Easing out of the Sierra

Day	89
Current Location	Truckee, CA
Miles Hiked	1,154.5
Miles to Go	1,500.7
Percent of Trail Completed	43.5%

Cleaned up in Tahoe

I hardly recognized myself in the mirror. Clean face, fresh haircut, crisp white dress shirt, and to top it off, bleached hair.

After several weeks of tough hiking, my friends and I splurged on two days in a casino in South Lake Tahoe. It was a nice treat, resting by day and living it up in the casino by night.

We even went to Goodwill to buy town outfits for the big night out. After wearing the same grubby hiking clothes since April, wearing something – anything – different felt great. I bought clippers to cut my hair, and just for the hell of it, a box of hair bleach. A new me for Northern California!

Our wallets feeling the strain of almost three months in Southern California, we fantasized about funding the rest of our thru-hike with our big casino winnings.

Well… surprise… that didn’t happen. Far from it. But we had a great time and it was an investment in memories.

Leaving town the next day, I put the outfit and hair clippers in a box and sent it ahead to Ashland, OR. In several weeks after crossing into a new state, I can again enjoy a haircut and clean clothes.

Turning a new leaf 

Back on trail later that afternoon, I had the excitement of opening a brand new map. On FarOut, the app that most, thru-hikers use for navigation, the 527-mile map labeled “Sierra” ends at South Lake Tahoe, though the precise end location of the Sierra seems to be a matter of some debate.

Geologically, the Sierra Nevada technically runs all the way up to Belden, mile 1298, but culturally most hikers consider the Sierra section of the PCT to end much sooner. Some say as early as Sonora Pass (mile 1018), while others say Donner Pass outside Truckee (mile 1154), while still others say even further north.

Regardless of where you draw the exact Sierra line, things are definitely changing. Snow patches are becoming few and far between. I sent my ice axe and spikes home at Sonora Pass. I sent my gloves home in South Lake Tahoe. Today in Truckee I sent my bear canister home. (What a treat to have a lighter pack again).

The climb out of Sonora Pass marked the last time the PCT hits 10,000 feet elevation. I found this hard to believe at first, with still over 1,600 miles of trail left, including the northern Sierras and the Cascade Range.

The High Sierra was silvery with pale grey granite, blinding white snow, and electric turquoise lakes. Now the jagged granite peaks are giving way to more rounded mountains with a new color palette of earth tones:  rusty brown rock, deep green pine forests, and blankets of bright wildflowers.

Opening a new map might seem like a small thing, but every little measure of progress is a mental boost, especially in California. California is huge. 1690 PCT miles, 65% of the trail, is in California.

By contrast, by the time a NOBO thru-hiker on the Appalachian Trail has hiked 1690 miles they would have already passed through 12 states! The smaller states of the AT provide built-in checkpoints, but on the PCT, a hiker brain looks for other milestones to gauge progress.

So opening a new FarOut map feels like a significant milestone. According to FarOut anyway, I am out of the “Sierra” and now in “Northern California.”

I still have more to say about hiking in the mighty Sierra. When time allows I plan to write some catch up posts to fill in the gaps. But for now, onward to Northern California!