Chris is NOT scared of bears - PCT California Section Q (Etna to Seiad Valley)

Pacific Crest Trail - Section Q: Etna Summit to Seiad Valley

June 4th-June 8th

Etna Summit, CA to Seiad Valley, CA
Distance: 56.2 mi.
Total Elevation Gain: 9,141 ft.
Total Elevation Loss: 13,746 ft.
Highest Elevation: 6,950 ft.
Dogs: Allowed, but logistically difficult
Difficulty: Moderate

After crossing the highway that turns toward the town of Etna we entered Marble Mountain Wilderness. Initially we planned on going 15 miles the first day in this section but the rocks AKA softball sized hunks of torture were ruining my feet. We ended up camping at the saddle, it was windy and a little rainy but otherwise our campsite was pretty nice with good shelter.

The next morning as we were breaking camp we ran into this guy who told us that he had been forced to stop hiking because he had torn his Achilles tendon. I'm not sure whether it was a full or partial tear, but I'm guessing it was only partial because he had only been back on the trail a couple of days and was doing 20 miles a day. Why you ask? Good question. Chris and I were pretty baffled.

As we got started hiking we felt great. Like really great. The rocks were not nearly as awful as they had been the day before, we were cruising through the mileage. We did four miles in an hour and forty minutes, which may not sound that amazing on paper, but is a pretty stellar pace when you're hiking through rough terrain with 30-40 lbs of gear on your back. We stopped to refill water and eat some breakfast... and somehow Chris' ankle breaks. Ok, that's maybe a little hyperbolic. It didn't break, but something went wrong. Looking back on it we decided that the main cause was that we had been walking on a trail that was pretty sloped, putting pressure on the downhill ankle, and that it had been sloped in that direction for a few days. At this point we're 4 miles into a 16 mile day and if we don't get the mileage done we will end up short on food. Chris ended up powering through this day, but it was pretty damn miserable. The terrain was pretty rough and the last mile or two was especially challenging. The one upside was that we had lunch at this lake and there were tons of salamanders!! Later we discovered that this was not unique, that most of these high mountain lakes were freaking full of salamanders. Dozens of them. Just swimming along and being adorable. As we bedded down that evening, we were pretty apprehensive, we had 16 miles to do the next day and Chris had been miserable all day. What were we going to do if his ankle didn't feel better?

When we woke up the next morning Chris' ankle initially seemed okay, but after walking a couple hundred feet to go get the bear bag the pain was back. With a vengeance, I saw him making his way back and he could hardly walk. Luckily, that day the terrain changed. The trail wasn't sloped and didn't have the death rocks at all. After a few hours the pain started to ease. We got to Marble Mountain itself, and some really gorgeous meadows. It's also the first day that it feels warm enough that having a wash is pleasant and really refreshing. We had lunch at Paradise Lake, which was incredibly beautiful nestled among green cliff faces. Again, tons of salamanders. There was also this chipmunk that was harassing us. After lunch we did a big uphill climb, but it was surprisingly easy and we felt great. We camped under this big tree (which was actually three trees that had grown together), which I called the Menoa tree, cause I'm a nerd. We read, watched the sun set as we filled up water in a spring in the middle of a meadow. We fell asleep happy and content, but it was not to last.

