Day Seventy Eight

Today's miles: 27 miles
Total miles: 1690

Since we had such a big climb this morning to tackle (6,000 feet in seven miles) the seven of us woke up at 5:00 am and got on trail by 6:00. The morning was much cooler than last night's sticky, buggy heat, and surprisingly, the first four miles or so were relatively easy. Granted, it was steep and it was exhausting climbing switchback after switchback, but I was proud of myself for tackling it. I felt, once again, like a thru-hiker. I was strong, I was fit, and even when my body ached and my breath came in ragged gasps as I climbed, my legs never tired. It was fascinating, really, how like little machines my legs had become. No matter the terrain or the elevation, my legs keep moving, step after step, climb after climb. And at the end I might be weary, but my legs were always ready for more. I felt badass.

The final three miles of the climb were much steeper, and my pace slowed, carefully struggling up the hill, but I didn't stop. That was the mark of a thru-hiker. We may be weary by the climb, but we press ever forward, determined to conquer. And I finally did. The climb we had been obsessing and worried about for so many days was suddenly over. We had climbed and conquered it, like every mountain before that, and every mountain after.

At the top we took a long snack break, looking out over the landscape. The smoke settled over the remnants of burned trees, obscuring our view. It was misty, and eerie, and everything was covered in a fine layer of ash. While we ate, the boys took up one of their favorite activities: rock throwing. I have discovered that in the wilderness, left to their own devices, all boys revert to five year olds. They find joys in the simple things of life: peeing over cliffs. Having farting contests. Consuming as many calories per meal as humanely possible. Making the best "that's what she said!" reference. Peeing on every tree they pass. Throwing rocks. Throwing bigger rocks. Throwing the biggest rocks they have the strength to lift.

And that was the activity of the afternoon when we reached our mountain top terminus. The boys began throwing rocks over the cliff. Soon they graduated from throwing rocks over a cliff to throwing rocks into trees. They tried to hit the trunks of the burned snags, and then the lingering branches, and then the pinecones attached to the branches.
"Wait, are those pinecones?" Giddyup asked.
"Either pinecones or... really still birds...." Sneaks said.

Soon the air was full of whizzing rocks, while Wocka Wocka, Katie and I laughed at the boy's antics. They graduated to bigger and bigger rocks, until we turned to see Sneaks and Sunshine hefting a huge boulder between them, struggling up the hill so that they could chuck it off the side of the mountain. Sunshine lifted it to waist-height, gave a huge yell and threw it.... where it fell in a dead weight, two feet in front of him.
"SON OF A BITCH!" he shrieked, while we all cracked up. "Dammit, that was going to be awesome!!"
Pretty soon they were back to throwing smaller rocks, and at each throw, Sunshine screamed out his frustrations in a hilariously high-pitched shriek:
"I hate you California!!"
Chuck.
"You're hot all the time!!"
Throw.
"You make me sweat!!"
Whizz.
"You have way too many switchbacks!!"
Thunk.

We laughed and joined in and yelled at California. With Oregon so close in sight, it was easy to be excited to leave a state we had been hiking in for months.

After thoroughly letting out our frustrations in rock throwing, we moved on. The terrain mellowed out and I cruised. By 11:00 we had gone eleven miles and stopped for a long lunch break. We had another hill to climb after, but I was feeling good and tackled it with ease. We wanted to travel another ten miles to reach water for our campsite for the evening, but after five more miles a sudden thunderstorm rolled in and it began pouring. Everyone else decided to keep hiking, but Sunshine and I were wary. He was from Texas and I had grown up in Oklahoma, so we had a healthy respect for thunderstorms. Rather than continuing on, we took cover under some trees, hiding beneath his Tyvek ground cloth while the thunder shook the forest around us. We talked about his time working in New Zealand last summer, and after a short period of heavy storms, the rain finally passed over.

When the sky cleared, we hurried onward, trying to cover the final five miles before dark. The ground was covered in hailstones and we later learned that the others had eventually taken cover from the storm, as well. Sunshine and I reached camp by 8:00 where everyone else was setting up tents and gathering water for the night. Just as I finished setting up my tent it began raining again. We took shelter in our tents and fell asleep to the sound of rain on our tarps.

