Not the day we expected at all. After doing some research and reading comments about the upcoming section, we had to make a tough call to jump up the trail to avoid smoke and wildfires.

We had a fairly lovely hike in the morning along a ridge line underneath ski lifts on our way to Donner Pass. It was eerie to be in the location of where one of the more infamous westward expansion stories occurred. We made it to a highway around 12PM to hitch into Truckee. All things considered, the change in plans wasn’t too much of a headache.

After getting into town, we drew up a game plan to resupply in town, get a ride to Reno, spend the night and in the morning, rent a car to drive to Medford, CA to then get a ride to Seiad Valley. Seems like a lot of moving parts but with about two hours of planning, we were able to schedule all of the moving parts.

Derrick, a retiree from New York living in Truckee gave us a ride to Reno no cost and told us great stories of on the development of the town. After a 30 minute drive, we made it to our hotel: Circus Circus Reno. A hotel casino in downtown. It was a fever dream of a place and an even weirder city. A city of misfits for sure and mackenzie noted it was the first city we didn’t feel out of place in all our hiker gear.

After a quick $10 loss on roulette, we headed to the room to watch the Olympics and vedge.

Winner winner chicken dinner…

Mackenzie and I were on our way to the rental car place when I realized I only had my passport so I wouldn’t be able to rent the car. Luckily Mackenzie had hers and Spoons’s mom decided to join us on the trail from Atlanta, GA so she was able to rent the other car.

It was about a six hour drive through Northern California to Medford where we would drop off the rental car. After driving through all of the smoke, it was clear we made the right decision. The views had looks of a watercolor painting and even though it was sad we were skipping, they offered some wonderful sites.

We stopped in Chilcoot for a quick bite in what felt like a rural southern town to fill up on burgers, shakes, and fries. I was able to sleep in the passenger seat and enjoyed some rest on our way to the rental car place. The timing couldn’t have been better as we returned the car and our next ride showed up to take us to Seiad Valley. He pulled up in a seven person passenger van and we were all able to fit comfortably for the two hour drive.

Once back at the trail head, we had a gnarly climb up. 500 feet of climb in under a mile. Quick hike to get to camp but we realized in skipping the miles, we’ve joined the bubble of hikers meaning camp sites were taken. After some creative maneuvering, we fit all seven of us and are settled down for the night.

Happy climbs…