bed as long as we wished. I ran downstairs in the old saloon building we had slept in and grabbed a cup of coffee from the communal pot. I asked the owner when check out was and he said “I’m going gold mining today and you got in late, so check out whenever.”
Today Dennis and I were reunited with our care package that never arrived in Kennedy Meadows.
We would barely have to resupply and thank goodness for that because my 4 packages of ramen and gummy bears cost $10.50. That’s outrageous! We ate lunch at the Red Moose and diligently wrote post cards.
Then, we hung around all day relaxing and checking in with our French friends. One of them has been mentally struggling with days on end of hiking, so they decided to take a week off.
We were bummed to hear this because we enjoy their company. Regardless we needed to hike out of Sierra City and get a move on. Our server told us we could take a dirt road up from the closest neighborhood that connects to the PCT to avoid hitching back to the trail. We decided to that, but were quickly turned around by a stern man and a growling pit bull who said don’t trespass at the top of the road, the lady has Rottweilers and a back hoe. Basically he implied she would bury us if we hiked the road. He did however helpfully tell us to take a different road open to public use. We descended the climb that we had trudged up for the past ten minutes and were again on the right path.
Shortly after beginning this new ascent a man slowed and asked if we had seen his dog. No we hadn’t and so he pulled away. We must be lucky though because after a few minutes a small dog came running across the road. The man drove by again and was grateful we found the dog. He offered us a ride partially up the road which we accepted. Now we were about ¼ up the mountain.
We hiked about a mile before taking a sitting break. As we sat a second kind young man was driving up the road in a huge Toyota Tacoma with Virginia plates. The man, Sam, gave us a ride another ¼ or so up the mountain.
We had so much fun going up this crazy 4 wheel drive terrain. Today was clearly not a day for hiking, but for resting. When Sam reached his camping spot we got out and hiked another mile to a clearing. We had reunited with the PCT, found trail magic (sodas), and had found a viable campsite. We set up camp and enjoyed dinner with two hikers we had met in town. What a lovely day!
Day 78: 7/27/2025; mile 1203.8 - 1217.7
This morning a kind camper gave us some fresh brewed coffee, and then we were off on another stunning hike!
Today we decided to take the blue blaze and hike up to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout. If you ever find yourself in the area I highly recommend this day hike! The hike was a little over a mile from where we camped and we enjoyed stunning views of the area at the top.
We had breakfast on top and were gifted two Fillo’s Walking Tamales from a day hiker. 10/10 would recommend this hiking snack. It made it easier to feel like we had town food on trail.
Dennis and I geocached a bit after our descent and did not have a super productive hiking day. Instead we opted to sit at a lake and read our books for a few hours. We ended up camping early, only 14 miles in so we could attempt a big push the next day. We heard that a lot of people were camping at the next water source and didn’t want to risk all the available campsites being taken so we chose an early night’s sleep.
Day 79: 7/28/2025; mile 1217.7 - 1236.5
We had camped in a beautiful flat camp site and woke up early. Unfortunately everything was soaked with condensation and we had to wait an hour for it to fully dry. We had breakfast at camp and left by 8:30, much later than we had anticipated. It would make for a very difficult 30 mile day, a day that became a 19 mile day.
Pretty quickly Dennis and I realized that we were not feeling 100% today. We were mentally exhausted even though the day was quite easy.
By lunch we decided to take a 1.5hr rest and nap. Fortunately for us, our friends Sam and Sky who we met way back during week 1 came across us during our break. We enjoyed their company and were filled with new energy after seeing them! This burst of energy enabled us to hike 5 more miles, making it 19 miles for the day. On the shorter end for us, but better than nothing!
Day 80: 7/29/2025, mile 1236.5 - 1261.6
Today we were finally back on track with a 25 mile day. Just as we were setting off for the day our friends Sam and Sky rolled into our camp. We ended up walking with them for a while before they peeled off to take lunch, and we pushed on to the Middle Fork Feather River.
Dennis and I spent a glorious two hours here, ate lunch, read our books, and swam in the depth of the river! It reminded me of a day spent at Leggett on the Eel River. Then I hiked with Noam for most of the 10 mile uphill!
I honestly didn’t think it was too bad of a climb, but it was a 4,000ft ascent. I was just busy being distracted by conversation. Dennis and I planned to go 30 miles, but at the top of the climb decided to camp and watch the sunset.
Some friends of ours were joining tomorrow for a day of backpacking and wouldn’t meet us until noon giving plenty of time to hike to the meeting point at Buck’s Lake in the morning!
Day 81: 7/30/2025, mile 1261.6 - 1273
Today we only had a three mile walk before we successfully hitched into Buck’s Lake. Our friends Haley and Ben were meeting us around noon so they could backpack a night with us! We arrived to the general store around 10 am, ate some breakfast burritos, and spoke with the few other hikers there. We met an Alaskan girl named Lupine who was so cool.
Unfortunately for us, she was hiking SOBO so we won’t see her again! To ensure I had enough food to make it to the next town, one day away, I bought a bag of chips, two ramen packets, and two baby food pouches for nearly $20! These small town stores can really get you out here.
