Tuesday September 2, 17.0mi/28.5km
Pass above Soldier Creek (1089.9/9480ft) to Lamoille (1085.9/5890ft) (NV)
I loved my camp spot, nice and high up on a dry ridge to get all the views.
It was all downhill today, the first 4 miles were on nice trail, and I soaked in all the scenery as I descended down into the valley.
After a couple miles passed through a trail junction, where I saw some backpacker was camping in her big Agnes tent. It was so strange to see another backpacker out here, aside from the PCT and Sawtooth Mountains sections, I don’t think I’ve seen any other backpackers. It was a chilly morning hiking in the shade of the mountains.
As the trail descended into the valley, i followed the creek for a mile, and I could tell that the aspens were really trying to overtake this otherwise well-maintained trail.
And these other plants were starting to go to seed.
When I arrived at the Wilderness boundary, I was surprised to see the trail immediately became a 4wd road, instead of a mile later at the actual trailhead. But it was very nice hiking, and as I continued downhill the road became a nice gravel one, I even had a car drive by. It was the Nevada Fish& Game police, they asked about some missing elk, and then gave me a nice cold Gatorade. Pretty soon I left public land and had a 12-mile roadwalk through private property.
It was an easy but boring 4 hours, at least the clouds kept me entertained.
And at 1pm, I was back in Lamoille. This was the town I had hiked into on June 25th, thereby connecting my steps across Nevada.
It started to rain lightly, so I ducked into the bar and got a cold Dr. Pepper. That I started to hitch into Elko, thought it would take me awhile but it was actually pretty quick. In 5 minutes, I got a ride for the half of the journey. The woman from the post office recognized me from back in June, and drove me to Spring Creek. From there, I hitched for 10 minutes at a traffic rotary, and a nice but panicky woman picked me up and dropped me in downtown Elko. I was at my hotel at 2:30 and they let me check in early!
So, now I had finished hiking the HST across Nevada, Idaho, and most of California (I’m going back to fill in the missing 250 mile section). To celebrate, I went to the closest pizza shop and got a couple slices and a large ice cream cone.
I also enjoyed first dinner (pasties), and second dinner (Basque pork). The motel was surprisingly nice inside, it was very modern. And I got free laundry because the quarter machine was broken. Bonus! Tomorrow I’ll get up early, and get my rental car at 8am, to make the drive to Southern California and fill in the missing 250-mile section of trail.