Gone Fishin

Being back on the trail is so nice. I've been hiking at a faster pace and covering more miles in the day than I thought I would after taking two weeks off. I've hiked about 76 miles in the past 3 1/2 days. Yesterday I walked over the 1000 mile marker at Cascade Creek! I, even, can't believe I've walked that far. Still got a ways to go though. Hitched into the small town of Bridgeport, CA before noon today after reaching Sonora Pass at mile 1018. Haven't decided whether I will stay in town tonight camping behind the elementary school or try hitching back to the trail after I've gotten resupplies at the grocery store, a monster burrito at the bar, and 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream. Looking to cover more ground as the trail continues and eventually, hopefully by Oregon, catch up with hikers I've been traveling with prior to Erin's wedding. I have met just a handful of new thru hikers: NonStop, Whoooooi!, Blackberry, Paparazzi Biscuit, and Annica. The trail goes over 10,000 feet just a few more times in the next 10 miles and then never again. So really its kinda all down hill from here with less snow traversing. Now the river fords will be more difficult and mosquitoes, that are more like underground gangs in New York City. I have had a few river fords in the past few days that have been near chest high. These fords are not only extremely chilly, but very capable of knocking you over, which can be lethal if swept away downstream over a waterfall or just plain hypothermia(freezing to shock or death). The mosquitoes just started to get bad last night. After nearly bathing in bug spray and standing in the smoke of my campfire, the "suckers" were still all over me. The upside of things has been the scenery as usual. The mountains have become more volcanic after leaving Yosemite National Park a couple days ago. More red and orange in the rocks than the silver and gray granite of Yosemite. And, I caught my first fish yesterday!.....Bare handed! That's right, no fishing pole or hook. Just my hands and a dumb fish that swam out of a lake into the flooded trail that was more like a very skinny and shallow creek. Basically just got em into too shallow of water for him to do much more wiggling around to the point where I just snacthed him right up with my hands. No, I didn't eat him. Just got a video with him(which you will have to wait to see on here for at least a couple weeks) and tossed him back into Dorthy Lake. My SPOT seems to be low on batteries and I don't have any extra lithium batteries and neither does this small town. So, if I'm unsuccessful at obtaining the right kind of batteries, my family won't know exactly where I'm at, which may mean less info here on the blog until I get to my next town, which may be Echo Lake. Sierra City is still my next definite stop for mail.
Zac Finley PCT Hiker
General Delivery
Sierra City, CA 96125
(530) 862-1152
I should be there, no more than 2 weeks from now.
Happy Trails!