Day 71 August 4, 2017

Daily mileage 20
Total mileage 1297
Hiked from 5:30 am to 6:00 pm

A boring long downhill, a momentous California town, a great breakfast, some shitty news and most of a long climb done. All today.

All 6 of us who camped together got up early this morning knowing we had a long road walk into Seiad Valley in potentially hot temperatures. The walk down to the road was neither easy or hard or good or bad. It just happened.

Once I got to the road, progress slowed considerably as I kept coming across roadside patched of blackberries that were just screaming to be ingested. Funny part is I usually do not even like blackberries but out here you simply do not pass by any readily available food.

Walking through burned forest

The start of the six mile road walk. Ugh.

These signs were everywhere in Seiad Valley

Just before I reached the store and restaurant, a couple pulled over on their truck and simply handed me a bottle of cold water. Yet another example of how great people are, particularly those near the PCT.

Reaching Seiad Valley was somewhat momentous because it is the last California town before the Oregon border.

Once at the restaurant, I had a great breakfast of blackberry pancakes with eggs and sausage. And everybody knows that a breakfast like that is best finished with a salted caramel milkshake.

Yum.

At the restaurant, they have the five pancake challenge. These particular pancakes weigh in at one pound each. I guess that in the last decade only 4 people have beat the challenge. Radio (one of the hikers I camped with last night) decided to accept the challenge today. After a valiant effort, he tossed in the towel after 2 1\2 of the giant cakes.

Radio and five pounds of pancakes.

During breakfast, I had a look at the PCTA website to see about any new trail closures. It is really crappy news that they have had to close the trail at Crater Lake because.of a fire. Crater Lake is supposed to be one of the highlights of the trail. So now that means I have missed the Sierra because of snow and high water and I will miss Crater Lake and Tunnel Falls (further north on Mt Hood) due to fires. PCT 2017, you are starting to suck.

A bunch of us decided to hang out in the shade in hopes of cooler temperatures for the long climb out of the valley. While we were there, locals kept dropping by, some to chat and even one to give us a watermelon. We really are treated like celebrities in these small trail towns.

My original plan was to camp here and then head out uber early tomorrow for the long climb out of the valley.  I decided to go out later in the afternoon for two reasons.  First, although it was hot, it was not infernal hot.  The smoke in the air is acting as an insulator, keeping the temps down a bit.  And then there is the trail drama!  There is a group of hikers here that seem to feel a bit entitled.  When one of them had to wait an ungodly 15 minutes for his milkshake (bear in mind that there are three people working the entire restaurant - one cooking, one waiting and one washing dishes), he created a bit of a scene.  I was a mere bystander for all of this, but it did act as an incentive to carry on rather than hanging with this group at the camping area.

At around 4 pm we started heaving on the packs and trudging out to the trail. The climb out of the valley is 4500 feet and I got in 2700 of those feet before finding a suitable camp site. The rest of the climb should be easy to finish in the morning. Then it will be off to the Oregon border and Ashland where I have to figure out what is best for me on this PCT thing.

Smoky views

Home for the night