There are many great things about Trader Joe’s, but perhaps my favorite is its free lollipops. Most of you probably didn’t even know that TJ’s gives out free lollies, but yes, yes they do! They’re right after the checkout, and I always grab a few for the road. It often elicits strange looks from more responsible adults, yet it remains one of my favorite part of any visit to Trader Joe’s.
Once, a little boy and I had a staring contest, him being confused why a much bigger boy (me) was still grabbing free lollies. “Mommy”, he asked, “will I always be able to get lollipops?”
Why yes, little boy, you can. There are no rules at Trader Joe’s. And the entire reason why this TJ’s tangent happened, as I’m sure you’re wondering, is that just like those lollipops, this blog is going to be short and sweet. Wow. All that setup just for that terrible punchline. I can hardly believe myself.
And indeed it will be a short but sweet ride today. Just 3 and a half days of adventure this time, sprinting from Echo Lake over to Sierra City. 100 miles in 3 days? You crazy? Perhaps, but the people demand it.
As always, please feel free to mail letters, postcards, mail, or care packages to me on trail! I always get so excited heading to the post office, and the next one will be in Seaid Valley (the last town we’re stopping in CA!). Thank you so much to everyone who’s sent me packages, (we love baby food pouches and random Trader Joe’s snacks), post cards, and letters so far. Going to the post office is like Christmas, each and every time!
Address:
Dennis Gavrilenko (PCT Hiker)
General Delivery, USPS
44717 CA-96
Seiad Valley, CA 96086
Let’s go!
If this is your first episode and you’re thinking “what in the world is happening right now”, start here!
Day 73, 7/22/2025:
13 miles today with 3000 feet of climbing.
First day back on trail, and boy was it an eventful day, full of both physical and mental highs and lows. I’m currently camped on a beautiful ridge right next to Dicks’s Peak (teehee) in Desolation Wilderness, and just saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life over the lakes here:
I ended up spending an extra day in Tahoe to wait for my shoe package to arrive (brooke, Flo, and Pablo went back on trail yesterday), but I eventually learned that my shoes didn’t need to arrive to the post office… since they were already there. However, the postal worker couldn’t for the life of them find the package despite the tracking number saying it should be there, so I had to resort to as politely as I could asking for them to search wherever they could (basically, I needed to be be a Karen without acting like one), after which they promptly found it, told me I’d put the wrong address on it and should’ve picked it up at a different location, and said “you need to be more specific next time sir.” How am I supposed to pick it up at a different location if it’s at this one? Isn’t this why we have tracking numbers? Bruh.
So tl;dr, post office woes in Tahoe.
Following a morning at the hostel near Stateline (I’ve been to Tahoe my entire life and never knew there was a hostel here, but really it’s just a normal motel building converted into a hostel), I walked back to the post office to see if there was something else for me there. Yes there was! A letter from Hamburger Helper, all the way in San Diego. Yay! Thank you HH!
Having received everything Tahoe could give me (postally and spiritually), it was time to continue on the trail and figure out how to reach the trailhead. Fortunately, this problem was already solved yesterday: I’d met Lisa the Trail Angel at the cafe yesterday, who graciously drove over to pick me up from the post office and dropped me off right at Echo Lake. We even had a fun stop at the hardware store to get some storage bins for her! I was a bit conflicted about skipping the 15 miles between Carson pass and echo lake so that I could catch up to Brooke quicker, but Lisa told me it was ok since “you’ll make up the distance geocaching”. Thank you Lisa 🙏.
After chilling at the Echo Lake Chalet for a bit and calling Federico, I officially got back on trail and began the long quest to catch up to brooke. Again. I missed some geocaches (accidentally, though I did feel bad afterward), found the last cache before Desolation Wilderness area began, and flew on to Aloha Lake. I was planning to carry on ahead for many more miles, but a surprise run-in to Sam and Sky (I hadn’t seen them since Tehachapi!) created a quite unexpected one-hour delay. They’d been cruising since KMS but took a week of at Tahoe to have a mini-vacation with their visiting wives, so luckily we ran into each other again and even filmed a clip for Sky’s upcoming next viral video. It was the best delay ever.
UNTIL I WAS GOING THROUGH MY BAG AND REALIZED I FORGOT MY FAVORITE BACKPACKING SPOON IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AT THE TAHOE HOSTEL FUCK FUCK FUCK!!! This is horrible news!! My beloved baby spoon, all the way from Warner Springs!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I remember telling brooke that the spoon would be the thing I’d be the most upset on trail to lose and here I was, wallowing in despair. I knew I shouldn’t have put it on the public drying rack this morning in the kitchen and should’ve had it dry on my bag where I’d see it instead. ☹️☹️☹️
After wallowing in my misery for I bit, I realized that not all hope is lost: But not all hope is lost; I’ll call the hostel as soon as there’s service as ask them to mail me the spoon ahead. It is my baby and I need it back. In the meantime, I’m left to eat spoonless, which is actually a really hard thing to do out of a JetBoil. Oh brother.
