Exactly 4 month on the trail today. #NOBOforlife 😎🤘🏼

Only 10 miles to Truckee today. First we had to climb Tinker Knob:

 

And then we were treated with an epic ridge walk into the valley. Apparently two weeks ago there was still a good snow cover on here 😳

But the highlights of today happenes later! We got to the road which goes to Truckee and said good bye to Amber and Nick who had to flip up to Ashland now. They continued to their pick up point and we stored our poles into the packs. And then it was time to get a ride to Truckee. I turned to the road and saw a pick up truck coming around the corner – maybe 200ft away. I thought, that won’t work but you’ll have to start at some point. So I held my thumb up and the car immediately hit the breaks and pulled over.

First car.
Less then three seconds.
Fastest hitch ever.
🤘🏼

And the guy who picked us up just came from work and was probably even happier to give us a ride than we were getting one. He cleared his seats and made space so we could sit properly. He knew about the trail and asked us about our journey, gave us tips for the next stretch and was so enthusiastic and happy about giving us a ride that it was totally contagous. Thanks, brew!!!

What was our destination? Yes, Smokey’s. The restaurant we had dinner at two month ago when we left the Sierras and went up to Belden. And we had always talked about it that we would come back once we hit Truckee on the trail. What a feast 😊

Protein, protein, protein!

Kaylee’s cousin Ray picked us up and brought us our resupply for the next stretch which we had already prepared when we stayed with him. And he also kindly gave us a lift back to the trail head.

We still had to do some grown up stuff like ordering Luko-Tape, new shoes, replying to messages, etc. So we went to the Ski Lodge which was 0.25m off the trail but very hiker friendly – free beer for PCT hikers 🍻…

We sat down and started packing food, fixing gear and the other stuff when the waiter came out and said that the lady from
the table inside just bought us a round of beer. What? Of course we went in to say thank you. And the first thing she said was “Can we also get you some food? Anything? You guys are amazing!” Apparently we can be identified as PCT hikers very easily. The smell? The skinny look? The hungry face? The filthy look? Well, probably a bit of all of them. We had to decline since we just came from our massive lunch but we chatted for a while and it was just such a nice encounter.

Great people out there!!!