Lucky for us, Ben and Haley came bearing presents. Lots of food from Ben’s mom and Dennis’s family. Then we headed off and took Haley on her first ever backpacking trip!
We hiked a pretty calm 8 miles today, took lots of nice sitting breaks, and camped at a beautiful spot. We ate some fancy mountain house meals, built some rock towers we tried to knock over with other rocks, and played a card game called spades. Tonight there was another lightning storm across the way for us to watch while we played cards.
Day 82: 7/31/2025; mile 1273 - 1288.6
This morning we relaxed with Ben and Haley, played one more game of Spades, and parted ways by 10:30 am.
We had 15.5 miles until we reached the town of Belden where our resupply was. There wasn’t much uphill, and we enjoyed a long yet hot descent. We even saw an airplane fly dangerously close to the hillside, it was weird!
By the time we got to Belden it was almost 5pm.
We hustled along the road in order to pick up our resupply box at the Caribou Crossroads RV Park. When we got there we were in luck because the store was still open a few minutes after closing! We grabbed our boxes and found a place to camp in the park. They let us camp for free as PCT hikers along the North Fork of the Feather River. A kind trail angel who worked for PG&E fed us and four other hikers tacos for dinner. I even picked a ton of fresh blackberries for dessert!
Day 83: 8/1/2025; mile 1288.6 - 1301.7
This morning we agreed to leave mid morning and not rush out of camp by 7 am. Unfortunately mid morning turned into midday, and we left the RV park by 11 am. We saw a cute family of ducks float down some rapids and also saw a family of about 5 otters swimming up stream! We decided to jump into the river before beginning our long, hot climb up.
There isn’t much to say about the climb other than we should have started earlier and therefore it was sufficiently brutal.
Famously we would reach the end of the Sierra’s today and begin hiking in the Cascade mountain range.
We only ended up hiking 14 miles because it was so hot and painful heading straight uphill. We camped just at the tip of the climb with a nice view of Mount Lassen.
Day 84: 8/2/2025; mile 1301.7 - 1332.2
Today was a big push kind of day! Dennis’s dad and brother were coming to visit us, so we had to make it to the town of Chester by the end of the day. That meant a 31ish mile push.
Today had some beautiful views and a few climbs. It was pretty hot and we didn’t cover ground very quickly, but we were determined to make it to see Dennis’s family. Today was a monumentos day on the PCT because we officially reached the half way point of the trail! There was a large stone marker commemorating the achievement.
We took some photos for a Swiss couple and then continued our big push. I don’t do well walking in the dark, so Dennis waited for me as soon as the sun was nearly set so we could hike together.
Today I kept tripping on roots and stones and was angrily grunting. I was practically a tired mess by the time we saw his family who hiked out to meet us at 10pm. I could barely utter my hello’s and thank you’s, I was completely exhausted. They gave me some fruit juice and walked slowly with me until the end. My shoes had gotten wet yesterday and I think it led to some unfortunate heel blisters which I was actively suffering through all day. We got to the Gavrilenko truck and thankfully there was some delicious pizza, tacos, and lots of fresh fruit waiting! I ate in silence and was extremely grateful for a shower and soft bed to sleep in.
Day 85: 8/3/2025; rest day
Today we spent the day with Dennis’s dad Victor and his brother Maxim. We started our laundry and I wore a new set of town clothes. A t shirt borrowed from Maxim, my bathing suit, and rain pants. We headed to Cravings for breakfast where I got a delicious breakfast burrito! Classic. The restaurant was incredibly busy so it took a while to even get coffees started. A kind older couple ordered some coffees on our behalf because they noticed the lack of service our table was receiving.
After brunch we headed to Lake Almanor for some fishing, reading, swimming, AND a pinecone softball tournament.
Some of you might be surprised to learn that I played softball for 7 years, so naturally I put up a good fight and won the bat off. Every round consisted of 20 pinecone pitches and the 21st round included a rubber duck worth 3 extra points. We spent a few hours at the lake relaxing before heading back to our hotel. We decided to stay an extra day and rest per Victor’s recommendation and Dennis and I decided we had to celebrate reaching the halfway point! We went out to sushi and had some very interesting Sake shots.
Day 86: 8/4/2025; mile 1332.8 - 1347.6
This morning we took our last civilized showers, ate strawberries in bed 🍓, ate the remainder of a continental breakfast (it closed at 9am, not 10 like we thought and we had to scrape together some waffles), and caught a hitch back to trail with practiced efficiency.
Kind travelers picked Dennis, Star, and I up from highway 36 and drove us the 10 minutes to the trailhead. There we ate the last of our nectarines and then set off on the very pleasant hike. Today wound through a mixture of burned forest from the Dixie fire and intact forest.
We had beautiful views of Mount Lassen and we crossed the feather river for the last time at its north fork. Dennis took a dip and he dunked me in upside down. We didn’t get on trail until 11 am and we were chatting at the trailhead for a half hour with other hikers, so we decided to have a short day. Dennis and I want to improve our hiking schedule to wake up earlier, so we decided we would camp by 6:30 pm tonight. When 6:30 pm did roll around, we camped right at the boundary of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
We ate dinner and read some more bedtime stories from Dennis’s wonderful library book and soon we were off to bed.
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