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[pct-l] Sierra City businesses/Buckhorn restaurant



Greetings from a long-time list lurker and section hiker.

I'm just back home from a section hike that began at I-80 (Calif. section
L) and ended at Quincy/LaPorte Road in Plumas County. Some quick
observations to share:

1) The main pack of northbound thru-hikers seems to be well north of Tahoe
now. I saw 12 in a single day on the day I stopped in Sierra City. At least
half of those 12 were resupplying at the post office and store and heading
back on out the same day.

2) The weather in this region has been unseasonably warm -- 10-15 degrees
above normal. And seasonal water supplies are almost all dry at this point.
But there is still a key spring just past the Sierra Buttes jeep road. It's
not listed in the guidebook or databook, but it's real and it's important
to northbounders who otherwise would be looking at 15 miles w/o water to
Summit Lake.

3) Things are changing in Sierra City. The RV park which used to be hiker
friendly is now exactly the opposite, according to two nobos I spoke with.
And the store, which used to be hiker hostile is now friendly. I confirmed
that myself. The crux of the problem, it seems, was the sheer amount of
space on the porch taken up by thru-hikers organizing their resupply boxes.
It made ingress and egress from the business difficult. With most hikers
organizing their boxes next door at the post office and saving the benches
on the porch for beer drinkin' and tale-tellin' , all is swell.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. The Buckhorn Restaurant, which
is one of only three eateries in Sierra City, will rank as the worst town
experience I've had to date.
I had showered, shaved and changed into town clothes, so trail aroma was
not the problem here. Also, there were just five tables of people in the
entire place, and two waitresses between them, so a dinner rush wasn't the
problem either.

The esteemed Henry Shires was the only person I know of to mention the
Buckhorn in a journal. I recall from several years ago he recounted a
terrible experience there. A total wipeout with a drunken hostess, a psycho
cook, etc. This was, alas, just as bad:

With my wife (who'd driven up specifically to see me) we went to dinner at
the Buckhorn on Thursday, July 29.

Problem 1) No maitre'd, no hostess, no manager. Nobody at all. We stood at
the hostess station for about three minutes before a bartender spotted us
and yelled at us to go out to the patio and find a waitress to seat us. OK.

Problem 2) Once seated, we had to ask for utensils. And we had to ask for
water.

Problem 3) The salad bar featured no salad or salad dressings. It was
totally wiped out and apparently no staffer had noticed this in quite some
time. We had to ask for that, as well.

Problem 4) The waitress returns to us 10 minutes after we've ordered and
tells us they're out of hamburgers. We order steak sandwiches instead.
They're out of those, too.

Problem 5) They're out of beer. Seriously. On a day when the mercury was
101 in town under overcast skies, they have no beer on tap. No problem.
We'll go with bottles.

Problem 6) 35 minutes after placing our amended order, we have to chase
down the waitress and ask her if everything's OK in the kitchen. This
doesn't register at all with her. Total blank, zero-comprehension look.
"Um, yeah. It's ok. It's coming." Nothing had emerged from the kitchen in
nearly 45 minutes -- and ours was the only table that didn't have food on
it.

At this point my wife said we should simply leave, which we did -- after I
threw down a Jackson for two bottles of beer and two tiny plates of salad.
If I'd been in a bellicose mood it would have been different -- but there
was nobody to remonstrate with. So I drop the money and chalk it all up to
karma. Too many bad vibes already ....

Do not patronize this establishment. It may have been an off night, but I
doubt it. Six problems in such a short span of time, plus an empty dining
room tells me this wasn't a coincidence. Nobody seemed to have a clue what
they were doing. Nobody asked us if anything was going wrong. I believe
they probably barely noticed we walked out hungry.

Herrington's Sierra Pines just 1/4 mile down Highway 49 is a fine dinner
option with a comparable menu and a good track record with thru-hikers. As
is the bar just across from the post office and store, which serves dinner
Wednesday-Sunday and specializes in BBQ. And, on a more positive note,
Mountain Shadows, the British breakfast and lunch place, is just GREAT and
very hiker friendly.

Sierra City is still a wonderful town stop on so many levels. Just don't
make the mistake I did. Avoid the Buckhorn and enjoy the rest of the town
to the fullest.

If anyone needs or wants my detailed trail notes on conditions/water
supplies, please e-mail me off-list and I'll send it to you.

See you out there,

DP



David Plotnikoff
Columnist/Asst. Business Editor
San Jose Mercury News
plotnikoff@sjmercury.com
voice: (408) 920-5867