Saturday, August 18th

Saturday, August 18th: PCT mile = 1,617. Last night there was just a little sprinkle of rain on my tent. I was hoping that it would rain a bit harder. Hopefully it rained over the wildfires.

I got up this morning around my normal time. I took my time gathering my things and getting my tent down. Shortly after I had my pack all ready to hike I headed down the street for coffee and breakfast at the local cafe. I then waited outside the soda fountain for 50 minutes for it to open. Many hikers walked by as I was posted up outside asking me what I was up to. I told them all that the soda fountain is the only reason to ever come into Etna. By the time the fountain opened I had 9 hikers waiting outside! The poor girl behind the counter was a little overwhelmed at first. Dazzle ended up getting the whole bill for all the hikers. Scallyway ordered the "Marvel Mountain Madness". It was 10 giant scoops of any flavors of ice cream topped with three topping of you choice, whip cream, and cherries! It was served in a humongous glass ice cream bowl. It was almost as big as Scallywags head! I guess hes training for the pancake challenge that is in Seiad Valley. The challenge is to eat five 1 pound pancakes in under 90 minutes. Thats 5 POUNDS of pancakes!! If you can complete the challenge you get the pancakes for free.

I managed to get a ride back to the trail around 1pm. My pack felt SO heavy with 6 days of food, a bottle of whiskey, and two liters of water. Somehow the hike to camp tonight was still pretty easy and enjoyable. It's looking like it may rain tonight. Its considerably colder than it usually is this time of night. I never thought that I would ever wish for rain on the trail.

I saw a bear just 300 yards before the campsite tonight. Its a safe bet to say I'll have a visitor tonight.