Day 9 - Mile 1632 7 measly miles.

I woke up tired today. In fact I was still sleeping at 6:30 when a bird miscalculated and hit my hammock by mistake. At least I think it was by mistake. Anywoo I did roll out of bed and got started walking about 7:45. Kinda late for me. That was to be the theme of the day. Slow, and plodding. I can’t quite believe I only made 7 miles today but I was dragging every step of the way. I imagine it could have something to do with the 14+ miles I did the day before. Yesterday I was running on adrenaline because I couldn’t stop, as there was no place for me to camp. The canyon I was climbing up was steep and narrow. Whatever the reason, every step I took today was an effort. 

Oh I just did the calculation of elevation gained today. 3,322’. That could have something to do with my sluggishness. Ok. I guess I don’t feel so bad. 

I will say I was very happy to get out of that canyon. It was close and steep and dark. Not my favorite kind of place to hang out, I felt almost claustrophobic. So I was relieved to climb out of Grinder Canyon and I have the fervent wish we never meet again. 

I did enter Marble Mountain Wilderness today. This promises to be a very pretty area. 

An update on the poison oak saga, so far so good. I’ve been diligent about trying not to touch my pants and shoes but when I do, I either wash my hands or use a wet wipe to remove any potential oils I might have gotten on me. This might seem a bit extreme on my part but I just got over a bout where I had it on my eyes and face. I don’t want to go back there. 

I love the openness of the terrain I am in now. And the flowers are stunning. Some old tried and true ones but some I’ve never seen and don’t know the names of. Let’s see if you all do. 

Plus there were tons of berry bushes in flower. This whole area will be prime bear encounter area come fall. Bears love those berries. 

My original goal for today was Paradise Lake, which is 5 miles farther up the trail. When trying to decide whether or not to stop early I told myself if there was water at Buckhorn Spring then I could stop early. Otherwise I’d have to go on because of water issues. Lucky me. 

What this means for the next three days is that I must average 12 miles each day. Tomorrow should be fine as there isn’t too much elevation change throughout the day. Saturday it’s supposed to rain all day so that could be a challenge. I only hope it doesn’t rain when I’m setting up or breaking down camp. That gets tricky. 

It’s only 5:17 pm and I’m enveloped in my hammock, dinner done and set for the night. I’m going to do some serious recovery tonight and hit the ground running tomorrow. Or, walking with vigor and purpose to my next destination. 🤣

Day 8 - Mile 1639 14.25 miles

I left Seiad Valley at 7:30 ish with the goal of getting the 6.5 road walk done before it got hot. It was a pretty nice walk, all things considered. There were wild sweet peas,

and the road crossed the mighty Klamath River by bridge. 

I finally got off the highway and turned onto a road that parallels the river on the other side. There were homes, with barking dogs who tried to intimidate me with their racket. Fortunately they weren’t aggressive towards me. 

I got to Grinder Campground and finally found the trailhead. Immediately I was taken with the terribly overgrown pathway. There were grasses and flowering bushes, sometimes way over my head.  

Then the poison oak started. Big time. There was no way for me to avoid it but I hope I was able to keep it on my shoes and pants only. After two hours of this I stopped near a creek crossing and had lunch. I started to freak out because I am so allergic to the stuff. How will I avoid getting it on my skin? What can I do to protect myself? Should I head back to town so I can wash my clothes and shoes? Should I bail on this section because of the oak and my fears? What to do...

I finally realized if I did bail I would never finish the PCT because this section will always have PO. So the best thing I can do is to work on keeping my bare skin away from my pants. When I rolled into camp tonight I got my pitifully small packet of Technu (poison oak soap) out and washed my arms and legs off then put on my sleeping clothes. That’s the best I can do. My doc said I could call him if I needed a second course of steroids (having just had a bad outbreak a few weeks ago). So we will see how it goes. 

Eventually I made it to a very nice campsite with a nearby creek. It took some doing though because I spent the entire day climbing, only gaining about 2,000’ in the process. But other than the poison oak the area is beautiful. I followed Grinder Creek up and was very fortunate that the bridges, which my maps say were burned up in a fire, have been replaced with steel bridges. That made me happy since there is a bit of power behind the water in Grinder Creek. 

Two of the three bridges for today. 

I am settled in my hammock and will probably sleep well tonight...I’m tuckered out. Here’s the hammock with the extra under quilt. If nothing else, I’ll be cozy warm. 

Day 7 - Still in Seiad Valley

Not too much to report here. I’ve had a couple of meals at the cafe and chatted with the locals. Folks are nice but I suspect if I scratched the polite surface we might disagree an a bunch of things as they seem to have an anti-government tilt, slightly different than mine. At least from the conversations I’ve had, or overheard. So I smile and say thanks and wish them well. I am just dropping in to their lives after all. 

The good news is that I get to have my second shower, in 2 days. Luxury. 

Back out tomorrow at first light. Woohoo!

Day 6 - Mid River RV Park

Does anyone remember what the Italians call this phenomenon? Where distance changes the color or tone of objects? This is the first thing I saw when I came up from the little hollow I slept in last night. It got me to thinking about art history and why I like the old Dutch painters better than the old Italian painters. Then I went on to what it is about my personality that prefers their spare, almost stark richness and the subject matter of regular people to the Italian style of busyness. I definitely lean towards a more zen sensibility. 

