Day 128 (25 August) - Mile 1639.10 - 1658.03

Campsite on Cold Spring Creek to Campsite at mile 1658.03

Sleeping was awesome with the sound of the creek.  Blackout and Stitch camped there too, but they were up at 4:45 AM and out very quickly. I woke up for a minute when I heard them get up, but then I was able to fall back asleep. I then woke up and it still looked dark. When I looked at my watch it was 6:06 AM...wow...the sunrise is now after 6:00 AM which is not fun since we have to wake at that time to get our miles in. I better get used to this if we want to finish.

We had to collect and filter water before leaving, so we weren't ready to hike until just before 7:30 AM.

Ready to hike

Today we have 14.33 miles to get into Seiad Valley where there is a cafe that we heard was pretty good. Also, Tim is meeting is there for our resupply to get us to Asland, Oregon...yes, you read that right, we will be hiking into Oregon during this 3 day stretch. 

Sign in tree saying that Seiad Valley is this way

This is the view we had for the first 7.81 miles of today's hike. This is also the last view I had of Share Bear.  About 7 miles in we found a note from her saying that she was anxious to get into town and she would see us there. You see, the cafe closes at 2:00 PM and she was worried that we might not make it.

Morning view and last view of Share Bear

So, Brad and I enjoyed the hike together san Share Bear. Here we are very happy that this bridge is still standing since the last two were burned down and we had to make some precarious river crossings.

Happy for a bridge.

Check out this photo of a burned tree with sap icicles on it:

Sap icicles

We made it to the Grinder Creek Campground at 10:48 AM where they had this cool PCT sign:

PCT sign of the day #1

Now the not so fun part of today's hike begins. The PCT now turns into a 6.52 mile road walk into Saied Valley. At least they put up cool road signs for us:

Yes please

About 3 miles into this road walk we hit the point where we have only 1,000 miles to go to get to the Canadian boarder!

1,000 miles to go!

There was nothing on the side of the road commemorating this, so I made my own:

1,000 miles to go pose

We had to walk on a road, but there were incredible blackberry patches that we helped ourselves to, and really nice scenery.

The road walk along the Klamath River

Finally, at 1:13 PM we made it to Seiad Cafe. Tim had passed us on the road, so he was there as well as Share Bear who was just finishing up.

Made it before closing!

After stuffing ourselves with sandwiches, french fries, and milkshakes we went outside to the hiker hangout they setup for us. As we were there, many other hikers who we have met before showed up and hung out. We saw Bigfoot, Doc, Blackout, Stitch, Cheeto Burrito, Detour, and the Canadian Brothers. New to meet was Zeth and Grateful Red.

Everyone hanging at Seiad Cafe

The reason everyone was hanging out was that it was hot and the next 8 miles of the trail is pretty much straight up a mountain, so no one was ready to tackle that yet.

As we sat there and assessed the situation, we knew that if we wanted to ensure we can stay in our planned campsite for the night, we better get moving before these others leave and take the site. After 4 hours of chilling at the cafe we finally broke away and started hiking.

We still had 0.78 miles of road hiking and then the PCT finally got back on a trail.

PCT sign of the day #2

Now the crazy climb begins. Our planned stop is 3.83 miles up trail with almost 2,500 feet of gain...crazy. During this climb we got a great view of the Klamath River.

Great view

After 2 hours and 20 minutes of pure climbing we made it to our campsite for the night. I was so tired that I set up my tent, ate a pepper a local woman gave me from her garden, and climbed into my tent.

I finished last night's blog and now am actually finishing up tonight's. As I was lying here Share Bear cooked her dinner right at the foot of my tent:

Great view out my tent

Also as I laid here, Zed, Cheeto Burrito, and Detour showed up. There was room for Zeth to pitch here, but Cheeto Burrito and Detour had to look further up trail.

It is now 10:15 PM so I better get to sleep. We are just halfway up this climb and will be finishing the last 4 miles of it tomorrow morning, so until then...

My home for the night.