Etna to the Oregon border!

Yogi's guide talks about how hiker-friendly Etna is, and recommends taking a zero day there.  I hung out mostly at the Hiker Hut and didn't spend much time in town, but what I did experience there definitely agrees with her.  Vicki and Dave own a bed and breakfast, and also have a hostel-style dormitory room that they rent to hikers.  It only has four beds, but hikers can also pay to pitch at tent on the grounds and have access to the showers, kitchen, computer, and other amenities.  They aren't trail angels because they don't operate on donations ($25 for a bed, $15 to camp, $3 to do laundry), but it's a lot cheaper than a hotel and I thought the place was very fun. 

I also got a great surprise in Etna - Man in Black, who I'd hiked the second half of the High Sierras with, had hiked on when I'd gotten off to go to meet my brother Kevin.  Since I got back on the trail he'd been slowing down to let me catch up with him, and he finally got sick of going slow and waiting around and just took a bus back down to where I was and re-hiked the last section with me. 

Etna, CA

Someone visited the Hiker Hut once a day to give updates to hikers on the fire situation. This team consisting of a firefighter and a volunteer from the Forest Service came on my second day there, and even handed out press releases titled "Salmon River Complex Update."  It had a lot of information, including links to a page for the Salmon River Complex on website called InciWeb which I think is the one that the botanist couple had checked for me on my way into Etna. 

The Forest Service / Fire Department team educating hikers on the fire situation

 Vicki and Man in Black (left) and Dave (right), the owners of the Hiker Hut

There's also a local wildlife biologist named Fred who will drive hikers between the trail and town for $5, and we got a ride back out to the trail with him.  We both enjoyed talking to Fred a lot, and one of the things we talked about was an idea of his to put together an events guide for the PCT.  There are tons of events happening in the little mountain towns during the summers; for example, we had just missed Etna's bluegrass festival, and it would be great to know about as many of these as possible when trying to organize your schedule. 

Man in Black and Fred

The hike between Etna and Seiad Valley was fairly uneventful - most of the views consisted of smoke, like the one below, and there were no terribly steep climbs or unreasonable descents. 

Man in Black said the smoke was less thick here than it had been the week before.

 The skull alien - I'm guessing a cow skull, but maybe an actual alien

Forest fires do make for great sunsets.

We met several southbounders attempting thru-hikes on this leg, although most of them had skipped large parts of the North Cascades due to snow.  A pair of girls named Toolbox and Bearbait told us that they'd done the Oregon Challenge.  I'd heard of the Oregon Challenge, which is getting through the entire state in two weeks, averaging something like 33 miles a day, and I wasn't interested. 

"There's no way I could that kind of mileage consistently," I said.  I've done 30s, I think my maximum is 32, but there's no way I could do it for even three days straight, let alone fourteen. 

"Mileage?"  they asked,  "Oh, not that challenge - we didn't go more than 48 hours without a beer through the whole state."  I cracked up laughing.

"Ladies, that is my kind of challenge." 

The closest any grouse has let me get to it

The pack train supplying a crew doing trail maintenance on a side trail from the PCT

The biggest source of drama on this leg came from intense foot pain, to the point where every step hurt, especially in my heels.  mid-way through a day where I was almost crying, I decided to try to repair my shoes.  The Salomons I'd been wearing had split open, and I didn't think this was causing it but was willing to try anything. 

The sorry state of my shoes

Is it one tree that grew into three separate trees, or three separate trees that grew into each other?

Man in Black managed to thread a needle with some actual twine, and I sewed the shoes back shut.  I put them back on, and walked a few steps to find that the pain was almost completely gone.  I felt stupid for having walked in pain for several days before trying it, but was so happy to not be suffering that those feelings overrode the rest.    

My "Franken-shoes"

My other dramatic moment was seeing my first slug near a river.  No one understands, and I don't even know why myself, but I've been absolutely terrified of them since childhood.  I'm fine with snakes, I'm fine with spiders, but if I even step on a slug, I will cry.  I think my most traumatic memory is my older brother pinning me down, sitting on my chest, and putting one on my shoulder that slowly crawled towards my neck.  It was just far enough out on my shoulder that I could see it, and I was too scared even to be able to scream.  I didn't think there should be a slug in this area, anyways - a lot of it was still rocky and desert-like, and slugs just didn't seem necessary here.  

No!  No slugs!  It's too soon!

On the subject of animals, I left some food out and some small animal attacked my last avocado.  I was thinking probably a squirrel but the teeth marks look awfully small.  It could be one of those little striped ground-squirrels, they're awfully small, but I really don't know...

My avocado, post attack by some little critter

Five or six miles before Seiad Valley the trail joins a road and you have to walk on the pavement.  The first thing to see on the road is a really creepy bunny pointing the way into town. 

