DAY 115: SEIAD VALLEY

miles: 24.5

The above photo is of our last Californian sunset.

I am so done with this state. It was challenging, rewarding, diverse, insanely beautiful, long, and tiring. All I can say is: we are excited to reach the Oregon border.

The gravel road area we slept on last night: unremarkable.

Last night Manchurian had an interesting experience with a deer. It would stand by him and stare at him for long periods of time, which, as you could imagine, was quite unsettling. It watched over him, moving about, kicking rocks, nibbling at the ground... He resorted to throwing pebbles near it (and then AT it) in order to get it to move away and leave him alone to little avail.

Ben and I slept well even though we were sleeping on giant gravel chunks.

Woke at our usual 5:00am, but it was easy today, seeing as we were all very excited to (hopefully) reach the Oregon border tonight! So packing went quick and we were on our way!

The hike down into Seiad Valley was an Oregonians dream! Suddenly we were spit out into a tunnel of lush, green, glorious ferns, Oregon grape, vanilla leaf, trilliums, maiden hair ferns, huckleberries and other native plants of Oregon. And we weren't even in Oregon yet! I was high off of the flora which reminded me of home so much it hurt. I spent the morning pointing out various plant species to Ben, and he pointed out Oregon-like things to me - it was a lot of fun.

AND THE TRAIL WAS FLAT AND EASY!

...Ben's breakfast?

Almost to Seiad Valley! 

California turned into Oregon prematurely.

Sharing the home made toffee we had received in Etna.

THIS TOFFEE.

Once we were done with the forest-portion of our walk this morning we took a wee break at a picnic table, consumed a lot of junk food, and continued along on the road into Seiad Valley. This portion of trail is a 6.4 mile road walk (blaegh), in the heat of the day. Ben and I tried to mitigate the misery of having to walk on asphalt at high noon by blasting our mini-speaker while we walked. A few cars stopped by and asked if we would like a lift. Both times, we refused. It was painful to turn down a ride, when it would have been so easy to cheat and take the easy way out.

After a few miles we started noticing these interesting signs: "no monument". They were ubiquitous in Seiad Valley! We had no idea what they meant, so I kept snapping photo after photo of them, because they were outside almost every house.

Welcome to Seiad Valley after the 6.4 mile road walk of burning hot hell.

Found out that the "no monument" signs are related to a recent controversy over making the area into a National Monument. I won't go into detail here about the issues revolving around this recent development, but if you are interested, you can look it up. It really is an interesting, local issue....

Once we made it to the Seiad Valley Cafe and Market we were greeted by a whole gaggle of hikers! Some we hadn't seen since the Sierras! We caught up to Pepperflake and Shotput as well as many others. It was fun to spend the afternoon gathered on the lawn, literally just hanging out, coloring, reading, eating, catching up... It's been a while since we've seen so many hikers in one place. Down in southern California it was often that you could find huge amounts of hikers gathered together, congregating in towns, restaurants, parks, and at highways and trail magic stops. But since we've entered northern California, hikers have dispersed quite a bit, many have dropped out, and there are less stops to gather in... so it was reminiscent of Warner Springs, even! What a treat!

I revealed the temporary tattoos that were sent to me by my pals and everyone partook in the application of fake tattoos...

Focus applying his tat.

The two I chose.

Pimp Limp and his tat.

Final product on Focus.

Nice one.

Pepperflake.

Manchurian.

Manchurian.

A hiker still life. That is Ben's ankle.

Pepperflake offering some toilet paper.

Eating an entire pint of ice cream is the right thing to do.

Things hikers do (should be an entire post of it's own)

Things hikers do.

Things hikers do.

Things hikers do. (color)

Things hikers do. (share t.p.)

Things hikers do.

State of Jefferson.

State of Jefferson.

State of Jefferson.

State of Jefferson.

State of Jefferson.

Once the heat died down a bit, it was time for Rocky, Manchurian and I to get moving. The climb out of Seiad Valley was supposedly horrendous, steep and long. Best to be done in the late evening or early morning. We planned it so that we would hit it around 5:00pm and finish it at sundown.

All I am going to say about the climb is that it was relatively "easy". The three of us acted as though we were professional athletes and "ran" up that hill at the pace of a real athlete, without stopping once. Almost 4,000 feet of climbing. We tackled that climb with fervor and did 5.5 miles in 2 hours flat... SOMEHOW. It was almost a super human undertaking. We were supremely proud when we reached the spring near the top. We watched the sunset from the spring, refueled our bodies for the last few miles and moved on. I can't believe how fast we did that climb, but I think all three of us had mentally pumped ourselves up for it.

Stretch break at the spring near the top.

Goodnight, California.