PCT Day 93 – PCT Mile 1185.9 to Upper Tamarack Lake (1206.5)

July 6, 2026

Total PCT miles: 20.5

Non PCT miles: 2.0

Total: 22.5 miles / 33.0 km

Total elevation gain: 4491 ft

Total elevation loss: 4239 ft

Steps: 49142

I slept through my first alarm this morning. Normally not a big deal but today my second alarm was set for an hour later for some reason. Ultimately in the end it didn’t matter and I’m sure I needed the extra hour of sleep.

Today I’ll arrive in Sierra City, which isn’t much of a city. It’s barely a town with a population of 250ish people. It’s 10.7 miles to the road and then another two miles to the post office and general store and almost all of it is downhill.

I made really good time partly because of the terrain but also there really wasn’t much to see. When I arrived at Haypress Creek I saw a sign showing a shortcut that went directly into town. It passed through wild plumb campground and probably saved 1 mile at best.

There isn’t much to Sierra City. A Cafe that’s closed Monday (today) and Tuesday, the most ridiculously overpriced general store in all of America, a post office with the friendliest postmaster and Some small vacation properties. This would be a quick stop also known as a HERO (Head in, eat, resupply, out).

There were several other PCT hikers hanging out at the side of the store some of which I had met and others I had not. Apparently you can camp here but the space is really small. The prices at the store are literal highway robbery and it was the most I’ve paid on trail for anything. 7$ for a can of RedBull 4.50 for a chocolate bar. Ridiculous. Fortunately the grill was reasonably priced and the food was decent.

I finally mailed home my bear canister, microspikes and waterproof socks and as a result am carrying 3.2 lbs less of stuff. The weight is also better distributed in my bag as my bear can would only but vertically so it was always off to one side.

I was in town for a total of 3 hours. You can have a cold shower at the public restrooms but ewww and what’s the point if I can’t do laundry. I started walking along the road towards the trail and was picked up by Dan without even having my thumb out. I appreciate not having to walk the 2 miles.

From here the trail gains near 3000 ft of elevation over 7 miles which was not something I was looking forward to in the peak heat of the day. The first 1000 ft was in forest with lots of shade but the remainder was all on exposed ridge with lots of rocks. I think my most favorite thing to do is hike on exposed ridges on rocks in peak sun…

Fortunately there were some nice views and even cell signal for a bit. Oh I forgot to mention Sierra City has no cell signal what so ever. What “City” has no cell signal.

From the top I started my decent and found myself on the steepest decline I’ve been on all trail. Turns out I wasn’t on the PCT so that explains that. I made it to Tamarack Lake which is accessible by 4x4s as there is one here with a rooftop tent. Wish I had mine out here, would be a lot easier than walking.

I passed the 1200 mile marker. I don’t really have any deep thoughts about this one other than I passed the 1100 mile marker 5 days ago so I’m happy with that. This also means I’ve been hiking on an ankle I sprained about 1000 miles ago!