This morning, I thought I should share a picture of my feet after 55 miles of hiking.   You may share this with your friends.

Hiking was a piece of cake today.   Just little ups and downs.  We are sticking together this morning and I’m crushing it. 

We hit the junction to Callahan’s Lodge at 9 ish.   Another 1 mile down a side trail and we were in a nice cafe ordering a copious breakfast.   The place has a special.   PCT hikers get their first beer for free.   We finished breakfast, 3 or 4 cups of coffee, then redeemed our ticket for some craft brews.   All before 11.

A gal named IPA showed up and chatted with us for a while.   Her father in law’s girlfriend later showed up to give her a ride.   She invited Twig (but not us) to come along.   I was like, hey what about us.   She felt all guilty as I was following her through the lobby.   The lady with the car was freaked out cuz there was no way we would fit.   Oh well.  It was fun guilting them.    We got a hitch 30 seconds after that.    

Going to zero tomorrow in Ashland.   Time to get some food and rest. 

 

 

 

  

Full night’s sleep helped.   All three of us were feeling chipper.   Goal today is to get close to Ashland so tomorrow can be a chill 5 mile hike in for breakfast.

Passed some busted up cabin that PCT’ers sometime sleep in.   I’ll stick with my tent.   

Made it to the border at 9.  There was a little welcoming party there.  Soho, Twigsy, and a German couple Keeper and Torpedo.   

Before crossing, I called across the border to see how the weather was over there.   They said it was 65 and cloudy.   Lied to again.   

This was a big moment for me.   When I started this hike I figured it was 50/50 that I’d make it out of California.   Well here I am…..Oregon. 

After munching on some brunch, it was back on the trail.   Twigsy and Soho took off ahead.   The views are not as good here.  Partly it is a little less rugged and partly due to smoke from other fires.   

So I’m not sure why, but as soon as we got into Oregon, the trail mellowed out.   It no longer is constantly routing us over the top of every damn hill.   Maybe the trail designers in Oregon prefer relaxing walks rather than peak bagging.   I like these people 🙂

Passed Soho sitting under a tree with his feet airing out.   Later he caught up to Twig and me at a stream for lunch.   My lunch sucked.  Stupid peanut butter on a tortilla.    I found a packet of mustard and another of pickle relish.   Added that in.   It was somehow better.

Back at Seiad valley this British guy gave us some of his resupply which he couldn’t carry.   So I’ve been eating some kind of fruitcake tasting energy bars with my meals plus something called a “mint cake”.    Didn’t have anymore mustard to put on the mint cake. 

Soho is getting ready to doze off.   Time for me to leave.  I got the fire back in me!  Mint Cake.   I was ahead of the guys for the rest of the day. 

Finally found some trail magic at the last big climb.   This was simply awesome. 

I plopped down in the chair and sucked down a 90 degree Orange Soda.   It was awesome.   Got Mobile service and gave Alice a quick call.  While we were talking a stuffed a Ginger Ale in my pack and headed out.

Passed through a bunch of wetland areas on the way down.   Huge meadows of wildflowers.   Really pretty. 

I decided these clumps were for Alice.   

Rest of the hike was chill.   I grabbed 3 liters from a stream for camping.    Figured it was going to be a dry camp since the owner of some water faucet on the trail was chasing off PCT’ers who tried to camp there.  

Got into the camp site.   Soho and Twigsy showed up a few minutes later.  They were almost dry, so I shared my water and we all had enough for dinner.  I had my nice, hot Ginger Ale to round it out.

Back up to high mileage today.   Did 25 and feeling good.   Thanks Oregon.

   

Twigsy, Soho, and the other 2 guys camping there got up at 6:30 and were all gone by 7:15.   I managed to crawl out of my tent by then.   Was not going to be a early start for me.    Finally made it on the trail a little before 8.  

This is definitely not a good place to get water.   

Walking along I got passed by three guys who had camped on a ridge line a few miles back.   They were in tight formation and hauling ass.  We hooked up again at the next stream to get water.    Also ran into a couple guys (Kyle and Derek) who I chatted with at Seiad valley the day before.   They are section hiking from here to Canada.   Unfortunately they still have some things to learn about through hiking and, unfortunately, are surrounded by folks like me who have already done a 1000+ miles.   It will be hard on them. 

I filled up an got ready to leave.    Told the 3 formation hikers that they looked like a NASCAR team drafting each other up the trail.   Since I was leaving ahead of them that they should not rear-end the pace car.       

Half an hour later NASCAR was on top of me again.   I pulled over and let them tear it up. 

Our plan was to do about 20 miles today.   There is about 4k of climbing up/down.   Usually that would be a normal day, but I was dragging today.   Heat was part of the problem.  It was 90-ish most of the day even at this altitude.

Here was a nice 1k climb in the hot sun.  

I took a few pictures looking South.   You can see where the trail dropped down and the current climb began.   All that “mist” in the background is smoke from that fire we were watching last night.

 Lots of meadows with wild flowers up here.

I grabbed one and stuck it in my pack strap.   Gotta have some style out here on the trail. 

The day kept grinding on.   I caught up to and passed Soho and Twigsy taking a break.   I just kept hiking.   We are all going pretty slow today.   

Finally got to the campsite at 7:30.  

It was a long day.   We were sitting around the campsite trying to figure out why we were going so slow today.   I did the math and suggested it was like doing a 30 mile day with 10k of elevation gain over 24 hours.   Harsh.   

The day ended with a ~21 miler at 1685.  Tomorrow we immigrate to Oregon.   

