Auspicious Beginnings

Let’s talk numbers for a moment. Numbers tend to make things very clear, and this was clearly a crazy week. So here we go:

• 5 – the number of days we hiked on the trail (4 nights)
• 5 – the number of  thunderstorms we’ve been in
• 6 – the number of bouts of hail that ricocheted off our bodies during said thunderstorms
• 10 (or so) – the total number of hours of sunlight we saw in those 5 days
• 4 – the number of days we’ve been tucked in a warm motel bed waiting out the crazy weather

We began with a great send off by Strog’s Aunt Marthe and Uncle Skip who picked us up from the Greyhound station in Sacramento, took us to lunch at the wonderful Nevada City Classic Cafe, and dropped us at the trailhead in Sierra City after several pictures. The weather was perfect for hiking, and we began in high spirits up the beautiful, forested terrain. 

In general, the trail in this section winds up and down along the crest between open ridges and thick forests. Reaching the ridgeline, we were greeted with amazing views of the Sierra Buttes and the northern Sierra Nevada range.

An unexpected exposed section had us hiking until dark to reach an acceptable campsite (and even then, the site was only marginally acceptable if you don’t mind the possibility of being awoken by an ATV bearing down on your tent).

The next day (Wednesday) began sunny enough, but we kept a watchful eye on the gathering clouds. Our beautiful views soon disappeared in the clouds, and we heard our first clap of thunder just as we popped out to an open ridge. We immediately popped back into the trees and headed to lower ground to wait out the storm.

Let me pause for a moment to recount the weather predictions. We’d heard from locals and checked weather online before heading out. The weather showed a chance of thunderstorms through our second day on the trail (Wednesday), clearing up the next day. We decided to take that chance and headed out, after which we had no cell reception to check in with the weather. Okay, back to reality.

The storm chilled the temps and dumped hail, then rain, then more hail on us as we hovered in the forest. Thunder continued crackling sporadically in the distance. Just when we thought we were all clear to keep hiking, another loud clap of thunder resounded overhead. We hovered for a good couple hours waiting out the storm. Oh yeah, and about halfway through we discovered we were getting wet under our rain gear… turns out, not waterproof anymore. Finally, the skies began to clear a bit and we hiked on, enjoying the sunshine and figuring we had hit our afternoon thunderstorm as predicted.

 Spoiler alert – We were wrong. An hour after the storm broke another one came in, drenching us and sending us to lower ground once again. Hail, rain, the whole nine yards. Once we stopped hearing thunder we hiked on, but the rain didn’t let up until the next morning. We camped earlier than planned to get warm and dry and hopefully wait it out a bit.

We woke up to blue sky and sunshine and hung out all our gear and our spirits to dry.

 Good thing we jumped on this sunny opportunity, for it was short lived. With our dry gear barely back in our packs, the rain set in again – we almost pitched the tent immediately and called it quits for the day. But instead we donned our semi-waterproof rain gear and headed out.

The day brought on and off storms and, for some reason, only brought thunder when we reached exposed ridges. Our timing so far has been impeccable. Luckily for us, the evening was a bit drier, and we were able to set up our tent in between rainstorms.

 We awoke in a cloud (now Friday). It was eerie but super cool too. The cloud made the entire forest seem enchanted. We’re pretty sure we heard fairies laughing at us in the distance. The morning stayed at least a bit dry, though our views were completely obscured by cloud. The afternoon brought downpours as we scrambled over mud-flowing gullies and took respite at each grove of trees. The clincher for the day (and maybe the week) was our final emergence onto the Sierra Crest – a completely exposed ridgeline, shrouded in cloud (we literally could not see more than 10 feet around us in any direction), with the wind and rain pelting us from the sides. Bling pretty much sprinted through this section, certain she would be struck from above at any moment. Even Strog was breathless trying to keep up with her.

The next day (Saturday), with our nerves shot and another thunderstorm crackling overhead (more hail, more rain, more panic), we decided to make an unscheduled hitch to wherever any car would take us. We were hoping for Quincy, CA, but Bling was pretty willing to go anywhere but the trail. We tried for a hitch while we walked down the road toward Quincy. Seriously, we stopped every car we could and offered to pay those going the opposite direction to take us to town. Comically, Mother Nature dropped yet another thunderstorm on us while we waited for a hitch – sending us into the trees again. It’s even more difficult to flag down a car when you’re hunkered down in the forest next to the road and then bolt out of the trees like a madman anytime you hear an engine coming. People just don’t seem to find that image trustworthy.

Blessed be the lovely family in the pickup that finally stopped and let us ride in the bed of the truck down the hill to Quincy. We are now tucked in a warm motel room from which Bling refuses to emerge until the weather promises to behave.