7/18/14 Friday. My 1,000 Mile Marker! 7/19/14 Saturday. Hiking Into Seiad Valley

7/18/14.  21 miles

I left the fly off the tent, it was hot, but I got a good nights sleep.  Peggy was on the trail before me at 6:10 making the climb out of Paradise Lake and over the next mountain.  I followed shortly thereafter,  walking in the early morning light that turned everything golden. 

This is the mountain back drop for Paradise Lake.

First the trail climbed through meadow and brush coming out onto a saddle where I could see lakes on both sides in the valleys below.

Then I ascended up and around this rock outcropping, from there the sun reflected off the red rock and soil creating a beautiful palette just right for photos!

The color made these steps beautiful and I took photos from multiple angles.

Looking back at the steps from the opposite mountainside. 

The stairs and trail are seen in the right bottom corner, still colored golden from the sunrise.

I thought the workmanship on this other set of stairs was beautiful too. 

We hiked up to a meadow to tiny Buckhorn Spring that was only inches deep.  I filtered and drank 1/2 a liter right there, it was heavenly to get good cold water. Then the trail began to descend for miles as it led us down to Grider Creek and Seiad Valley.  Poison oak would begin to be a problem bordering the trail as we went below 4,000 feet.  Grider Creek had  3 bridge crossings and we rested at each one, taking time to get our clothing, hats, hair etc. wet to keep cool.

At the 2nd crossing Peggy reminded me I logged my 1,000th mile this summer!

As we hiked down we found thimble berries, 

wild strawberries 

and wild raspberries growing beside the path that we sampled as we went, such a treat!  We also worked hard not to touch the increasingly healthy poison oak hanging into the trail. 

At some point we decided to hike 21 miles today and make it all the way to the campground. Once we committed ourselves there was no camping spot to be found due to the poison oak growing all over. 

We arrived at the campground at 7:15pm exhausted and ready for dinner.  First we filtered water for our dinner and the next days hiking,  then we located a campsite.  Once we set up tents we got to cook dinner at a picnic table!   Due to mosquitoes we ate dinner in our tents and went to bed at 9:00 as darkness fell.  This was a long day and our feet were sore!

7/19/14.  7.2 miles

Today we slept in until 6:00 because we had only a 7.2 mile road walk into Seiad Valley.  The PCT goes over a bridge on the Klamath River then right through town on the highway. 

This was our destination.  We planned to camp on the lawn, wash clothes, shower and get our resupply boxes for the next 2.5 days to the Oregon border.

Peggy walking into the RV Park.  

We camped with 5 other tents on the grass to the left.  It ended up being triple digit heat as we sat on the grass, got our clothes wet to keep cool and tried not to do much moving around.  There were 5-6 other hikers resting there too. 

We got lunch at the small cafe,  some sodas and resupply items at the small store, read books on the lawn and chatted with other hikers.

One man was from Georgia, named Whitewater.  He'd gotten a rattlesnake bite on the trail out of Etna.  He was 2 miles from the highway when he'd gotten water with 4 other hikers, put his pack on and stepped back on the PCT to hike.  He didn't see the 4 foot snake on the trail and must have stepped on it.  He said it felt like a baseball bat hit his ankle.  He instinctively knew he'd been bit. 

He yelled and made a commotion that brought the others running then he called his wife in Georgia who immediately called Etna's fire station.  By the time he hiked the 2 miles down to the highway with the others (one hiker being an EMT) he could hear the ambulance coming.  They got him into the ambulance, monitoring his breathing and the bite.  By the time they got him to town they all knew it had been a dry bite. The snake had not released venom and only hit him with one fang.  He stayed in town that night and was back on the trail the next day, cautious but determined to hike.  His story was amazing but chilling to think about. 

Another young lady was hiking not the PCT but a trail called the Bigfoot Trail.  She followed the PCT only rarely,  used GPS to locate her trail and did a fair bit of bushwhacking.  Along her 175 mile trail she used a book called The Conifer Trail that helped identify 32 species of conifer, some I'd never heard of.  Her trail sounded really interesting.  

We were spending a nero (a day that we did some hiking) here, leaving in the early morning for the 2.5 day hike to the Oregon border. 

We were allowed to set up our tents at 6:00 pm but no one got in theirs,  it was just too hot.  Peggy & I were planning on a 4am wake up so we could get on the trail early while it might be cool. 

Hiker midnight is 9:00 and all was quiet except for dogs in the neighboring homes and trucks driving the highway.  Finally we got to sleep.