Day 26: Marble Mountain Wilderness

PCT Miles 1599.7 to 1623.8

Miles Hiked = 24.1

I enjoyed my zero day in Etna. Unfortunately all the restaurants were closed to in-house dining so take-out dining in the comfort of my motel room was the only option (it was 100 degrees outside!). I was disappointed that I couldn’t eat at Denny Bar Co. – the first craft distillery in Northern California. It looked like a really cool restaurant for such a small little town.

Yesterday I arranged for Derek, the motel manager, to drive me the ten miles back to the trailhead. I was back on the trail and hiking before 7am. It was another beautiful morning in the Northern California Cascades.

As usual there was an uphill climb from the trailhead. But this one wasn’t bad – less than 1000 feet over the first three miles.

Two and a half miles into the day’s hike I came to an official PCT register.

It’s always fun to check the register for the other hikers whereabouts

I was the first to sign today. I knew Layla didn’t take a zero day yesterday so I wasn’t surprised to see her name right before mine. I also wasn’t surprised to see Goin Postal, the retired postal worker that I had hiked with a little bit last week. But Daisy and Boston had also signed two days ago!!! How did they get ahead of me??? They didn’t pass me on the trail and I didn’t see them in Etna. I knew Daisy needed to resupply in town. In a few days I’ll discover that they finally re-connected on the trail and then hitched into Etna thereby skipping some trail miles and leapfrogging ahead of me. But as I signed the register it was a mystery … but I was happy to learn that the “young loves” were back together again. I also noticed that PopTarts and Quotes (the young newly-engaged couple) had not signed the register – they should be way ahead of me somewhere but why hadn’t they signed the register?

My next resupply is in fifty-seven miles at Seiad Valley. It will be my last resupply in California! My plan was to get there two days from now – two nights on the trail with two-plus days hiking. As I hiked out of Etna my plan was to try to hike twenty five miles today and tomorrow and then have a short hike into Seiad Valley in two days.

I hiked through the 2017 Wallow Fire Burn Zone

There were a lot of colorful mountain wildflowers along the trail today.

I stopped for a mid-morning break

and enjoyed a blueberry scone that I bought from an Etna pastry shop yesterday – it was definitely better than my usual energy bar!

I really enjoyed today’s hike into the Marble Mountain Wilderness – here are some more of the views I enjoyed as the hours and the miles passed by.

There were more wildflowers along the trail

and small deserted mountain lakes

Late in the afternoon I passed through another burn zone from 2014

As I looked to the north in the direction I was hiking, it looked like the mountains and forests would continue forever … was Oregon out there somewhere?

I finally reached Little Marble Valley around 5:30. There was a stream here and good campsites. I set up my tent and settled in for the night.

Thanks for following!