The Unpolished Princess

Start: 1657

Stop: 1661.5

Today’s miles: 4.5

Total PCT miles: 74.9

I got up at 7:30 and got dressed. I attempted to pack a little but before I knew it, it was already 8am. I grabbed all the things I needed to ship and walked the mile to the post office. They opened at 8:30 and I was the only one inside.

I shipped my ULA pack and my hat (just cannot seem to manage wearing it) back to myself. I shipped my bear can to Andrea, and my next food drop to the place I should make it to in the next week. All together, all 3 packages were $57. Because of the packing and writing and correcting addresses and taping-I got out of there at 8:50. I walked as fast as I could, but knew I wouldn’t make the 9:30 bus. I still had to pack my pack completely, check out, and then walk the half mile in the opposite direction..

That was alright, the next bus left at 11:45. That gave me time to work on the blog, relax on the bed, get everything packed just right. I left right at 11am and walked the half mile. The bus stop was in the parking lot of that gas station I walked to yesterday.. and oh no! The bus was already there!
I ran up to the bus, and the driver opened the door.. he told me I hadn’t missed it, he just got here early. I still had at least 30 minutes. So I got a sandwich, some chips, and a grape soda. I made myself a “PCT Hiker to Seiad Valley” Hitchhiking sign and ate my food at a picnic table.

I boarded the bus at 11:40 the driver was upset that they don’t have a bus riding out to Seiad Valley directly. I told him I knew I’d have to hitch and it was ok, he gave me a transfer card to get on another bus when this one ended to get me to the correct side of town to hitch from, so I wouldn’t have to walk that far.. so very kind! It’s an hour to Yreka, California, and then Seiad Valley is an hour hitch from there.

I got off the bus, got on the other one, and before I knew it I was being dropped off in front of a Speedway Gas Station and a Liquor Land store. Alrighty then. Not knowing how long this hitching business would take, I went to the gas station and used their bathroom before crossing the street, standing in front of Liquor Land and sticking my thumb out. I was a bit worried this would all be in vane, because not many cars were coming to my side of the four way stop. But I was all smiles anyway. Even when the thunder started to rumble and the skies grew dark. Lovely.

I had a backup plan, if I couldn’t get a hitch in the next 3 hours, I would get a room at the super 8 motel behind the Liquor Land and come up with a new plan in the morning to get to Seiad Valley. To my complete shock, though, I had a ride in less than 10 minutes. This kind man named Jeff drove me the whole hour to Seiad Valley, which was 35 minutes past his house! He’s a retired high voltage lineman, and was a wealth of knowledge!

He told me all about the towns out here, how 5 counties in this area almost broke away and fought to make themselves their own state, Jefferson. And the only reason it was “stalled” was because the bombing of Pearl Harbor happened right when they were planning to go to the government over it, and they dropped that fight to be patriotic and stand together for the war effort. Hmmmmm.

As we drove between huge mountains and along the Klamath River, he pointed out his own home, right there on the river, and the burn areas from last year’s huge wildfire, to the flood markings from 1997 . He pulled off to the side of the road (after making sure I was comfortable with him doing so) to show me a cool cable bridge I would have never known existed if he was just so genuinely kind and so very happy to tell me all about his home area. He even helps the firefighters when big fires break out, a true volunteer. I offered to pay him when we got to the tiny town of Seiad Valley, and he refused, “I did it because I want to, not to get paid for it.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this.

When I went inside to grab a drink from the general store, another hiker was there. I can’t believe I forgot to get her and her friend’s names. But the four of them have just gotten here from going over the area I’m about to be walking into. We went outside to the picnic tables and they gave me the run down: lots of big blow downs, LOTS. Like took them 45 minutes to go just over a quarter mile because of the climbing up and over and around and under. For miles. And then miles more. Then, my favorite part: snow. Yep. According to them, lots of it. Son of a bitch.

I asked when it started and they didn’t give me an exact answer. They said they covered the whole stretch I’m doing in 3 days, but they’ve been hiking for a while now and definitely have their trail legs (they started in the desert). Makes me wonder.. and panic. I have read literally EVERY. SINGLE. COMMENT. About this section on the app. People mention water is flowing. People mention great campsites, and yes, in a little area people mention “snow free campsite!” And “the north facing road is completely melted out, the trail isn’t, take the road!” But no where has anyone said the words “dangerous,” “I should have bailed,” “melting cornices,” or anything like that, so I’m praying this snow is more manageable. And that doesn’t start for awhile.

As we were talking, big storm clouds were rolling in, I think they followed me from Yreka. I was contemplating staying a the campground and getting started tomorrow.. but I’d be in my tent, then, too. So, instead I started hiking up the trail. It was less than 2 miles to a campsite, then another at 4 miles and another at 4.5. I had options. The trail immediately started climbing once it was off the road. Switchbacks through some dense, dry forest, until coming up on top of a bluff with beautiful views of Klamath River and the mountains surrounding it. Just breathtaking! This is what I was expecting when I said I wanted to hike the PCT!

