Miles today: 24

Trail miles sum: 974.4

Trail location: 1649.5

Elevation: 1718

Spinning on the turntable: Andrea Bochelli: Si’

My camp site from last night was close to a snow field and my tent fly was soaked today. The sleeping bag was moist as well.

I camped next to a family of four somewhere around 7000 feet. They had a fire burning in a pit next to their tent. It’s crazy to see someone starting a fire after having spent (on and off) days hiking through burned out sections of the forest.

If they’d offered me watermelon I wouldn’t have minded so much…

There were sporadic sections of snow to navigate early in the morning, but nothing too serious.

The meadowlands and surrounding hills are a brilliant green. It’s simply astounding to walk through.

The day promised a steep descent….

I like a good descent as much as the next hiker, but 5,000 feet in one whack is a bit much. Plus there’s the known fact that I’ll be heading right back up to 6,000 feet in elevation after finishing this downhill stretch.

I sat a little off trail to eat my lunch of an apple and a Payday candy bar while airing out my feet. I was quite surprised to see what I believe to be a tweaker/methhead go flying by on the trail. It was really, really odd.

Noelle hiked out to meet me and we hiked back to the van together…after stopping to soak our feet in a creek.

We wrapped up the trail day with popsicles at the van with a fellow hiker (Jazzy) and then went into Seiad for dinner at the (dry) tavern. (An oxymoron if there ever was!)

We opted to stay at a local RV/hiker park. We’ve certainly changed our hotel mentality since starting our hike. As a lifetime Platinum Marriott member, I’ve done my time in a few iffy hotels….but never quite this rough.

…but in the end, the shower at the $35 RV park worked just as well as the shower at the $285 Marriott (shower shoes not required).

Tomorrow we’ll take a zero day and relax a bit before beginning the final assault into Oregon.