Seiad to Etna

I don't care how much the maps all say you will go downhill. They lie. For every down there is an up is not true either. The hills would just kill us but we'd hang on in anticipation of the downs only to round the corner for...yep, more up.

All in all it's been a good 4 days. We've experienced many fun hikers, a fantastic trail crew who finished clearing nearly 100 downed trees the day we passed thru. We were happy to let them have the campsite we wanted!

We've dodged poison oak, bugs, ants and walked mostly on broken and uneven rock trail making our blisters and otherwise tired bodies cry out for mercy.

We've slipped across some small snow fields, ran out of water, worried for available campsites.

We watched beautiful distant mountains grow closer with each climb. We've seen the majestic views that words cannot describe.

We've seen so many deer and feel they are hiking with us as their heart shaped tracks lead the way down the trail. Lizards too, have provided frequent entertainment. We've seen fresh bear scat and the bear that left it.

We're sore. We're exhausted. We're hungry.  We STINK. I'm dreading the next portion which is longer and promises to be every bit as challenging. But it also promises to be rewarding and so we hike on.

It took about 30 minutes before we caught our ride to Etna. Thank you kind locals who give rides! We may take an additional zero day in town to rest bruised feet. We are staying in a quaint little hotel that makes us feel at home.

Until next time. We miss you all and look forward to hearing from you!

UPDATE: We stayed in Etna a few days and shopped/visited every business. What a warm and receptive town. A special thanks to Cassie at Collier Hotel who bent over backward to make sure we had what we needed and to Jeff at Mountain Healing for the fabulous massage.

On to the trail again...just saw where it will be triple digits in Castella-our next stop. We miss Oregon!