     

Spent the morning eating.   Then spent the afternoon eating.   Here is Soho preparing to clear a couple plates with his buddies.

Got to learn more about the Great State of Jefferson.   The revolution is coming!

 

It is soooo hot here.   105 degrees right now.   We figure we will start late evening and night hike the first 6 to 10 miles to a higher elevation.    Next stop is Ashland. 

UPDATE

Twigsy, Soho, and I sat around watching the thermometer until 7:30.  When it broke into the double digits we decided it was time to leave.   Last I checked it was a cool 98.    

There was a 1+ mile road walk out to the trail.   Along the way we passed a road that some folks were taking as an alternate to the top.    Seemed sketchy, especially at night.

I somehow got volunteered to be in the lead so we started climbing together.   After about an hour of climbing we ran into a French dude with a couple of gals setting up camp.   He told us there was spa and hotel at the top.   Ok, dude.  

I managed to keep a decent pace for the first 2 thousand feet.   Dusk was approaching so I put on my headlamp.   Left it off since I could still see the trail.   I hit a turn near and heard a loud buzzying sound.  Oh boy.   I turned on my headlamp and there he was.   A damn rattlesnake sitting on the side of the trail.  

Soho and I were looking at him, but he wasn’t moving.   Threw a couple sticks at him which backed him up a bit.   He was a little guy, I figured he couldn’t strike very far.   So I edged to opposite side of the trail and jumped across.  Soho said the thing tried to strike at me but was way off.   Guess that bummed him out, he slithered up into the brush and let the other guys pass.   After that bit of excitement, it was headlamp on for the rest of the night except at rest stops.  

The next big stop was Lookout spring at 1659.   Probably around 11pm.   By then we had climbed about 3500 feet.   This was a pitiful little thing, with a trickle coming out of some pipe stuck into the hillside.   It took a couple minutes to get a liter out of this thing.    We were standing on the hillside with our lights off and could see a big fire blazing in the distance to the South.   It was a little surreal, blobs of orange with little flare-ups here and there.

It was now time to relinquish the lead.    On long climbs I have a rhythm that most don’t like.   I’ll climb for a while until my legs start to burn, then I’ll stop for a minute and wait for my heart rate to go down.    It seems to be the best method to keep going for a long period.

Soho and Twigsy tore off ahead and I’d catch up when they paused for a bit.   Ran into tents and cowboy campers scattered along the ridge line.   They didn’t seem to bother with picking out good spots, just some place flat to flop down.

Our goal was to clear the top and get to a camp spot around Kangaroo Spring about 10 miles in.   I was trying to convince Soho and Twigsy that we should just hike all night.   Soho thought that a stupid idea.   Oh well.  

Made camp around 1:30.   There were a couple of tents already setup there together with a doe who ran over to lap up Soho’s piss.   I could here her licking away as I dozed off.

It was a hard, hot climb, but at least it is over.   We climbed almost 5k that night and camped at 1664.    

 

Let’s start with the good news.   Store, showers, and beer tonight.   Bacon, pancakes, and bacon burgers tomorrow.   The bad news is that it is damn hot and will keep getting hotter as we lose altitude.   The worse news is that the climb out of the valley will be a nasty 5k gain over 8 miles.   This one is even worse than Belden. 

I didn’t get a good look at my campsite last night because it was dark when I arrived.  It actually was a nice spot to camp.  

Soho and Twigsy packed and left while I was crawling out of my tent.   I really slept like a rock last night.   

First thing in the morning was a 500 ft exposed climb.   Glad I’m doing it early in the morning.   It was a good warm up.   Here is a view from the peak looking back.   The campsite and lake is behind the ridge.   

Then the great descent began.   7k to 1300 feet in 20 miles.   Rule of thumb is that I’ll gain 3 degrees for each 1k drop as the Sun (and temp) is rising.   

Stopped with Twigsy and Soho for some brunch action.  The German boys showed up while we were there (Bay Watch and Golden Snitch).   Those kids look dirty as ever.    I took off ahead of folks to get a jump on the miles. 

Down, down, down.   Began to start seeing these

My pace began slowing as I stopped and picked these whenever I found them.  The trail was overgrown in some areas and I missed a turn.  Spent 15 minutes beating around until Soho showed up and told me where the trail was.   Back on and more hiking. 

Followed this river for 8 miles or so.   Most of the canyon was burned so there was little shade.   It was now over 90.   There are a bunch of little streams feeding it that we cross every mile or so.   I started dunking my head and dumping my hat in each stream.   The cold hat would last me for 15 minutes then it would turn into a hot, moist hat and the cycle would repeat again.

All the dead trees are getting pushed down during the avalanches and spring flooding. 

The trail crosses the river several times.  There are nice bridges which is nice.

Eventually the trail spilled out to a 6 miles road walk.  What total sucks about this is that 4 miles are just going around this stupid river.   I was looking for a place to cross while walking it, but there are No Trespassing signs everywhere.   Found out later one of the German guys jumped the fence and walked/swam the river. 

There was an upside to this road walk.   Gigantic bushes of Blackberries !

I ate about 6 handfuls of these.   Wanted more, but I figured I’d be barfing soon at this rate.   They were soooo good. 

Here is the stupid bridge that 4 miles of the road walk forced us to cross. 

Here was the route.  Why can’t someone get a right of way to cross the river instead? 

Got to town at 6:30 in time to get beer and some burgers for the grill at the RV camp.   Soho, Twigsy, and me had a good dinner.   It was 26 -ish miles today.    Glad we rocked these two days.