Day 78 – Lazy Sunday: Part II
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 26 into Seiad Valley
There’s something about Sundays that turns off any productive and motivated parts of my brain and turns me into mush. Last week, I slept until noon on Sunday. This week, it was only 8AM, but by the time I woke up, the dozen or so people I had camped with were all gone. 😭 Luckily for me, the morning views at Paradise Lake were incredible, so I think I did the right thing in sleeping in.
I took my time getting ready and eating, so I was out on trail at 8:30, where I was immediately passed by Squarepants, who I hiked and talked with until we caught up to Yeti filtering water. I was feeling particularly lazy, so I took my time filtering my water, which was made fantastically easy by the addition of my new O-ring from Etna. I can’t recommend a working water filter enough. It will change your life!
Once I was done cameling up at the stream, I proceeded with climbing the first hill of the day. The views from the top were gorgeous, but you could tell that Seiad Valley would be full of smoke, mostly because you couldn’t see anything down there.
As I zoned out and hiked up, down, and around the mountains, I began to think about Seiad Valley. It’s notable for two reasons: it’s the last PCT town in California, and the Pancake Challenge. Thinking about my last CA town was both exciting and sad, but the pancakes were a more pressing concern. Should I try the challenge? How many could I eat? Is five pounds a lot? I figured I would play it by ear and decide later because I hadn’t even made it yet.
I stopped for a nice snack and water break at a babbling brook in the woods, which was a really nice spot with tons of room to sit, so when Squarepants, Yeti, and The Bearcans came by, they stopped and sat with me to eat their lunch. Once I was done with my delicious bag of gummi worms, I pushed ahead, eager to make it down the hill and into town.
The long descent wound through a beautiful ravine, climbing towards and then away from a raging river below. There was constant access to water and it was nice knowing that I could swim whenever I wanted, but I didn’t stop to visit the river until the last crossing. Cameling up and splashing around seemed to be thing to do down there, so I enjoyed a break in the shade for a little while. I assumed that Squarepants, Yeti, and The Bearcans would catch up to me during this break, but they were nowhere to be found! I guess I wasn’t hiking as lazily as I thought!
I finally made my way away from the river towards town, and quickly realized that the remaining six miles were all road. Ugh 😞 I have nothing against a short road walk every once in a while, but six miles on a paved road through scorching, smoke-filled neighborhoods is not my idea of a good time. Other hikers seemed to agree, as some had written in the sand on the side of the road: “This is awful.” and “I hate this.” with someone else affirming with a simple “Yup.”
As I walked on unpaved and then, ultimately, paved roads, I caught up to some hikers I had met the day before and walked with them. As we all lamented the lack of nature on this portion of the trail and some people started hitchhiking, a few of us realized what was serving as a barrier on the sides of the roads: BLACKBERRIES!
We would walk about 30 feet at a time, stopping to assess the juiciness and abundance of the berries on each bush before diving into the thorns to retrieve our precious prize. If you picked the right bush, you could easily come away with a dozen plump blackberries, covered in dirt and ready to devour.
As one may expect, stopping at every blackberry bush is not an efficient way to hike, but I didn’t care as long as I got to sample their deliciousness. Depending on how often a certain hiker stopped to check the berries, they would get either far ahead or left behind. False Start and I were the worst for a while, but eventually I left him behind to enjoy the fruits of his labor since I was so full of berries and my hands were stained purple.
Since I was able to feast on berries, the road walk was better than it would have been, but I still think a better option could be found. The reason the PCT needs to wrap around on roads in such a convoluted manner is the Klamath River, but surely a route through the woods to a short road walk could be negotiated. At this point, walking on a highway with virtually no shoulder is part of the trail, so we’ll just have to deal with it. Oh well!
That’s a marshy bog, not a walkable shoulder
Neat little bridge, not so neat little shoulder
The walk on the main highway was a little dangerous due to the lack of a shoulder, but luckily it was over after about a mile, at which point I was in Seiad Valley!
Beautiful scenery! 🌫⛰🌫
I immediately went to the store since it was one of the only things in town, and I quickly found dozens of my hiking brethren hanging out in the parking lot. I bought some snacks, some Gatorade, and a six pack of beers to share, and then hung out for hours talking to other hikers.
I had eaten so many berries that I only needed a small dinner on top of my beers, and I was saving a little bit of hunger in case I wanted to try the pancakes in the morning. I sat in the parking lot as the crowd thinned as people went over to the RV park to camp or decided to hike out of town, and when my last comrades (Yeti, Colten, The Kraken, and 2-Pass) decided to hike out I set out for the RV park to camp for the night. There were tons of hikers there hanging out, but luckily there was plenty of room for our tiny tents, so I set up my tent and got ready for bed.
The plan is to wake up early tomorrow morning and head to the cafe for breakfast (pancakes!?) before attempting the toughest-looking climb the PCT has thrown at us thus far as early in the morning as possible.