It was overgrown in areas and around 3 miles in I pulled off 4 different ticks. Then, I saw my first snake of the trail! Thankfully he was moving away from me into a bush, so I never saw his face.. just his long never ending body. I literally ran past, just in case his head was pointed in my direction. I was too freaked out to get a picture standing still, I just snapped one while I ran.. and looking at it now, his creepy little head is in there! I shutter just looking at it. I’d probably pass out of one of those things stood up and hissed at me!

I got to the 3rd campsite and it’s, meh. There’s a big dead tree on the ground through the middle of the trail, and my spot is up close to some brush. Oh well. It’s been a long day. I didn’t feel like pushing another mile or two. I set up camp and while I was sitting on the ground looking through the FarOut app, trying to figure out where to get to tomorrow and if there will be snow (I still don’t know when or where it starts, ugh).. I hear a crashing, crunching sound behind me a little ways, coming from the top of the hill opposite the one my tent is next to.

I pop up to see what it is. A big ole black bear is barreling full speed down the hill towards me!! Oh my god! He was HUGE! And once he noticed my movement, he veered to his right, and continued sprinting straight down hill, like a very steep downhill.. all I could hear was his crashing into bushes and plants and loose limbs. It sounded like he got pretty far away, I heard all of that for a minute or two..But I’ve been on high alert since.

I still ate my dinner, but I did it standing and pacing around; hahaha. Something tells me I might be a little jumpy trying to sleep tonight. Hopefully every creature keeps its distance. Oh! And so far, no rain. It kept thundering like something big was coming.. and honestly I’d welcome it if it would melt that snow over there wherever I’m going during the next few days.. ah, well. One last also: if I feel even a little bit worked up like I was out there a few days ago, I’m going to just hike back down and wait until I come up with another plan on how to proceed. Period. I don’t want to feel like that again. I think I’ll read a little bit while I wait for my phone to charge all the way. (As always, check my FB page for more pics, you know I post them all on there! Uploading them here takes forever). Goodnight, y’all.

Start: 1661.5

Stop: 1671.7

Today’s miles: 10.2

Total PCT miles: 85.1

Today was.. weird. It was beautiful and challenging and so dang slow. I don’t really know what took me so long.

I was up and on my way before 7am. The trail was pretty and switchbacked around the big “hill” the bear last night came barreling down (I had no issues over night and slept really well). Less than a mile maybe into my morning, I got trapped in shrub overgrowth hell. Every single step was a branch or twig scraping my legs. I attempted to take my pack off to get out my rain pants to help shield them, but no luck-not enough space!

By the time I came out of that mess, I had a broken trekking pole and my legs were on fire and actively bleeding from all my new cuts. Neato! It probably only looks worse because of the cuts I already commandeered during my snowcapades were easily sliced right back open. Even as I sit here in camp they are burning!

The trail was lazily strolling and switchbacking between mountaintops. It was beyond gorgeous!
I got to a water source and filtered what I needed, then washed down my legs as best I could. Just in case I ran into anyone, I didn’t want it to look like a fresh massacre, although it kinda was.. and I haven’t seen a soul out here. So sad.

At 11am, I had only gone a little over four miles. This just didn’t seem right, because when I wasn’t stuck in that brush, I felt like I was moving at a decent clip. I guess not. I did take a lot of pictures and loved the scenery. Mountains on top of mountains, it felt like I was able to see the blue ridge mountains on one side, and mountains from Mars on the other.

When I crossed over to the backside of rattlesnake mountain, I hit some snow.. enough to make me put on my microspikes. It wasn’t deep and it wasn’t too terrible, but I was slightly sloped into a valley and I just wanted to be cautious. The snow stopped long enough for me to think I was done with it, so I took off my microspikes, only to put them back on less than a mile later.

Once I crossed over this perfect little ridge, that I walked to on switchbacks and calm trail, I was smacked with steep snow. I couldn’t tell where the trail went, because the snow had started melting only on one side, and I couldn’t see over the ledge. It also went straight up to a peak. I chose to walk up the shrubs and rocks on the closest side to me, to see if at the top I could make it around the snow all together, basically by bushwhacking, and you guessed it, cutting my legs.

When I got to the mostly top though, I realized even if I could, the grade was so steep with shale rock I’d probably get hurt trying to get down. So, I came back down the shrubs the same way I got up there, but from this vantage point I could see where to go “over” the snow and safely into a tree well, instead of a drop off. I started off attempting to walk down to that point, but right above where I needed to be, I slipped and slid a little. When I got to a sitting position still on the snow, I stayed put for a few minutes trying to decide my next move. If I tried to stand, all of this could break away and whatever is under here could be worse on my body.

