All night long, we heard walking around the tents. It started out as soon as we got inside. Bear shined his light down the hill and saw 4 eyes reflecting back at him. The eyes were green, so he was ok. He said if they would have been red, he would have been concerned. As long as deer are hanging around, we know there aren’t any predators about. What predator would want to eat an animal that licks urine off the ground. Deer are disgusting so we are safe.
I had to get up 3 times from all the water I drank trying to stay hydrated. Every time I did, I practically tripped over a damn deer. I’m not sure which was more annoying, the deer circling around the tents waiting for one of us to pee, or hearing them munch on the dirt after we peed. Our tent is still unfamiliar enough in design that the deer haven’t gotten used to it and avoided coming right up to it. They are familiar enough with the Big Agnes that they felt comfortable enough to lick Bear and Sassy’s tent, and even go right up anything sticking out from under the vestibules. I’m guessing there must still be residual salt from all the times I’ve peed on their tent.
A new trend has formed in the group. People are trying to claim confidentiality, or try speaking to me “off the record” so it doesn’t go in the blog. A member of the party stopped by our tent this morning and asked “what does it mean if you have green poop?” Once we figured out all the possibilities and narrowed it down to eating too many blueberries, they then tried to claim blog immunity saying I couldn’t mention the green poop. I am a firm believer of free press, but I will honor the request for anonymity in this case. I agreed not to mention the individual’s name, but I didn’t agree to list everyone that had normal poop color. I’ll just mention that mine was not green and give everyone a 1 in 3 shot at figuring out this mystery.
While I was finishing up my “non-green” maneuver, the first 3 thru-hikers passed by our camp. I returned just in time to see them but not catch their names. Other than these 3, we only saw one other nobo all day, Thorny. Thorny just retired from the USAF after a 20 year stint as a fighter pilot. He’s only 41 with a pension. He was hoping to get on one of the airlines as a pilot, but Covid has lowered airline demand. Instead of flying, he decided to hike the PCT to give time for other opportunities to present themselves.
We had been so focused on getting out of Seiad Valley that we had only been focusing on the barrier the mountains between Seiad and Etna presented. We were completely caught off guard by the beauty of the a Trinity Alps. Bunny mentioned that this section reminded her of Washington, and I have to agree. Most people probably don’t slow down enough to notice the beauty of the Trinity Alps. After all, they have been through the Sierra and are just focused on getting out of California after nearly 1700 miles in one state.
The Trinity Alps are a separate range of mountains between the California Coast Range and the Cascades. They are really a part of the Klamath Mountain Range where the Klamath River dominates (Seiad Valley). We had to cross the Klamath River and now we are headed back towards the Cascades. We’ll join back up with the Cascades around Dunsmuir and will be with that range until Lassen which is the southern-most volcano in the Cascades.
It was hot and sunny right out of the box this morning. Thankfully, clouds formed up in afternoon, but it was still deceptively hot. Unbeknownst to us, the clouds of yesterday and today were actually the aftermath of several larger storms further south which, cumulatively, accounted for over 11,000 lightning strikes predominantly in Northern California along the coastal range. California currently has over 300 wildfires from these lightening strikes. At present, there are only 4 fires that might become threats to us, but we are keeping an eye on the California fire map.
We stopped for water 3 times because today ranging from 2.7 to 7.8 trail miles. These stops still left us with 5 dry miles to camp. If Guthook is correct, as it has been so far, we should have a decent flowing stream when we make it to camp. Better yet, we should even have actual benches to sit on tonight. Seats, other than logs, are a rare luxury on the trail. The gold standard is, of course, is a privy. These are the marks of true trail luxury.
We dropped our packs at the abandoned ranger cabin and went in search of the prophesied campsite and spring. Bear and I found Valhalla as Guthook predicted. As the prophesy said, there were 3 benches, plenty of flat spots for tents, and a piped spring. We were able to cooked and eat on the benches and make it to bed before dark. As has become the new custom in this area of woods, we heard footsteps and pee munching once we laid down.
EFG