Day 107 - 8/10/12 - Seiad Valley and the Cali Finale!

Contents:  Grider Creek Campground - Slughterhouse Meadow (Approx. 25 miles)

Excellent day today!  We got up early and cruised the 6.4 road miles to Seiad Valley arriving shortly after 8.  The miles went quickly and we amused ourselves with our favorite word game from the desert as well as a new music lyrics game.  The word game is great.  One person picks a word and gives the rest of the group the first letter.  The group tries to guess the word by asking questions.  The person who picked the word attempts to answer each question with a no by stating any plausible response that starts with the same letter.  There are other rules, but that's the jist of it.  For the lyrics game, we divided into two teams, picked a word (our first was "road"), and went back and forth singing lyrics that included the word of choice until one team ran out of songs.  Super fun and a great way to make the miles fly by.

Seiad Valley was an interesting place.  It is Jefferson State Central, and the California I didn't know about before the trail.  Definitely red neck....maybe even a little like parts of Alaska.  In some ways, it also reminded me of the Waipio Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Very anti-government.  We got the opportunity to talk with a lot of local residents and almost all had extreme perspectives.  There's an outside movement to turn the area into a national monument which locals are extremely opposed to.  We saw tons of signs and propaganda.  It definitely felt like we could have been in a different country.  

The pancake challenge was insane.  The goal was to eat five one pound pancakes in under two hours.  The pancakes were served on a pizza pan.  The restaurant, the Seiad Valley Cafe, has been ranked #3 by the Travel Channel on their list of best places to pig out in the U.S.  Needless to say, it was an epic fail for Peels, Tourist, and Nugs.  Tourist put one away, Nugs downed a pancake and a half, and I was in the middle at about one and a quarter.  But so fun and we definitely had to try.   When we finally left, our friend Amigo was working on his fourth and not looking so good.  We were all rooting for him though!  I'm feeling fine now, but I think I'll probably order an omelet for breakfast in Ashland.

We wound up doing about 13 more miles of road walking out of Seiad Valley due to a huge fire that is burning right by the trail.  The fire was started by a lightning strike a few days ago.  I remember the day as we had thunder all afternoon but didn't get rained on.  We had to do a ton of climbing, but it was actually less than we would have done on the trail.  We rejoined the PCT about 5.5 miles from camp and had a chill ridge walk to end the day.  I'm currently camped with Nugs, Tourist, Nips, Wildflower, Mud Flap, and Houdini, who I met just a couple days ago.

Tonight is my last night in California.  We should cross the Oregon border tomorrow afternoon.  Thank you, California, for being such an incredible place.  I can honestly say that I haven't walked a mile without seeing beauty. I've been in California for 3.5 months and feel like I've lived here.  In fact, there are few places I wouldn't consider living.  There is a little bit of everything in this state along with some of the most amazing people I've met.  I couldn't have asked for a more positive experience, and I'll always feel a deep personal connection to California.

Big day tomorrow....can't wait!  Have a great night!