Sierra Buttes - Nelson Creek 7/29/10 21miles

We got a pretty good start to have drank a bottle of wine . We winded down the backside of the Buttes and enjoyed views of the beautiful fire tower at the top. We came to a gravel road and wondered around in circles for a while trying to find where the trail picked back up. A pile of cars pulled up and the man in the first car jumped out and asked if we needed anything. He was super nice. We told him that we had just gotten our resupply and that we were okay. We talked for a while and he told the group of hikers that he was leading, what we were doing. As we were leaving, he slipped us some cash. Wow, that's never happened. As we were leaving, Kristi laughed and asked me, "Do we look that bad?" We continued following the gravel road for a ways and then dropped back into the woods. The ridge was beautiful, overlooking 10's of beautiful blue lakes. We had lunch next to a pond and took a little snooze in the shade. WE woke up in the sun dripping with sweat and got on our way. My Crocs were holding up to the test, but my heel is still sliding out..? We took another break at the "A Tree" (long story), nice spring. A trail crew was working on the trail ahead and we passed them on the way up. The trail was dusty, wide and clear, with views of the Butte's fifteen miles away. We got cell signal at the top and Kristi called and checked on her mom. We headed down to camp on a nice creek. We got in early so we had a little fire with dinner. Pretty and pretty lucky day. -CM