@39.66224,-120.67576
Holy moly that was a hard day for just 16 miles.
A late start due to breakfast at the Red Moose in Sierra City, seeing off Burps, who is headed to Missoula to get a masters degree. Jandal needed to wait for the store to open to resupply, so I started walking back up the road to the trail alone.
Although the mountains are less high in this stretch of the Sierra, the river valleys are much deeper. It’s a 3000+ foot climb from the banks of the Yuba back to the pacific crest.
It’s hot, approaching 90 by late morning and few trees grow on the steep rocky sides of the Sierra Buttes. I make use of my chrome dome umbrella for the first time in this trip and am gratified at how much it lowers the temperature. But it also blocks my vision up the steep trail and I walk past the turnoff to the spring.
I discover my mistake a half mile later and convince myself that the liter of water I have will be sufficient to get me to the next reliable water 5 miles distant.
It nearly isn’t. The trail wraps around the south side of the butte and its rocky nature turns the trail into a furnace. With the effort of the climb and a full pack, water pours out of me as if from a kettle. I ration my water and so don’t run out. But I am cramping and nauseated by the time I reach the spring. A spring which is cold and delicious and gratifying. 
Rather than remain on the waterless crest, the trail has been rerouted to drop down 1500 feet to some lakes and a campground. I stop at the first lake and enjoy a swim, rinsing the salt and dirt from my skin, but then acquire a new layer as the trail heads back to the crest again in the hot smoky afternoon sun. 
There are a whole series of large lakes, some with cabins, lying in basins on the east side of the crest. The view would be spectacular if the air were clear. It is not, the smoke accumulating as the day wears on.
I stop at a ridge top campsite in a grove of good sized firs and am soon joined by a cheerful Aussie who started several miles further back and found the hike delightful. I guess I just need to toughen up. I’ll start working on that tomorrow.