Pacific Crest Trail : Seiad Valley to Callahan's

Miles this section : 63
Miles completed : 1716

Those infamous pancakes.

Seiad Valley is of course home to the 'infamous pancake challenge' as the sign has it, well, I will probably never be here again, it has to be done.  Five massive one pound pancakes, in a single huge pile, duly turn up - so much dough on one plate.  The first goes down pretty fast, but then halfway through the second I start to feel really quite uncomfortably full, the things are expanding inside me... I don't even manage to finish the second, I suspect carrying on would have led to me being sick...  As it is I take two away wrapped in clingfilm, they go in the outdoor hiker fridge (I approve of this idea), I go to lie down and groan.  Nice to have a day of not doing much anyway... I read a bit, order a new hat - and food this time - from Walmart, and eventually recover enough for another burrito, plus most of the chocolate from my resupply box, it'll only melt if I try to take it on the trail.

Horsing about.

No pancakes next morning, and in fact I have to wait a bit for my sausage (actually more like pork burgers) and eggs - the griddle is taken up by two guys doing the challenge, so selfish.  So it is nearly 10am when I set off, on the plus side I'm reverting to the original plan for this section, just twenty miles to do.  But... it is in fact one of the toughest ascents of the whole trail, some six thousand feet out of the valley and in a heat wave too, well, no help for it.  At least there is some cloud cover, and indeed the smoke from nearby wildfires blocks some sunlight too, nonetheless sweat pours from me as I push up the hill.  In fact, fires are casting a pall, both literally and figuratively, over the trail - news from further north is some trail sections are closed due to heavy smoke.  Where I am, the air is clear enough at my high altitude, but the surrounding landscape is hidden beneath a grey-brown blanket that stretches to the horizon.

A sea of smoke.

My second day out of Seiad is short again, a mere twenty-one miles, but while I walk quickly enough I feel pretty tired, still recovering from the pancakes I think... I pass a bit of a milestone anyway, after nearly one thousand seven hundred miles I finally leave California, hello state number two, Oregon.  I camp just over the border, and get more bad news - the trail is now closed in Crater Lake National Park, highlight of the state.  Lots of road walking coming it seems, but not just yet, instead an introduction to Oregon, gentler country it seems, rolling hills, for all their seven thousand foot altitude, cows (complete with cowbells) graze among the wild flowers, all very pleasant.  Makes for easy walking, I do the twenty-four miles by 5pm, and get a warm welcome at Callahan's Lodge alongside Interstate 5.  Beer!  All you can eat spaghetti!  All good, they even let me use their phone to call my next resupply stop, which is right next to Crater Lake.  But yes, they are open, it is not that smoky, they will take my stuff from Walmart even if it is four huge, mostly empty boxes.  Just have to figure out how to get there now...

Pretty Oregon.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.