Day 76 - wacs1028 to Markleeville
What a surprising day. We got rained on during half of it.
It all started in the night. It’s fun to wake up in the tent and hear rain drops on the tent walls. But in the morning we got up to some drizzle and fog.
Just a bit after we started hiking, the rain started for real. It wasn’t any hard rain, but it didn’t stop for several hours, and it got a bit cold as well. It was fairly miserable. I kept trying to tell Idan that this is how it will probably be in Washington, At least some of the time, But Idan really suffered, and even wanted to stop mid day to just sit out the rain in our tents. And that’s in a day we were planning to hike 22 miles.
We met Blush and Tea Popping along the way, and Blush told us about some campground that is supposedly right next to the road we were trying to reach. I don’t know where she got that information, because it’s not really there… Maybe she got mixed up with another trail head.
Idan suddenly recalled a small comment in Yogi’s book about hitching into a small town called Markleeville, from the same highway. That seemed like a better plan.
About mid day the rain stopped. Right after we had our lunch break and I finished all my snacks for the day at once. A bit later it also started to clear a bit, and we actually saw some sunshine from time to time.
In total we climbed a lot today, but it felt easier than before. Maybe it was the rain and the cold, that kept minds occupied on other things than the climbs. But after a long day, we finally reached or destination at highway 4 just before 17:00.
The highway seemed deserted, and I was afraid we won’t get a hitch. I was trying to fill my water bottle, and managed to lose it in the stream, just as Idan got the first car to stop. We got the luckiest hitch ever,
A very nice couple took us down to town. They are from Massachusetts, and travelling by car in California. They dropped us right in Markleeville, and we started looking for a room for the night.
The first place was full, but the bartender at the nearby restaurant was very helpful in finding the next motel’s owner. We also got help from other bar patrons, and everyone were very friendly and nice.
We also met Neon, who got here earlier today. He is from Colorado, and we briefly met him before at Tuolumne store. We sat with him after dinner, and invited him over to sleep in our room.We got a great room at the nearby “Toll Station”, at a great price. Sandie, the owner, did our laundry, let us dry our tents in the back and gave us beers.
In the room, we managed to get the TV working, by setting the dish remote control to operate it. I suspect it didn’t work well for a long time now. Right now there’s “Django Unchained” on TV, and it’s way too late for us hikers to still be awake.
