PCT 2007 Day 97 – I-80 – Reach a knoll

PCT 2007 Day 97

Day 97 / 6-30-07 Tarp Tent 8120′
I-80 – Reach a knoll
9.5 (.75) miles; 1168.3 (49.15) total miles; 3022.5 trip miles
High 70’s, partly cloudy

Deer count is 62
Marmot count is 51
Pika count is 2
Bear count is 1

The three of us got to sleep in since Pig Pen and his parents were going bird watching at like, 5 AM. I got up around 6:30 or so I believe. (It’s scary to think I consider that sleeping in). When I woke up, Mack (one of the dogs) was sleeping at my feet. I asked him if he needed to go for a walk and he sprang to attention. Once I got ready, I took him and Athena for a nice walk around the complex.

When I got back, Backtrack and I made plans to take the spare car and go to REI and find a Little Caesars Pizza. We found the REI but not the Little Caesars. We did find a Krispy Kreme donut shop and got a dozen donuts. We then got a quart of chocolate milk from the 7-11 next door. We finished the milk and 4 donuts each. Honestly, the donuts weren’t that good; but we were hungry.

We ended up going to REI next and didn’t find what we wanted, so we drove to a Sierra Trading Post Outlet; but they didn’t have the tent stakes we wanted either. It was back to the house and more logistics.

We made another plan to go out, this time to the post office and Little Caesars. We looked at the web again and got the address this time. We couldn’t find the PO so we went to another mailing store we had passed. Before ending up there, we were at a 7-11 and they didn’t even know where the street was or any PO. When we got to the Mail It store the lady told us how to get to the PO and it was just 2 blocks from the 7-11 where 6 different people didn’t know where it was. Incredible!

Our luck didn’t get any better when we went looking for the Little Caesars. Again we had help from the lady at the Mail It store; but we failed again. We ended up at a place called “Nu Yalk Pizza”. It was pretty good pizza.

We went home and shortly after, Pig Pen and his folks came home. He took the dogs for a walk and we headed back to the trail. His dad and he dropped us off on the eastbound side so we had to re-walk the .75 miles that we did on Thursday. We climbed away from the highway to Castle Pass. Then we stopped at one of the very few shelters on the trail, the Peter Grubb Hut. We met two thru-hikers, Barb and Charlie, I believe. Ultra Brite was there too but camped out in the trees. I said hello and left. The hut had a double decker pooh shed. I had to use it so I went up a ramp to the top one. It even had electricity.
We moved on and re-passed a couple we saw earlier. They were headed to Paradise Lake. We kept going past the lake to a knoll, where just past it, we found some nice spots on a rocky cliff, with a view of the sunset. We got more miles in then we expected so that was nice.

The three of us enjoyed town a lot. Pig Pen and his parents were great to us. Reno was a big city and it wore on us. We couldn’t wait to be back on the trail. Most of us can only take so much time off and in town before it gets too much. At that point we need to get back to it.

When we hit the trail, we had done 1158 miles which meant we had 1500 exactly to go. It’s scary to think about it!