All this is to say I was walking along thinking my important thoughts about what is “good” and “bad” art, as well as paying attention to the ball bearing style rocks under my feet, when I realized I couldn’t see the trail. This area was very over grown, still in a burn area, with the trail being hidden from above and me having to push through to pass. I looked around, went forward and back, then took the most obvious way ahead. Wrong. I went down then completely lost any semblance of trail. I decided to use my Guthooks app to see where I was in real time and bush wacked back up to the trail. Phew. I turned left, the same direction had been heading, and began to climb. I kinda wondered why I was headed up but just kept going until I reached a saddle I had been at a while back. Damn, I had walked backwards 2/10 of a mile. I ended up taking 2 hours to gain 1.5 miles of progress. WTH?

Where’s the trail?

I turned around and retraced my steps till I got back to the spot I had gone wrong before. Then I got Halfmiles app out and fired up its real-time gps, wandering around until I found the correct path. I can see why I missed it because it was a hard left, completely hidden from view. Dang. I don’t usually use electronic apps, preferring to work off paper maps, but this morning I was happy to have them accessible. 

I’d like to say the day was all rosy and fun but it was mostly just steep down hill in the hot sun. However there were nice parts. Shaded soft paths. 

Wild lilac (I think). There was so much the smell was almost overpowering. 

But then there was this evil plant. 

There was so much just off the trail that in a couple of weeks anyone walking that path would not be able to avoid it. It’s early enough that I could, but only by paying close attention and dancing the side shuffle.  

I got down off the trail and had to road walk to get to Seiad Valley, only 8/10 of a mile, so not too bad. I arrived at JJ’s Cafe about 12:30, in time for copious amounts of ice tea and a burger with fries. 

There is nothing like real food after 6 days of trail chow. I think I eat pretty well on trail, but still.  

I’m settled in here, showered and clothes washed. Unfortunately, I have to eat trail food tonight for dinner but JJ’s opens at 7 am. Wonder where I’ll be then?

(Backup) Day 5 - Devils Saddle Camp - mile 1663

What a day. I set foot on the trail at 6:20 am and not 5 minutes later I hit the burn area. It looks like I guessed correctly about where to stay last night since the burn area went on for a 7 long miles. Newly burned, as in last year. At times I seemed to be smelling the smoke from the fire. Very sad. I don’t know what the area looked like before but with all that I saw, there must have been a big fuel buildup in order to burn so hot. Still, flowers are blooming and I could see plants coming up from the roots of plants that had burned to the ground. Can’t keep a sturdy plant down for long. 

It is odd to experience disorientation when hiking along in a burn area. Three times today I got, not lost exactly, but I couldn’t find the trail in and among all the burned trees and downed wood. I never paid attention to how the trail looks when things are growing normally. Dirt path with green things along side. If there aren’t green or growing things on flat ground then the path isn’t readily visible. Not a big deal but disconcerting none the less. 

Early on I had a view into the far distance and I saw, what looked to be the trail above the road across the way. I wondered “Is the trail going over there? Still in a burn area?” Yup. That’s where I went and I’m telling you that open hillside devoid of any cover was a cooker. I broke out the umbrella to deal with the sun today. Still it didn’t last forever and finally, finally the trees returned. And I even passed pretty Lily Pad Lake. 

Unfortunately the nice green forest didn’t last for long and the trail continued on through an old burn area. Dead trees here and there surrounded by scrub brush and other low growing plants. At least they were green but as the day went on I started wondering just where I was gonna find two live trees to hang my hammock from for the night. I talked to a few people going the other way and they all said the burn goes on ‘forever.’  Probably not but that is how it feels to folks after so many miles. Any way I started getting tired and actually toppled over at one point. Well, I snagged my foot on a root and went down, landing on my pack. How lucky! No harm, no foul. But it was a warning to me that I shouldn’t push it much further and needed to find a home for the night pronto. 

Luckily I happened along to this area just off the side of the trail with the most perfect trees in the most perfect setting. I’m probably just happy to have a home for the night that feels safe and is 6.7 miles from town. I added a bit of domesticity to the scene and then had my new favorite dinner, “Cowgirl Pasta.” Yummm. Tomorrow it’s JJ’s for lunch in Seiad Valley!

Day 4 - Hemlock Campsite - mile 1675

Today I was a bit creaky when I rolled out of the hammock at 6:30 am. It was the kind of day where, were I at home, I’d be hot tubbing and hanging in my hammock all day, napping. The hammock part I got, just not the other stuff. Oh well. As someone said to me “You can sleep when you are dead.”

This means it took a bit to warm up so I walked to a spring nearby to fill my water bottles, thinking 2.5 liters would get me to the next water source. The first two miles were climbing, climbing, climbing. Did I mention climbing? All that effort was rewarded when I got up top as the views were extraordinary. 

Anyway the hiking for the rest of the day was varied. Some up, some down but mostly trending down where tonight I am at 6,013’. That’s quite a drop from my height point of...

There were odd things seen...

And snow to cross... though not much 🤪
But the best part were the flowers and trees. 

It got hot today so I was sweating quite a bit. By the time I got to the first on-trail water source, 10 or so miles into my day, I probably had 4 ounces of water left. That was cutting it close. To avoid a repeat of that I gathered 4 liters of water at Bear Dog Spring to carry with me to camp. Hummmm...9+ pounds of water be heavy. 

I made it another couple of miles to a spot 12.5 miles from last nights campsite. I wanted to go a little further today since I think tomorrow I may be walking through a big burn area. I can see it ahead but don’t have any idea how much of the trail goes though the area. It’s possible I may have to go a long way to find trees suitable for hanging. But for tonight it’s good and I am happy to be set up and to get myself ready for tomorrow.