Saying bye to Sam and Sky, I continued onward, spoonless but hopeful. The long delay meant darkness was falling much faster than I’d hoped, so after reaching a high ridge and seeing the most beautiful sunset of all time, I set up Pablo’s little itty bitty one-person tent (it’s so cute!) and got ready for bed. Big day tomorrow to catch Brooke and the Frenchies!
Day 74, 7/23:
40 miles today with 6600 feet of climbing. Yes, you read that right. Lfg. I have hiked the entire length of Lake Tahoe in a single day:
After the post office fiasco in South Lake Tahoe, I had a loooooooong way to catch Brooke, Flo, and Pablo, who had a day head start and were themselves pushing 25 miles a day. Looks like my work was cut out for me!! As such, I woke up nice and early at 5:30, was off by 6, and immediately said hi to a giant herd (group?) of grouse who were enjoying the sunrise glow. Delightful.
Long story short, I spent the day cruising at a nice 3ish mph (with plenty of breaks of course) while basking in the glory and admiration of countless Tahoe Rim Trail hikers, who were all extremely impressed by the fact I was a PCT hiker, my physical prowess, my humility regarding said physical prowess, and the many, many miles I had planned for that day. I even leapfrogged with one such couple all day before splitting with them after Barker Pass.
The main highlight of the day was finding an FTF geocache atop a remote mountain peak, which was hidden four years ago and that I was the first to find since then. It was a 1/3 mile off trail through dense shrubbery and steep cliff faces, but after half an hour, I had the ammo can and fresh log in hand! A $5 bill and trackable greeted me, which I happily pocketed and will spend the next time in town. Hooray :)
In other news, since I’ve lost my dearly beloved spoon, I had to whittle myself a new one from a branch so that I could devour some delicious ramen for lunch. Needless to say, I continue to impress myself each and every day:
I closed off the day by finding two geocaches in the pitch black darkness (flex), calling Sanketh (hi!), finding three beers on a random granite boulder along the trail near Palisades Ski Resort (it was really cool to hike through ski resorts I’ve skied at before; one beer was open, the other two needed a quick washing down and chugging by yours truly… that’s my dinner!), and in a slightly buzzed fashion flying to the final campsite where brooke et al were awaiting me (translation: already sleeping). After a short break to observe the Milky Way, I arrived to the campsite meadow at midnight, quickly got into the tent with brooke, and fell right asleep. Mission, accomplished!
Day 75, 7/24:
22 miles today with 3700 feet of climbing.
Finally, I’m back with the group, and an exciting lunch at Donner Ski Ranch is awaiting us! Hooray!
After the crazy long haul yesterday, I was happy to sleep in to 8 am this morning, and have a slow start to the morning with Brooke. We had an early ascent up a ridge below Tinker Knob (who names these things??), where I promptly separated from brooke to find another two geocaches. Two finds and several beautiful views later, I carried on along a beautiful ridgeline to the Sugar Bowl basin, calling Ariv, chatted with some more day hikers, and ran into Brooke’s dad on trail! He had hiked up to meet me, and together we flew down the mountain to catch up to Brooke, Flo, and Pablo (me quickly hiking, him running after taking pictures of all the different trees). We caught up to the gang by the granite road, enjoyed a delightful trail magic of ice cold soda at the parking lot, and headed to the Ski Ranch for a BURGER. YES!!! We spent a relaxed 3 hours (4, really) there before continuing on to Donner Pass. Unexpectedly, it started pouring rain all over our drying belongings (lol), so we rushed to save them before continuing our lunch. The two best parts of the ranch were (1) the free 40 oz beer for all PCT hikers (!) and (2) I called the hostel in Tahoe, and THEY ARE MAILING MY DEARLY BELOVED SPOON TO OLD STATION. LFGLFGLFGLFG. Later this afternoon, I got the most wonderful text of my life, which read “Hey Dennis this is Sal from Mellow Mountain hostel your spoon is on its way!”, to which of course I responded that “Sal, you’re my hero.”
