Miles hiked: 32.2.
Ended up deciding to hike the 32 miles to Seiad Valley, even though I had been feeling a little tired and was planning to stop about 6 miles out of town. It took me a while to get in to a rhythm this morning, with cool views straight up at Black Marble Mountain and some birds and flowers all causing me to stop frequently. It was another smokey morning and the sun was a clean orange disk rising through the haze and casting a soft glow on the tall peaks along the ridge. The trail climbed steeply (the trail in the Marble Mountains Wilderness has been steeper than we've had so far) up the east facing slope and regained the ridge where it flattened into the rolling shoulder to the north of the Marble Mountains. It was real Sound Of Music country, with big broad meadows slanting off to either side of the ridge. But of course there was the smoke, cutting visibility to just a couple miles.
At brunch 11 miles in to he day I sat for over an hour, feeling sluggish and slow and not being able to stop thinking about my sore feet. But then when it tied my shoes back on and got back into my pack, it was like a switch had been flipped or a fire lit down under somewhere or some new wind found my sails. For whatever reason, I felt great and really motivated for some fast walking. The trail was perfect for this, just a long gradual downhill on soft, compressed forest duff. I made the next 7 miles down in and out of burned forest to Grider Creek in a touch over 2 hours, which I think is my fastest bit of hiking yet.
A few miles later I had lunch on a little patch of sand by the creek and took a little bath and rinsed some socks and had an afternoon coffee and kept going without my usual nap. This whole area burned just last year in the Happy Camp Complex Fire, and a few of the bridges over the creek were "out of service" and the whole forest seemed to have just cooled down. But down along the creek there was still a good understory, and in some areas the tops of the trees were still green.
About 6 miles from town the trail ends at a Forest Service campground and we walk a dirt road then hwy 96 the rest of the way to town. It was 5 at this point, and another hiker said everything in town closes by 7 and that I wouldn't make it in time. Just the motivation I needed! Did the next 6.4 in an hour and fifty minutes along the flat road, picking a few blackberries along the way. Teenage couples buzzed by on 4-wheelers out on country dates.
Got to town at 10 'till 7, only to find the store stays open until 8. Decided a tin of Pringles and a whole watermelon (the human head-sized ones, not horse head) and some beer was the right thing to have for dinner, and settled in at the little RV park in town. I had been a little apprehensive about arriving in this little town so late and maybe having everything be closed and having to sleep hungry in the brambles on the side of the road. But the little store and Arab park had everything I needed. The RV park in particular is great for hikers, with showers and laundry (towels and soap included) and charging and Wifi. This is ended up being a great stop to get all these town chores done since I'm not too sure when I'll go through a town again.
I stayed up late doing laundry and talking to Libby and finishing my chip dinner while lightning flicked somewhere up there above the smoke and a few raindrops plopped down in the dust.
Birds:
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Oregon Junco
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-pewee
Steller's Jay
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Green-tailed Towhee
Nashville Warbler
American Kestrel
Pine Siskin
Hermit Warbler
Sooty Grouse
Gray Jay- food carry
Turkey Vulture
Western Scrub-jay
Black-headed Grosbeak
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