Etna to Seiad Valley

Etna:

Yeah, a brewery! Etna is a small town just a 15 mile hitch from the trail. Cowgirl, Emperor, and I got a ride in the back of a beat up pickup truck. Once in town we checked into a motel and started town chores. The lady at the motel made our day when she offered to throw a load of laundry in for us in between one of the motel loads. This allowed us to shower and hang out in the room while the laundry was being done. Much better than walking down the street wearing our rain gear in the heat of the day.

With fresh clothes we headed to the brewery. Finally I had a stout! I also got a Ranchero BLT, this is a BLT with cream cheese. So good! On our way back we shopped at the small grocery store for a resupply.

That night there was rain off and on when a thunderstorm rolled through. We were delighted to be indoors watching trash TV and eating microwave burritos. My poison oak was still bad. So i enjoyed the burrito and tv in my underwear with pink calimine lotion smothered all over my legs. Reflecting back on this, I must have made quite the spectacle.

The next morning we slept in, then had breakfast at Bob's Café. I had French toast, then another half order of the French toast. Maybe hiker hunger is setting in.

Back on trail:

We got a hitch to the trail by 10:30am and were off. Our wildlife count was down until this stretch. We saw two bears on our first day out of Etna Summit. One was a cub running across the trail. We were a little concerned about where the momma was, but never saw her. We had two rattlesnakes rattle at us on the side of the tail. 

The first night we stayed next to an old creepy cabin. Poor choice. There were so many noises that came out of that place. I took two Benadryl to help with the poison oak. I was so sleepy and just told Tiffany to nudge me if she heard a noise she was concerned about. Bats living in the cabin took to the sky just after dusk. They seem to enjoy buzzing the tent. Sounds cool, but I got a nudge every minute. Finally I said only big noises. I got one final nudge before I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Cowgirl was left to defend the tent alone. I don't think she slept very well. I on the other hand didn't move till the alarm went off.

Day 100

We survived the bats and curious deer!

Our second day was another long one, 32 miles into Seiad Valley. We decided to do this because Seiad is a super hot spot with a 6 mike road walk. We wanted to make sure we did the road walk later in the evening to beat the heat. We saw two more bears! Again one was another cub. I got to watch it climb a tree. Note, climbing a tree will not save you from a bear. They are really fast tree climbers.

We were pretty tired when we got to the road and it was super hot. At times we had a breeze, but it was not so satisfying. It was a warm furnace breeze. We were happy when we got to the Seiad Valley RV park at 8:30pm.

Seiad Valley:

Seiad is a small town of 350 people. There is a post office, small store, RV park, and small restaurant. We didn't stay long enough to visit more than the RV park. We came in, showered, and organized our resupply packages. We also had another wonderful care package waiting for us here. Incidently our friends sent us socks. This was just as I had punched my fourth hole through my two well worn out socks I was wearing.

Once organized for an early departure I tended to my poison oak. I was able to get the blistered patch on my left thigh to heal, but it had spread to calves and toes and somehow jumped to my right thigh. Not being able to shower and wearing the same clothes every day does not help in healing poison oak.

Trail Statistics

Days: 100

Miles: 1,662

Days if Poison Oak: 7

Bears: 5

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