31 July - Day 91 - East & Northeast Towards the Border

From Valley RV Park (Mile 1662.8) to saddle on ridge between Black Mountain and White Mountain (Mile 1683.5)

Total PCT Miles hiked today: 20.7

Pan here.

We enjoyed a mongo breakfast at the Seiad Valley Café where we sang "O Shenandoah" for our waitress's birthday. Our fantastic cook was also happy we sang, and we were glad. She took great care of us. We did not, however, take up the pancake challenge.

Seano, the shutterbug, catches a photo of Pan and Dionysus outside the general store.

We hiked past abundant roadside blackberries (yum!) to the trailhead back into the Klamath National Forest climbing 5,500 feet (!) back to the 7,000 ft level to continue our turn now north and then east toward the border with Oregon.

Seiad Valley down below and the big bend of the river. Yesterday we hiked down the mountain road on the far left of this photo, then followed the River to the bridge. Here we are on the mountain above it getting near a good spring.

Up on the mountain at the first spring (thirsty!), we saw Fierce Melon and Tailgate with their fry pan. Jugs was ahead of them on the trail somewhere. The guys were taking turns lugging the fry pan, they said, while Jugs was in charge of being cook and frying the pancakes.

Far up and over, the views of Shasta from the west side were impressive!!! Wow!

Lunch with Tailgate, Jugs, Fierce Melon, Bone Lady & Swiss Cheese at Kangaroo Spring. Beautiful -- but a little challenging to find the water down in the meadow (turned out, a better source was uphill ahead on the trail a bit, and on the left).

Cascade Lily. What a flamboyant flower for the mountains!

Dinner at Beardog Spring. Log to sit on, and a great meadow with Cornhusk Lilies tall and blooming all over. We find a lily leaf folded into the braided trickle of the spring and it funnels the water right into our bottles. Beautiful! We sit up on the long log -- and then along comes Bone Lady and Swiss Cheese. We make our Rahmen for dinner and rest a bit. We sit on our jackets, since our butts have lost their fat and even sitting on logs hurts. But what a lovely spot.

Nice camp on sparsely wooded ridge with strong winds - Lavender ridges to northwest with salmon and coral atmospherics as sun sets. Cozy in tents with rainfly against the wind. Sweeet.

Our tents in a makeshift clearing with amazing views to the west. And wind.

Evening views to the northwest from our campsite.

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