Very shakily, I let myself slip down to the next tree well. I went FLYING! It was so dang fast, and my pack got hooked on a branch sticking out close to the tree well, so my pack was half way up my back.. otherwise, I was ok! Nothing got jammed and nothing hurt (more than normal). I did have to unhook myself to get out of my pack to get up though. From there, I bushwhacked by holding on to branches and rocks and avoided the snow down the embankment until I reached the trail, that I could now see, in all of its glory.

I was able to take the microspikes back off, and walked around a bowl of a valley, with an alpine lake in the middle. Whatever I did, I knew for certain I did not want to slip in there! I got water from a snowmelt waterfall, sat and ate lunch. When I was up and moving again, big, dark storm clouds were rolling in. Uh oh. That does not look good.

I got to an unmarked road crossing and made a split second decision to follow the road instead of the trail. There wasn’t anymore snow, but the trail looked to be going up along the ridge line of an area from a previous fire, and I didn’t want to be up any higher if lightening was coming.
This ended up being a wonderful choice in so many ways! When the rain came, my umbrella had plenty of room to not smack against any trees or limbs. AND, speaking of limbs, my legs got a break from all the shrubs rubbing up against me on that overgrown trail. I was ecstatic!

My one issue, well besides the whole rattlesnake the rattled all wound up and hissed at me (and almost caused me to jump off the side of the dang road off the mountain when I screamed, jumped, and ran), I didn’t realize I had to pre download the maps of each section on my app to have the topo on it. I’m kinda going blind with these roads. I don’t know if they’ll go higher in elevation than the trail, therefore maybe having snow, and some of them don’t even show me the entire road, so I have no clue if it’ll actually take me where I want to go! Looks like I know what I need to do the second I get service.

When the road met with the trail, the rain had just eased up. Up ahead, I could see that the trail goes up through another burn area. The comments on the app say that there’s 2 miles of “horrible blow downs” before the next campsite area. The clouds are still angry. My pole is broken. I said screw it and put my tent up at the little spot right here by this crossing.

The bottom part of my pole is broken, I sat awhile trying to finagle it, to no use. BUT, my tent did still set up with the broken pole out at the absolute highest it would go! It’s short and it’s a little sketchy on how well it’ll set up and stay in this wind and rain, but this campsite is spacious and flat, so here felt safer than attempting it later, after 2 miles of blowdowns and a thunderstorm in a burn area.

I just keep falling short of my goals everyday. But that’s ok. Tomorrow is a new day, and I’ve been good about having a couple extra meals in my pack in case this happened again. I do know I’m ready to be at Callahan’s Lodge in Oregon in a few days. Let’s hope the next few go much smoother! If my tent doesn’t do well tonight in this storm, I’m at a junction that I can take a forest service road back down to Seiad Valley. But I think I’ll only do that if I think I won’t be able to safely pitch my tent tomorrow night. Ok, time to attempt to get out of my “semi-safe haven” to cook dinner when there’s a break in the rain. I’m actually hungry tonight!

Start: 1671.7

Stop:1691.9

Today’s miles: 20.2

Total PCT miles: 105.3

It stormed off and on all night long. With the tent being so much lower and therefore not able to hold up the “bathtub” floor of my tent, I had to improvise and set up my umbrella and my pack cover across the one side of the tent to keep water from splashing in from underneath. Surprisingly, it worked. But I’ve got to get a new pole, asap.

When I woke up, my legs still stung. I weighed my options. Trail=2+ miles of bad blowdowns, plus whatever the hell else the trail throws at me. Road to the right= 15 miles back to Seiad Valley, which I would what? Then hope to hitchhike to Ashland to get new poles and figure out life? Another section jumped that I’d just have to come back to do later? Road to the left= unknown amount of extra miles but the option to road walk down, across, and back up to a junction that’s 18 miles away by trail, and an extra 2 miles north from there is a cabin I could sleep in and not worry with my tent tonight.

I pondered while I packed, grateful to my friend, Poptart, for doing some recon for me last night from my Garmin Inreach (since I had no service). I messaged her and she checked out the roads I was considering to make sure that they did exist and would come back to the trail, since my topo maps didn’t download. I got everything loaded on my back and within my first few steps it started raining again. Jesus, Mary, & Joseph! My outburst made me think of Nancy, and smile. I knew I didn’t want to quit. I also knew it was highly unlikely my first 20 mile day on trail would be in this section. So. I decided to take a risk, and turned left down the road.

It’s all dirt and gravel. I could see semi fresh tire marks, so I was hoping beyond hope that the road was intact all the way down. I could see swiggles on my app, so I knew it was a road, but there was no way to really guess the mileage.

