July 27th, 2022 by Jon
We woke in our warm, cozy beds feeling well rested after a full night’s sleep and a bit of sleeping in as well. We got up around 8:00 and began eating some of the food we bought yesterday at the store and packing our things. We cleaned up the Airbnb a bit before spending some time out on the patio, relaxing. Soon we had everything ready and left for the bakery around 9:30 for 2nd breakfast. On the way, we stopped at the post office to mail a box forward to Crater Lake so that we would have food there. We hear they have some snacks and stuff, but are worried they won’t have everything we need. Afterward, we headed to the bakery, and we had some great pastries, coffee, and orange juice. Missile and Biscuit were working on contacting a few different trail angels to see if we could get a ride back to trail.
After eating, we headed over to the city library to enjoy their AC since it was already 86 degrees outside. We sat and read magazines and a trail angel let us know she could pick us up around 1:00. It was just after 11:00 so we had time to chill and grab sandwiches at the cafe across the street for lunch before hopping in the car at 1:00. We got to the trailhead and thanked our trail angel profusely who refused any sort of gas money or anything from us. We began getting ready to hike when Biscuit pulled out the cider she had packed, and it had a hole! We took turns shotgunning it out of the hole in the side before we put on sunscreen and hit the trail.
We climbed up a ridge for about 4 miles. It was mostly exposed, but with some tree coverage. The sun felt pretty hot, but a breeze kept us from getting too overheated. The trail wound its way up the mountain and crossed a saddle before we carried on along a ledge on the other side of the ridge for the rest of the day. Around 60% of the trail from this point until camp was burned. Looking into the valley below, you could see a patchwork of white trees with dead orange needles and the living green trees. We hiked along the ledge, going over more blowdowns, hiking over saddles, and making our way along the mountain chain heading north. It feels good to actually be going north again instead of west or even south like we did a few days ago.
We passed a water source with tons of bees around it, but thankfully, we had enough water to get to the next source, so we ended up skipping it. We took a break on a rock just afterward and actually had a few big, thick raindrops fall on us from a cloud overhead! All 4 of us were amazed and couldn’t believe it. It was brief, though, and after a few minutes it stopped. We kept hiking as the sun got lower and lower in the sky before we came to a small creek that crossed the trail. We filled water there and then turned the corner and found a bunch of tent sites in soft pine and dirt. We set up camp, had dinner there, and turned in for the night.
Tomorrow we hope to make enough miles, continue along this ridge, and hopefully reach the top of the 20-mile descent into Seiad Valley. The high there for the next two days is 111 degrees. While it will certainly be cooler in the mountains, it’s bound to be pretty warm still. We plan to take lots of breaks and go crazy with all the electrolytes we bought for this section.
Awesome pictures!