The creepy bunny

There are two things to know about Seiad Valley.  One is the proposed Siskiyou Crest National Monument, which would create a protected area around the Siskiyou Crest.  Here is a link to the website of a group in favor of creating the monument, and here's one to the website of a group opposed to creating it.  I'm not educated on the issue and didn't want to start a political conversation with anyone to find out more, but I can tell you that the residents of Seiad Valley are unanimously opposed to the idea, or at least if anyone supports it, they do not do so publicly.  

The sign reads "KS wild lies no monument"

This one reads "NO Siskiyou monument."

The other thing to know, is to know about the State of Jefferson.  I did know about this from spending time in Southern Oregon, but I'd never seen it treated so officially before.  There's a Wikipedia page on it, but to give the basic idea, it's a proposed state consisting of what is now northern California and Southern Oregon.  People in both regions have felt neglected by their state capitols and felt that they had much more in common with each other.  The strongest movement for secession by the regions may have actually been viable, but was interrupted by the U.S. entering World War II.  The modern movement seems to be more cultural than anything that anyone is actually working to make happen. 

The State of Jefferson on an "Adopt-A-Highway" sign

The two X's are the symbol of the State of Jefferson

I don't know what these plants are...

The Fire Department flies the State of Jefferson's flag rather than California's.

Even the post office says "State of Jefferson" on it.

Seiad Valley is tiny, but it has a cafe that has a "pancake challenge" that's famous among hikers.  The meal is five pancakes and you get it for free if you can finish them, but the pancakes are absolutely huge.  I saw two hikers who had attempted and their leftover pancakes wrapped in cellophane, and it didn't look like either of them had gotten through much more than one.  

The State of Jefferson must have alternative spellings, like "challange."

I heard that the two X's are because leaders of the movement claimed that they'd been "double-crossed," but it's just something I heard.

Man in Black said that this area had actually gotten more smoky in the last week.

The cheapest way to get beer was to buy a half-rack of the really cheap stuff, so I had beer leftover in the morning.  Too stubborn to waste it, I mixed it with lemonade and drank it out of my water bladder while we made the infamous climb out of Seiad Valley.  The climb is 5,000 feet over seven miles.  Just to put that in perspective, summiting Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states, from the PCT is only a 4,000 foot climb over seven miles.  The trail crosses some small roads just after that seven miles and we'd heard about a large group of hikers getting rides up one of those roads to skip the climb but we both want to walk the entire way from Mexico to Canada, so we plowed up it.  Also, I'd just gotten another donation, this time from from my friend Starfox's mom Marilyn, and if people are supporting you to walk the whole trail, then you have to walk the whole trail.   

The shandy-filled platypus bladder

Ironically, it was one of the less scenic sections of the trail (see below), leading to a lot of jokes...

"Those guys that skipped are going to be SOOOO jealous when they hear about this!" 

"Just wait till they see these pictures - they're going to be kicking themselves for skipping it!"  

Most of the climb up looked like this...

...but nearer to the top it got more interesting.

 But once we'd made most of the climb it did get more interesting.  Something that I don't remember from Southern California or the High Sierras is ridge walks, which Northern California has a lot of.  They're great because you have a view all around you, and it's really fun to see see the trail running up a ridge in front of you. 

I love it when the trail runs along a ridge, and you have views on either side - this has been a feature of Northern California.

The next day was special because we knew we were going to finish California.  It was also the last day before deer hunting season started, and we met various groups out scouting for the next day's hunt.  One father and son chatted with us for ten minutes or so, and they were bow hunters, which I thought was cool because it sounds much more challenging. 

"You kill deer with a bow and arrow?"  I asked.

"Yes," the father nodded, looking serious and wondering what kind of grief he was going to get from this liberal hiker chick.

"Deer are so tasty!"  I answered, and they looked relieved. 

I don't know the first thing about fungi, but these things looked cool.

 

This area had a bunch of what I named "rock meadows."

An abandoned homestead?

 And then it happened - In the late afternoon Friday, August 16th, of we finished California.

Less than 1,000 miles to Canada!

Man in Black signs the trail register

I made it through California!

Mileages are different according to different sources, but we'd walked about 1,700 miles.

Man in Black on the border

We made cocktails, and sat celebrating and talking about the hike behind us and the hike ahead of us, until Smiles and Dr. Slosh, a friendly couple I'd hiked around on and off, showed up on the border too.  They took our picture together, we took theirs, I signed the register, and we headed into Oregon. 

Toasting the border with cheap whiskey and Dr. Pepper, which we drank out of our camp stoves

I looked a lot less like a hobo at the south end of California.

Man in Black and I finish California

Man in Black takes Smiles and Slosh's photo on the border

Signing the register I wanted to write something meaningful, but had no idea what to write.  Making it through California made me more determined than ever to reach Canada, but I decided to focus on what I'd already done:

My entry in the register for finishing California