California is a long ass state. I know, because I walked the length of it. Google tells me that Alaska is longer, but it also says that there’s no permanent route that crosses it. So I walked the longest available distance across a state. As Tinkle and I neared the end of California, we hit a bubble of hikers in Seiad Valley, the last town in Cali. On the way, we crossed mile 1650, which meant there was less than 1000 miles to go! Saying that we only had to walk 1000 more miles really illustrates the depth of our insanity by this point.

Coming into town, the road walk was lined with bushes of blackberries, of which we stopped to take advantage until our fingers and tongues were purple. It was impossible to resist and our progress was much impeded. However, we arrived in town and put our names in at the restaurant. Tinkle and I ate with Aurora and Dish, looking at the 70’s PCT books they had available. Once I finished my obligatory milkshake, we resupplied at the store. Sitting outside afterward, Blue found me and bought me a beer for returning her electrolyte powder. I also met Waffle, who was from Grand Rapids! We also met up with Shadow, saw Cactus, Thai Spicy, Melt, Napoleon, and many other familiar faces. Towns could be like that, reunions that could vortex you in.

On trail, there was this guy who’d amassed fame among all the hikers for his awesome photographs. His name was Twerk and he photographed dirty, tired hikers in a high fashion style. Tinkle had been wanting to be featured, so when he came up to us sitting on a curb and asked if he could get a picture of us, we said yes immediately. (Scroll through his post below to see said photo). Tinkle kept it very cool and rocked the picture.

We left town that same day, to keep the momentum going. I was still trying to make sense of the journey thus far when we hit the border of Oregon the next afternoon. We celebrated with Jetpack, Dish, Aurora, Wheat Thin, Zen, Cowboy, Stormtrooper, and Copilot. People had brought tequila, cigars, beer, candy, and other celebratory consumables. We all took pictures and rested for a while. Mile 1700 came quickly after that. That night, we had phone service and I used it to call my sister, who I hadn’t spoken to since her birthday over a month earlier. I stayed up into the night and left camp at the late late hour of 5:45.

The uphills that morning seemed harder than usual and I saw a random hose going alongside the trail. We happened upon some firefighters stationed in the mountain to be ready to respond to the fires in the area. It explained why I was feeling so tired. When these fires were going on, there were constant alerts not to exercise outdoors because of the poor air quality. We ignored these, which might not have been the best choice, but we had a trail to walk. The firefighters stopped me and gave me a cold Gatorade! I was ecstatic. COLD! Later, we found coolers with soda left by trail angels on top of a hill. Shortly after, there were more coolers by a road for us with fruit, juice, and more soda! Three trail magics in one day? Oregon was shaping up to be a haven.