The Adventures of...: Days 106, 107

Day 106, 24 miles, endpoint PCT mile 1638

We spent the day going up and down and up and down through the Marble Mountain Wilderness. We saw no other PCT hikers. The trail felt deserted, as if we had the place to ourselves. It was very nice that way.

The reason no other PCT hikers were out today is that the majority of the people are skipping ahead to Ashland, 150 miles away from the exit point of the trail to Highway 3 before the closure we walked around. I don't really get it. From Etna north the trail is open and perfectly safe. There are no fires encroaching the PCT here, and I see absolutely no reason to miss this beautiful stretch of wilderness. In Etna all people could talk about were the fires and how dangerous they were. I agree that forest fires are dangerous, but only when you are close to them. Right now, we are not close. But I digress. The less people out here on the trail, the more enjoyable the hiking, so I'm not going to complain too much.

The theme of the day was climbing and descending. It was a roller coaster trail, with the climbs leading up to rocky outcroppings and the descents to meadows with wildflowers. The only downside was the hazy, smokey air. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was a misty, foggy, overcast kind of day. The smoke obstructed any distant views we may have had; I think there was a lot we missed out on today because of that.

Tomorrow we have about 24 miles to go to reach the small town of Seiad Valley, which is right on the trail. It is our last stop in California. We will hopefully get some updates there of the fires north of Seiad towards the Oregon border; we are hoping we will be able to take the PCT all the way in (right now we are camped about 60 miles from the border), but that remains to be seen.

Smokey trail views

Wildflowers were peaking.

We must have missed some amazing views.

Smokey trail views.

A baby snake??? very gross looking

Day 107, 29 miles, endpoint 5 miles up Seiad Creek Road (PCT alternate route)

Josh ans I had another interesting day out here in PCT land. From way up in the Marble Mountains at 6,600 feet, we had a long 18 mile descent through a dense forest, dropping down to a low of 1,300 feet. We followed Grider Creek for much of the downhill; the green forest and loudly flowing creek made me feel like Oregon was just around the corner.

After the downhill we came to a road, which we followed for the last six miles into the town of Seiad Valley. This is one of the smallest towns we have been to yet. It offers four places for visitors: a post office, a store, a cafe, and an RV park. Of these four places, two of them were closed when we arrived at 4pm (the post office and cafe). The people in town were extremely friendly and very kind towards hikers, however, so it was a great place to stop.

We bought food and spoke with a few other hikers about the upcoming trail conditions. One of the hikers had just traveled south from Ashland, and the fact that he made it through without being burned alive was a good sign (if you believed the hype from all of the hikers who skipped this section, you would surely believe all who passed through this section would be burned. Alive.).

A member of the National Parks Service fire management team was also there and confirmed to us that the trail was open. Just as we were getting ready to hike out of Seiad in the evening, another southbound hiker showed up. He told us he had gone along with so many other people and skipped ahead to Ashland. While there, he couldn't get the trail out of his mind, and realized being in Ashland wasn't right. Leaving his friends behind, he got back on trail and hiked south through the section he missed. It is worth noting that he also made it through the area without being burned alive. That sealed it. We were hiking north on the PCT and nothing was going to stop us.

On a tip from a local, we took an alternate route up a forest service road called Seiad Creek Road to meet back up with the PCT. From where we are camped--still on the forest service road--we are 27 trail miles from the Oregon border. We are both so excited to finally get out of California, after hiking through it in five different months. We will either get there late tomorrow or the following morning!