Good News, Bad News and Thanks!

Hello all - Sideshow here, checking in from Sierra City, CA. It's a small old mining town at the north end of the Sierra Mountains. If you want a view of the scenery, get out the Google and point it towards Sierra Buttes - we hiked around them in order to get down to the town yesterday. Ugly pointed out that it looks like Mt. Doom, from Lord of the Rings, so of course the hobbit comparisons started up.

So far the trail has been good, if a bit snow covered. The good news - we've been making it through alright and on schedule, despite the 10-20ft snow cover in places. It's been absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately I can't upload any pictures here, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Part of the reason we've been doing so well is all the packages and mail we keep getting when we stop into town! Wow! Thank you all so much for all the food and kind words you've sent. Ugly and I have enjoyed every bit of it!

Well, we've met Ugly's mom, Stephanie and little brother, Daniel here, and it's been great hanging out with them. We have a beautiful campsite right out of town on a nice creek. It's good they're here, because.... The bad news:

Ugly and I are tired of snow. It's been a very late year, so the amount of snow on the trail has been way more than expected. At this point, without the desire or equipment to battle the snow that we know is waiting for us as we get higher into the Sierras, we are taking a (short) break.

We'll be driving up more north for a couple more days of rest with Ugly's family, before getting on the train again and heading down further south, to Yosemite, to hike the John Muir Trail. We planned to get there in two weeks anyway, but we are choosing to wait a bit for more snow to melt, and to cut off a portion of the snowier bits. Ultimately, our mileage total will be a bit less (500+ instead of the original 760 miles), but one thing that both Ugly and I realized on this last section, was that we aren't mileage hikers. Maybe that means I'll never thru-hike the whole PCT, but I'm okay with that. One added bonus of our taking this break - we'll be giving ourselves a whole 3-3.5 weeks to complete the 200 miles of the JMT, instead of the original 2, giving us the chance to slow down, enjoy the scenery more, and (hopefully) go swimming in every accessible body of water we pass.

Short anecdotes from the previous section:

-Saw a mountain lion! Skulking around our tent in the evening! Whoa!

-Met more hikers - including our first thru-hiker: The Conductor.

-Saw two rattlesnakes! They rattled at us, but immediately moved off the trail away from us.

Well - Ugly or I might post again before we get on the trail again, but we'll see what happens down the road. Right now we are healthy and happy, and hope you are as well!

love,

Sideshow.