There were several of us trying to hitch out of Etna. We had been there a couple hours when the father of Momma Bear/grandpa to Monkey showed up. He took us to the trailhead. Back on the trail again! It feels good to be hiking and while my knees are a little stiff I feel great. We are still hiking in the Russian Wilderness and the first half of the trip was rocky trail. It continues to impress though. There were more meadows covered with wildflowers, forest, green hillsides with rock outcroppings and one final view of Shasta. I saw another bear. A big one this time. It was in the evening around 6 about 2 miles from Paradise Lake where we planned to camp. It was a good thing I was talking loudly to Tofu Todd and That Guy. The noise gave notice to the bear and all I saw was its big, furry, brown butt as it jumped a log and ran down the mountain. That makes a total of 4 bears I've seen on this hike. Paradise Lake was a beautiful campsite. It was spring fed and was surrounded by high cliffs. It's also accessible by a side trail with road access. So day & weekend hikers were around. The trail smoothed out and started descending down 17 miles into Seiad Valley. On the way it changed from a dry alpine environment to a lush rainforest type place with lots of streams. It was also humid. Tofu Todd is taking three days to get to Seiad. I planned two days. So I had to wish him well in the morning and head down the trail. I didn't have enough food to take longer.
There are a lot of discomforts that long distance hikers have to deal with. Blisters are the most common. Then there is foot pain, shin splints, IT Band, and knee pain. You learn to deal with it, then ignore it and keep hiking. There's always some little problem. Another common ailment is Giardia, which is a parasite that you can get from drinking bad water. In the desert every one was religious about treating or filtering the water. Then in the Sierras there was an abundance of clean safe water. So many hikers stopped treating. I have a Sawyer inline filter attached to the drinking tube of my Platypus bladder. But I would frequently fill up my gatorade bottle and drink it untreated. Those springs are delicious! Now though we have to treat again. a lot of hikers got Giardia between Shasta and Etna. There's a time lapse between infection and symptoms. I developed symptoms 10 miles up the trail from Etna. Yukky. So at night I've just gone straight to bed. It's been pretty slow going. But I made it to Seiad Valley. Tomorrow I will go to a clinic and get some meds.
Seiad is tiny. There's a store, a cafe, and an RV park. We are camped at the RV park. Fingers crossed this won't delay me too long. If it does I'm confident I can make up the time.
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