Day 114 - Kelsey Creek - Seiad Valley

Date: 30.07.2018 Miles hiked today: 27.7 miles / 44.57 km Total Mileage: Mile 1'656.7 I get up at 5am so I can start hiking before 6am and hopefully getting into Seiad Valley in time. The first 5 miles are uphill with some steep sections in between. The rest of today is all downhill. I'm on a mission again, trying to hike the 27 miles before 4pm. All the downhill I run, doing trail running. By 10am I've already done 13 miles! I don't break, I just walk or run where possible. The lower I get the more plants and bushes are all over the trail, which makes is hard to move fast. The last 10 miles is flat, but fully covered by bushes. And apparently there is a lot of poison oak hidden in between the bushes. And you really don't wanna get in touch with any of this nasty plant! Silly only that I don't know or remember anymore how the plant looks like! I'm very careful, trying to watch all the plants and not to touch anything but that's simply impossible. After a while I give up and just walk through the bushes, hoping not to touch the poison oak. And I'm starting to get tired and hungry. But I don't want to break, I must be there before 4pm. I eat an ugly bar with loads of energy and hope that keeps me going. A Little later a snake is stopping me from going fast. It's a small black snake with a red stripe along its back and I have no clue if this one is a poison snake or a harmless one. But whenever I try to pass it, the snake holds his head up, and making this noise with its tongue. I try to throw little stones in the direction of the snake to make it move, but the snake just seems to get more angry. I give up and sit on the trail a little away from the snake waiting for another hiker to help me out of this situation. I don't have to wait long and Darko comes along. I explain him the situation. The snake is still angry and didn't move a single centimetre! Darko decides to try and walk by it, as far away as somehow possible, which is not much! "Tell my mum I love her in case I die" he tells me before he goes:) The snake watches him but doesn't attack. So it's my turn now. I make sure I pass the snake as fast as possible! Safe, all good, we are both still alive! :) and i must keep on going, I wish I'm there already! The last 6.5 miles are road walking and there is no side track there at all. Also i pass mile 1'650, sadly there is no mile marker. That means only 1'000 miles to go! It's very hot and very smoky down here, and walking in the middle of the street on the black pavement is not fun at all. They could have at least made a little path on the side of the street. It's only 2 or 3 more miles to go when a car stops next to me. I didn't pull out my thumb, as I want to walk it all.

It's an older gentlemen "girl, get in that car, it's far too hot outside. I've got a nice air-con in that car." he tells me out of the open window.

"No I can't. But many thanks for the gentle offer, sir ", I reply.

"Why not? What's the matter?" He asks. "Well, I'm walking the PCT and I don't wanna miss a single mile. I want to hike it all, completely, not skipping miles", is my answer.

"Well, I can't help you then. But it's more than 40° degrees Celsius out there and only boring street walking. You really are not gonna miss anything! Plus it's dangerous to walk in the middle of the street. So please hop in!".

I think about his words and decide that this must be destiny and I should just accept his offer. I'm good in time, there is no hurry but street walking is really very boring and it is indeed very hot. As there is not even a path for PCT hikers, this can also not be called a real trail! So I get into his car and enjoy the 3 minutes drive to town and shortly after 2pm I'm there ;) i made it, and i made it in good time! But I'm all sore and done! A lot of hikers are there already, sitting in the shade of a big tree and drinking cold sodas and beer. Also Sausage, Blue Man and Dirty Money, Apachi, Helther, Fareweather, spicy and Poke are here too! It's too hot to move! I first have to sort things out and check the post office before I can join them. I bounce my boxes ahead. But the parcel I came here for is not here. I have send it to Etna instead and completely forgot about it! I have to call the Etna post office and make sure they forward the parcel to another place I will hike through in near future. After I've done all this, I take a seat, grab a cold beer and relax for the first time today. I want to get a milkshake at the only restaurant here. This place is so small, it only has one house where the restaurant, the post office and a store are located. And the restaurant only opens from 11am to 2pm, I'm too late! Later also Parmesan and Duchess arrives. We get some more beers and do our resupply for the next strech. There is a long 10 miles and steep uphill tomorrow morning to which I'm not looking forward to. And there are not many camp spots along the way up and we are quite a lot of hikers. I can't hike much further today anymore, I'm done! My knees sore from running downhill and I'm tired. Some hikers left already to camp on one of the few spots along the uphill hike, while other hikers hitch to the next place from where they plan to hitch all the way up to Ashland in Oregon due to the heavy smoke. The pcta just recently opened the closed section shortly after the Oregon boarder, so skipping a section is not an option for me. A local tells us that only about half a mile further down the trailhead there is a good spot right next to the river to set camp. Sausage, Blue Man, Dirty Money, Apachi, Helter, Spicy, Poke, Fearweather, Parmesan, Duchess and me all head to the camp at the river. It's a nice spot. We cook dinner and have a nice evening before we head into our tents. We plan to leave early tomorrow morning to hike the uphill section before it's getting too hot. What a day, I'm glad I survived it :)

Red sun rise once more

Morning glory with a funny line in the sky (I guess that's the smoke line)

Can you spot the birds in the grass? They always freak me out when you hike by a big gras field and they suddendly all fly away. You hardly can see them!