Day Seventy Seven

Today's miles: 2
Total miles: 1663

I slept very well; there was something to be said about a soft inflatable mattress lying on a bed of grass. Katie, Wocka Wocka, Giddyup, Sneaks, Sunshine, Treekiller and I got up at 7:00, packed up, and walked downtown to the local coffee shop to get breakfast and wait for the bus to Seiad Valley. It was a popular choice, to skip these 60 miles of wildfire-covered trail, and soon there were 20 other hikers waiting at the same bus stop. In such a small town, the presence of so many people in one spot was almost overwhelming. The bus didn't come until 9:30 and while we waited we laughed and told jokes amongst ourselves.

Left to right: Sunshine, Sneaks, Giddyup, Wocka, Honey Bunny, Watson

The bus itself only had seats for 30 people, and the three locals who were already on the bus looked particularly stunned that twenty hikers were suddenly filling up all the seats. The bus took us first to the town of Yreka, an hour and a half from Etna. As we rode, we took videos of each other and joked about how many miles we were covering in so short a time.
"Man, this is a big hill; I'm exhausted..." Watson sighed as the bus climbed. "Can someone turn down the air conditioning? I'm getting a little chilly...."
We laughed at these jokes which were only hilarious to us.

In Yreka we had a few hours to wait until the next bus that would take us to Seiad Valley. We were dropped off in the middle of a shopping center, so we amused ourselves at Walmart and McDonalds until 3:00, overindulging in hamburgers and whole half-gallons of ice cream. When the bus for Seiad arrived, we once again filled it to the brim. This time there were more locals who were trying to get on board, and we had to make extra room for all the riders, hikers, and our packs. It was a tight squeeze to get everyone aboard, and then a two hour drive to Seiad Valley.

Seiad Valley itself was a very tiny one-horse town, with not much to its name besides an old RV park and the infamous "PCT pancake eating contest" (five pounds of pancakes) which was closed for the day. It was already 5pm when we arrived and we debated whether we wanted to stay the night before hiking out - Seiad Valley had a very rough climb out of town, to the tune of 6,000 feet of elevation in seven miles - but the RV park creeped everyone out, so we ultimately decided to go two miles and then camp for the night.

This turned out to be the best option, for the hike out was so steep and so hot and humid that everyone was pouring sweat and covered in mosquitoes by the time we went two miles. It made us all cranky, and we decided that we were going to get up really early and conquer the rest of the climb before the day got too hot. We set up tents very close to each other, trying to avoid patches of poison oak, and talked from tent to tent until we fell asleep.

Day Seventy Six

Today's miles: 14
Total miles: 1606

We woke this morning to an amazing sunrise over the mountains. I adore cowboy camping for just this reason, and cowboy camping on top of a mountain makes the view even more impressive. We ate hot oatmeal and drank warm tea before packing up and heading out. We had a goal for today: town! We were only 14 miles from the town of Etna, CA and we were determined to make it there by early afternoon.

We left camp at 7:00 and had big hills to climb all morning. I cruised behind Sneaks, who was rocking out to Phil Collins and we sang Sussudio! as we tackled the climbs. We met our very first Southbounder today. His name was Bobcat and he stopped to talk to me for a bit. He started in Canada in late June and had already made it to Northern California in just over a month and a half! We swapped stories about upcoming milestones: I raved about the Sierras and he told me how amazing Washington's Northern Cascades were. It was exciting to know that we would be running into more Southbounders as the days went on. How strange knowing that they were just beginning their journey as we were growing closer to finishing.

We took a short break after six miles, and then with a group cheer crush it! we plowed through. We fell into our usual lineup: Sneaks, then Giddyup, then Katie, Wocka Wocka, Sunshine, Treekiller, then me. I could have gone faster, but I enjoyed being last. Treekiller was a slower hiker too, but unlike me, he had a very steady pace. He walked at 2.5 mph no matter what the terrain, whereas I fluctuated anywhere between 2 mph and 3 mph depending on the elevation. I hiked steadily behind him for most of the morning, and as we grew closer to our exit for town, we were forced to climb a series of steep switchbacks up a mountain. At each turn, Treekiller would look back down at me and say,
"Not there yet..."
Or, "apparently the trail wants to go higher..."
Or, "still climbing!"
It made me laugh.