Also, Pablo now has a new phone! His broke in Tahoe, and the new one arrived today via the Nate Delivery Service of America. 💪
Brooke and her dad then left first, first shortly thereafter by Flo and Pablo, followed longly thereafter by me. I called Mama on the rolling hills to Highway 50, downloaded some more music while there was service, intersected Nate (he was heading back to the car after saying bye to Brooke), chatted with some hiking moms from El Dorado Hills full of admiration of my thru-hike, and eventually caught up to Flo and Pablo. We zoomed on ahead, and after investigating a cool Sierra Club Peter Grubb Hut lodge on trail (it was padlocked closed, but four dudes were brute-forcing the combination lock that had 10000 permutations; assuming 3 seconds per attempt, I’d estimate an average of 4 hours until they get it), arrived at camp with Brooke. A delightful day!
Day 76, 7/25:
34 miles with 3300 feet of climbing. We are hiking machines!
After our chill(er) day yesterday, the goal was to push mega miles today to reach Sierra City by nightfall. A lovely bed waited for us there, as well as packages and letters at the post office; the PO was only open from 10:30-noon on Saturday, so we wanted to make sure we’d arrive on time for it to be open before Sunday arrived. And off we went!
4 gradual, 400-foot climbs greeted us in the morning, followed by a looooooong descent down to the base of the Sierra Buttes. Thunderstorms (Nate calls them “thunderboomers”) were in the area all day, and occasionally would stop by to greet us will a delicious downpour of cold water. Woowee! It’s nice to finally use my rain jacket for something other than mosquito defense.
We played hopscotch with Flo and Pablo all day, eventually passed them once and for all in the evening, and walked through the Wild Plum Campground into town in the pitch black darkness. The town was cute, the hotel we were staying at even cuter (it used to house gold miners), and the hotel’s owner’s dog the cutest; we took quick showers before falling right asleep after a few huge days of pushing. We’ve made it at last!
Day 77, 7/26:
Best day on trail by far! Sierra City was, quite unexpectedly, the best town on trail so far, and it was nothing short of spectacular. A short recap of the days events, because there were so many fun things that happened and yet I still felt relaxed all day:
Slept in. That’s always a win, especially when it’s in a nice bed
Drank free coffee at the hotel
Got free trail magic curry breakfast from a Reno couple staying at the RV camp next door to the hotel. Y’all are the best! And congrats on your upcoming kid!
Picked up our package from the post office, which CONTAINED SUPPLIES FROM KENNEDY MEADOWS THAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR IN GREAT ANTICIPATION FOR OVER A MONTH, before searching through every single package at the nearby general store (they just put all the packages in a pile and have hikers find their stuff!) and finding that Kat from Darn Tough sent me three more new pairs of socks (Kat, you’re my hero 💙🩵)
Walked to the Red Moose cafe, with short stops at the only two gift shops in town. One was selling big sugar pine cones for $25 apiece (I commented on the ridiculousness of this to brooke, and another dude in the store said it was like “selling ice cubes to an Eskimo”), and the other was an art gallery giving out free postcards. Sick
Ate a SECOND breakfast at the Red Moose, where we were served amazingly by our wonderful waiter Scott (hi!) and I wrote my best postcard blurbs to date
Played two games of pool with some other PCT hikers and lost both games
Checked out the general store and it’s crazy prices
Laid in the hammock
Bought 3 books for $3 at the local library’s outside bookshop (the library is only open 1:30-3:30 pm Tuesday and Thursday lol): a romcom book for Brooke, a picture book about Princess Diana, and a collection of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. They’re the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read
Checked out at 4:30 pm because the hotel owner was out all day gold mining and didn’t “give a single solitary fuck about when you leave my hotel as long as you don’t fuck shit up”. I later saw him and learned that he had no luck with the gold panning lol
Said a tearful goodbye to Flo and Pablo, who are taking a week off trail because they need a mental break (so valid, they ended up going to Zion NP lol)
Decided to hike up the fire road to shortcut to the fire tower atop the Sierra Buttes and avoid the hitchhike out of town, left at 5 pm when the plan was leave around noon (lol)
Hiked up the wrong fire road, got yelled at by a local with a big ass bulldog and who warned us that “the lady who lives up there has two Rottweilers and a backhoe, and she’ll bury you if you go up there”, then backtracked to the correct fire road
Found someone’s lost dog
GOT A RIDE A MILE UP THE MOUNTAIN FROM THE RECENTLY-LOST-BUT-NOW-FOUND DOG’S OWNERS (super nice dudes, one was from Florida)
Hiked up another mile before being offered a ride by ANOTHER dude driving HIS truck up, and were right away offered a beer and a great conversation about telecommunications policy from our hero Sam who successfully didn’t drive off the super sketch cliff
Hiked up to where the fire road meets the PCT, found swim MORE trail magic, set up camp with brooke, and read a Politically Correct Snow White to our PCT hiker friends camping nearby
What an absolutely epic day :)
Entertaining as always. Thank you for posting the images of the Milky Way ❤️
It’s safe to say you’ve made up a lot of distance geocaching!