Seiad Valley to Ashland

Hiking out of Seiad Valley is one long hot climb through a burn area from last years fire.  We were so tired from a long and late 32 mile day coming into Seiad that we wanted a little extra sleep, but also didn't want to get out too late to avoid any heat possible.  The forecasted high was 107 degrees.  We settled on getting up at 6am with a 7am start. The climb was hot as promised and smokey.  We did not know what fire the smoke was coming from.  On the way up we met two other hikers at our water stop.  With all the heavy smoke in the surrounding hills we asked them if they knew anything about the fires causing all this smoke.  They looked at us quizzically, "what do you mean, what fire?".  At first I kind of laughed, then realized they were not joking.  Hmm, sometimes I am not sure about the instinct of other hikers.  They did light up a cigarette during the break, maybe the air is all the same. 

As we have entered Northern California and even into Southern Oregon we have heard bells.  When we first heard them we thought someone was camping along the forest roads.  We soon found out these were cow bells.  For some reason I do not associate herds of cows with cow bells in the national forest lands of this area.  I feel like this should be found traveling through the alps of Europe.

On day 102 we crossed the Oregon/California border.  It seemed so far away and to take so long, but all of the sudden we were there.  The further we hike the faster time seems to go by.  I feel like it took us forever to get to mile 100, and now it seems like we pass 100 miles without thinking about it.  The desert, then Kennedy Meadows, the Sierras. As we hike on they slowly fade to the background and are becoming memories from miles past.  So as I waved goodbye to my native state of California, I walked into my home state of Oregon.

When we hiked into Ashland, I actually mean that we hiked into Callahan's Lodge.  Callahan's is just off of I-5 within Ashland city limits.  Many hikers get rides into Ashland to buy their resupplies throughout Oregon.  We already have our Oregon resupplies in boxes with Mom and Dad and we had a package waiting for us at Callahan's Lodge that will take us through our next stretch.

Callahan's Lodge is a hiker friendly lodge that offers showers, laundry, camping and a Hiker Dinner.  The dinner was an all you can eat pasta dish.  By the time we showered and ran a load of laundry we were hungry and ready to tackle the hiker dinner.  We heard of other hikers eating 2 and 3 plates full of pasta.  When our heaping plates of pasta came we dove in.  Sadly though, we cannot compete with other hikers and their hunger.  I ate my salad, two homemade dinner rolls, and 3/4 of my plate of pasta.  Tiffany almost finished her full plate of pasta.  I think our stomachs are actually shrinking.  We eat a lot throughout the day, but not all at once.

Full of pasta and beer we pitched our tent in the backyard of the lodge.  What a luxury to have soft grass and level ground!  I still had poison oak and went through my routine application of pink calamine over my calves, ankles, and feet.  I started to tape my heels and toes as these seemed to itch the worst at night and while hiking.  The tape seemed to avoid some of the aggravation from the shoes and kept me from scratching the skin to bloody sores.  That night we fell asleep with a thick smoke descending over the Ashland valley and Callahan's Lodge.  I could not say I was too excited to wake up and start hiking in that the next morning.

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics

Days: 103

Miles: 1,727

Days of Poison Oak: 10

Bears: 5

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