28 June - Day 98 - from Etna to Cowbells!

Sawyer's Bar Rd (Mile 1606.5) to campsite at Shelly Meadows (Mile 1617)

Total PCT Miles Hiked Today: 10.5

Seano here.

Wonderful to stop early today at an excellent creek-side campsite.

But I'm jumping ahead. This morning, after a good night at the B&B in Etna -- and after a marvelous breakfast on the veranda served us by our hosts – we treated ourselves to ice cream at the quaint soda fountain, in the town's old brick drug store. I finally found my first chocolate malt in 1600+ miles of the trip. I had hoped to drink malts from the bottom of California to the top but I'm thinking it's a flavor that has gone out of style. Anyway, we caloried up, did our shop 'em up, and returned to the Hiker Hut to repack.

We were happily surprised to find Rubylocks there, and then Last Minute and Grits rolled in. Tom Sawyer was there, too. It was great to hug their necks, Last Minute's especially since we haven't seen him since Mammoth Lakes. We're still trying to talk him into relocating to Boulder and look forward to having a chance to hang with him again in these next sections. And our dear, fabulous Rubylocks!

Dave, our host, drove us up to Etna Summit, and we hiked out with Tom Sawyer. He and Pan talked nonstop for nearly four hours about everything from botany to relationships. Dionysus and I talked about the nature of the trail -- this line of experiences and landscapes and people we're stringing together from Mexico to Canada. Scissors Crossing and the rest of Southern Cal seems long ago and far away as we close in on the Oregon border; and yet they belong to the same piece of life we're in the process of hiking into existence. As such a powerful metaphor, the trail, Dionysis said, can't help but take on a life of its own. And so it has.

Early bed. Nice creek. Good weather. Not great miles - but what we planned.

Great campsite next to a full-flowing creek with wildflowers and many sites. Tom gets a fire going for awhile, but we're soon in our tents (away from mosquitoes) and enjoying our books.

One of the tents set up among the trees.

I don't know what non-hikers see in a photo like this, but we immediately see CAMPSITE!!! Sweeeet.

 Now what to do about the endless clunking and clanking of cowbells as about 15 cows graze the browse in the meadow by our tents? Earplugs.


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