Chris woke me up that night, by loudly whispering.
"Baby... baby... BABY! There's a bear outside the tent."
I listened, and sure enough there was a bear outside our tent. I could hear him cruising around in our campsite. We discovered the next morning that we were basically camped in his house. On the downhill side of the tree there were several beds that had been pawed out of the ground and wide game trails coming towards them. Before the bear had arrived I also had happened to pee in one of these beds. Officially making us the worst house guests ever. In my mind the bear took this situation in and thought to himself: They have dishonored my home. Now I must keep them awake and scare them all night as retribution!
However, I didn't know any of this yet.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
As I've said before in a previous post, I'm not really phased by animals, but it worries Chris. As far as I'm concerned we're fine, we hung our food far away, he might be curious about how freaking awful we smell, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything predatory.
"Baby, I don't know what to do. I don't know the in-tent bear protocols"
Literally. That. Is. What. He. Said. To be fair to Chris, he is generally really knowledgable about dealing with wildlife and wilderness survival.
I laughed at this point, which Chris didn't seem to appreciate.
"This is serious baby! Let me see the phone so I can look it up."
I didn't think we were going to have service, but I handed him the phone anyway. Sure enough, no service.
Ha! Internet cannot save you, puny hooomans!
"Honey, just go back to sleep. It'll be okay."
I promptly took my own advice, but Chris did not. The bear left, but returned after a little while.
"Baby... baby... BABY! The bear is back! ....can you yell at it for me?"
"Okay... BEAR! FUCK OFF!"
The bear did not fuck off. But I figured I'd done my duty and went back to sleep. The bear comes back, and this time Chris yelled
"Go away bear!!!"
The bear did not go away. Despite his lack of fear, the bear became bored with terrifying Chris.
I will go, but Bird, you know what I suffer take up my cause! Keep them awake till dawn!
Bird: MWWROOOOOOOOP. 
The bird was half-true to his word and kept Chris awake till dawn.
The end.

No not really. The next morning the down hill began. SO MUCH DOWNHILL. We ran into some people who warned us about the ascent out of Seiad (pronounced Sigh-Ad) and the heat. The also let us know that the river valley that will take us into Seiad is completely burnt and there won't be any cover, which I guess is good information to have, but there wasn't really anything we could do about it. We seriously were killing the downhill, but it is definitely starting to get hot. We came into the burnt section, there were a couple of burnt bridges so we had to ford the creeks. Backpacks seem like a burden many times during adventures like this.  On this day Chris' backpack saved him for a serious injury that possibly would have ended the trip.  During one of our creek crossings Chris stepped on a moss covered rock and slipped.  I don't mean slipped like stumbled, I mean slipped like something from a cartoon where the character goes from standing upright in one frame to having their feet above their head in the next frame.  Not only did he fall, but he landed with the center of his back right on a large rock.  Luckily, he landed on his backpack and it absorbed the majority of the impact.  Unfortunately, the adventure was not over yet.  We were walking along the side of a very steep incline after crossing the first creek. This is a spot that the fire didn't get to, because there are still trees and it's pretty shady. All of a sudden I heard this rattle sound right next to my head, given that the only thing next to my head is dirt from the uphill side of the hill I just assumed it was a bug (there are bugs that make rattle-y noises). So I said "Stupid bug!" and kept right on going. Chris, who was behind me, said "Baby, that is NOT a bug." It was, of course, a rattlesnake. Now we were separated me on one side, Chris on the other, pissed off rattlesnake in the middle. Chris found a stick, initially planning to flip the snake out of his hole under some tree roots so that he could pass. I told him I didn't want him to flip the snake, and he said he didn't want to either. This ended up being a REALLY good decision, since the trail switchbacked almost immediately and we probably just would have had a very, very angry snake to deal with. Instead, Chris pins the snake's head down with the stick and cautiously circumnavigates him. We continued on, as the heat continued to increase.

HOLY FUCK THIS PART OF THE WORLD IS VERY, VERY HOT.

There is no cover, the valley is like an oven, slowly roasting us to death. We are about 2 miles to the campground we're planning on stopping at for the night and we're starting to get low on water. We knew there would be a trail junction marking when we only had half a mile left to go, but either the marker had been burnt or we suffered from incredibly short-term blindness and missed it because we never saw it. As a result I was starting to get a little nervous about the water situation, when we arrived at Grider creek. We were so happy to be there, we didn't even go set up camp, we just went down to the creek. Stripped down and went swimming. The water was really cold, but that was a huge relief after how hot it had been all day. I felt so nasty after almost two weeks without a proper shower, and my hair was so greasy that I thought smearing a bunch of clay-based mud might take away some of the nasty. So I made myself into a river monster, which, while obviously frightening, was not effective.

After swimming we set up camp. It was so hot I didn't want to eat, and for the first time I convinced Chris to sleep with the fly off the tent and both of us slept on top of our sleeping bags.

The next morning we woke up early for the 6.5 mile road walk into Seiad Valley. It was pretty uneventful, aside from just generally being unpleasant. We crossed the Klamath  river which was very pretty and walked into the very small town of Seiad.