I flipping flew down that road. According to my arm swing on my garmin (not all that accurate), I hit 11.2 miles before 10am. When the road ended, next to a campground, I got water from a creek and turned right. At that junction, a big metal gate was across the road and said, “Road Closed” across it. Crap. I decided to go for it, what the hell, I’m not hiking 11 miles back up that hill.

I went around the gate and the road seemed fine. Then, out of no where, all of these “No trespassing” signs and “private property” and “keep out” signs were everywhere! I made my progress, not seeing any people, until a girl in a pick up truck came down the road, waved and carried on. Hmmm. I guess she knows how to open that gate.

Then I start seeing homes. Some that could probably be condemned, some very pretty, all with gardens and solar panels. I ended up passing a man that came to talk to me. I was expecting to get reprimanded for being on this road, but instead he was kind and helped me figure out the best way back up. I was secretly hoping he’d offer me a ride, but that didn’t happen.

I carried on, by noon my watch said 17 miles. No way. My feet were sore but I didn’t think I’d walked that far yet. I finally turned on the final road to take me to the top, and it was a long one. I walked over where the road washed out, I passed several more “road closed” signs and each time prayed that I would be able to pass through. I started hearing wind chimes at some point, then realized it’s cows with bells around their necks. I scared them! Sorry buddies.

I hit this spot of switchbacks on the road and my god my feet were aching. I started dry heaving for some reason (just typing that is making me do it again. Not sure what’s up with that?!), and slowly trudging along. I was at the top of the switchbacks, so all I had to do was this one straight away and I’d be at the intersection to get back on the PCT, hike 2 more miles, and then set up shop INSIDE a cabin. OUT OF THIS RAIN!

As I was going, I was wondering about the people in this area and that maybe they have four wheelers because I could see fresh tracks but some of this stuff a vehicle surely wouldn’t go over. In that moment a white truck appears in front of me flying towards me like a bat out of hell! I pictured Cruella Devile (cartoon version) as I quickly moved.

A man, maybe my age, with a gorgeous black lab with grey and white around his muzzle stopped in the truck. The doggie quickly popped his head out of the window for kisses, and who was I to say no? The guy started asking me about my hike and where I was headed.. then drops a “you still have a pretty long ways to go by foot.” I thought, meh, 2-3 miles tops. SURELY.

This man pulls out an app of all the forest roads in the area and proceeds to tell me I still have over 7 miles to that junction. And, he’s certain he’s telling me the correct junction because he is a forest road construction worker, and he left his “big machine” at that very junction. Son of a biscuit eating bulldog. Then, as he must have watched my entire body deflate, all but my right hand petting his sweet pup-he goes, “want me to just drive you back up there? Probably like 10-15 minutes by truck.”

Y’all. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten into a stranger’s car so damn fast. I tossed my stuff in the back seat with Jake, the lab, and then hopped right up front with John like we’d been best friends since I was seven. The whole way (which he had to make an awkward turn around in very tight quarters) he told me about how he’s the only one contracted in this area to maintain these back country forest roads. The other guy he had with him quit last fall, and they haven’t hired anyone to help him.

He literally comes out, with his pup (13 years old!) and fixes and clears and works on these roads. I was blown away. And also so very grateful I ran into him, otherwise I would have been setting up camp with my broken trekking pole in the rain, again, but this time at a weird side part of a dirt road. Sheesh.

It had been raining off and on all dang day. Thunder crackling and rumbling so deep I could feel it through my body. When John dropped me off, it was 5:15pm, my watch said I had gone 29.9 miles. Lord have mercy. I took off into the woods, hoping the 2 miles to the cabin weren’t bad. In the grand scheme of things, they weren’t, but I did have blowdowns to clamber over (and scrape my not once all dang day scraped legs). There was a little snow, but I walked over it ok.

Finally, around 6, I walk through a meadow of cows and their bells up to a cabin on the hill. It was beautiful! I unpacked. The cabin had cots, so I put my air mattress on top of a cot (blown up), and then put my sleeping quilt inside my liner and my pad inside that. This cabin is known for mice and the idea of a mouse on my good quilt is just too much to take.

I made dinner and ate outside at a picnic table, at times popping up my umbrella. Damn rain. And when I was all done, I stuffed my food bag into a 5gallon plastic bucket with a lid.. I found it inside the cabin, with some other random food items, and then I hung my pack from a carabiner on a wire that ran across the cabin. Hopefully the mice don’t like to do tight rope walking.

Now, I’m all tucked in, the sun is setting, my watch says 32 miles today (only 20 count towards my hike) and I be damned if I don’t see a mouse right now! He could care less that I’m here, just running around the rafters checking stuff out. Thankfully he’s up high, away from me, my pack, and my food bucket. Ah, let’s hope this night goes well! I think I’m probably too exhausted to care!