The final few miles were all downhill to the highway, and when we reached the road at 1:00, it was just in time to see a truck full of our hiker friends pull away for Etna. Disappointed that we missed out on a hitch, I sat next to the road with Treekiller and realized that Katie had skipped out on the hitch to wait for us. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness, though I don't think it took her long to regret her decision. The road to Etna was a mountain road that was very rarely travelled, and because of the wildfires, even less traffic crossed it than usual. It was also extremely hot and shadeless, so we sat quietly sweating in the sun, waiting for a ride for an hour... two hours... three hours... the only people we saw go by were forest rangers and firemen. We were beginning to get desperate. Katie lamented that she had missed her only ride into town; I knew she blamed me for being stuck there, but I could do or say nothing to make the situation better, so I sat in mellow silence, feeling horrible. It was a ten mile walk to town, but we weren't ready to make that commitment yet. No one had cell phone service and we were running out of options, since none of the firemen were allowed to pick us up.

After three hours, a forest ranger drove through and closed the highway we were sitting beside. Now our slim chance of catching a hitch was even slimmer. Apparently the fires were raging quite close to the highway and the PCT, and no one was coming through.

At 3:00 we were resigned to walking to town. Despondent, Treekiller, Katie and I slowly made our way down the winding, switchbacking mountain road. We had gone only a half mile when a black truck with a father and son drove past us, stopped, and offered us a ride. We were euphoric. We hopped in the bed of his pickup and rode, top speed, down the mountain. It was a long, roller-coaster-like drive and we were glad we didn't have to walk the whole way. He dropped us off in the middle of the tiny Etna and we met our friends at the local library, glad to finally be there.

We all went to eat dinner at a local burger place called Dottie's, and indulged ourselves in giant hamburgers, fries, and the best milkshakes we'd had on trail yet. As we ate we learned that the firemen in the area were warning hikers about hiking the PCT between Etna and the next town, Seiad Valley, 60 miles further north. The trail wasn't officially closed, but the smoke and the number of firemen in the area were warning enough. We decided we didn't want to end up on the news by hiking through the wildfires, so we opted to take the bus tomorrow from Etna to Seiad Valley and skip that portion of the trail.

That evening we stayed at a local bed and breakfast. The owners allowed hikers to camp in their backyard, and it had the most luxurious soft green grass we had seen all trail. Delighted, we took showers, did laundry, and set up our tents in the beautiful backyard for the night. We borrowed the B&B bikes to take into town and buy food at the local grocery store. Etna was a tiny town but adorable, and we all wished we could stay here longer. I fell asleep on a soft bed of grass with the cool night air blowing across my face.

Day Seventy Five

Today's miles: 23
Total miles: 1592

After yesterday's flat and cruising terrain, today involved more climbing. Though Northern California was relatively flat, it still involved elevation change, and after six miles of climbing I was falling behind and exhausted. A snack break gave me the energy to keep moving and after nine miles we stopped for water and then stopped at fourteen miles for lunch. The terrain was very beautiful today; sun-blasted rock cliffs and sweeping views of the rolling hills, but it was also difficult to traverse. I spent great spans of time walking by myself. This can be lonely at times, but it was also less stressful, for I didn't feel like I had to keep up with others. But I get stuck in my own head, rolling thoughts around and around until I am tired of the voice of them. In these moments I get lost in my podcasts, listening to RadioLab and TedTalks and This American Life so I can hear someone else's voice in my head, instead.

After lunch we discussed doing more miles: we ultimately wanted to cover 26-27 miles again today, but the terrain was more difficult than imagined and as evening approached we were falling short of our goal. I was growing hungry and frustrated, and we were entering an area where wildfires were affecting the PCT. Smoke clouded the air and everything smelled like campfire.

I finally caught up with the others around mile 21 as the sun was setting over the hills. We decided as a group to only go two more miles, to the top of the mountain where Sweet Tooth, Hot Tub and their friend Watson were camping for the night. The campsite turned out to be a beautiful one, with an open view of the surrounding mountains and the lingering smoke caught between them. We were too tired to set up tents, so we cowboy camped on top of the ridge, snuggling into our sleeping bags as we watched the night engulf us. When I woke up later that night I rolled over to see the whole Milky Way stretched above me like a blanket, and the beauty sang me to sleep again.