July 20

7/20

26 miles (1198 to 1221, plus bonus hiking up to the Sierra buttes fire tower)

We hiked over 25 miles today and I still had the time and energy to cut my fingernails tonight, successful day!  Also in case you we're wondering, we both brushed our teeth despite our rule that if we hike over 25 miles, we don't have to. 

We spent the night last night in the Sierra city church lawn with about 15 other hikers. We woke up early this morning and was informed by the neighbor that he had coffee for us! Not only did he have coffee but an array of bagels, jams, and fruit. Amazing! We ate, stopped at the public bathroom and started walking the 1.5 miles down the road to the trailhead. About half a minute later and truck pulled up to see if we wanted a ride, it was a good morning. 

We had a big climb up from town to the buttes, about 3000 feet all at once. When we reached the saddle at the top, we decided to take a detour and go to the Sierra buttes fire lookout, a very cool old building on an unlikely perch of a very tall and pointy mountain top. That added about 1000 feet to our morning and took a little time but it was beautiful and very worthwhile.

The rest of the day was pretty chill, we saw few other hikers, had some ups and downs but nothing major. Storms built throughout the afternoon but surprisingly we stayed dry and only had one terrifyingly close lightening strike.