July 20:Seiad Valley, CA

Our hike into Seiad Valley was basically a looooooong descent. We camped the night before around 6500 and dropped in over 20 miles to 1371 ft. The last 6.5 miles are a road walk that takes you right through "town." The town is really mostly an RV Park, cafe, and store. We soon found out that almost every person who lives there is a gold prospecter...not joking! Apparently there is still gold in these here hills and it's going for a good price. i hear some of them do quite well for themselves. Crazy!

We were puzzled at first because a lot of the signs in the area said "State of Jefferson" on them instead of California. After some inquiry, we learned that it is from the 1930's when a small part of northern CA was trying to become their own state. They were sick of having no representation and wanted to have a voice. It even went as far as putting up road blocks in some areas, and if you weren't a local, you weren't let through. When WWII started, it all ended because the war kind united the whole country. But even their "adopt a highway" signs still say "State of Jefferson" on them, which I find a little strange. But it's a cool story and history to hear about.

The cafe was closed when we rolled in, which was a bummer. This cafe is famous for it's "Pancake Challenge." They serve you up 5 one pound pancakes. If you can finish them all in one sitting, they're free. Neither of us wanted to even try, but it would be cool to see someone else try!

We hit up the store for our resupply and some snacks for the evening, did some laundry and took showers. The RV Park has a place for hikers to sleep, and we get to use the ammenities as well (for a price). Then we sat around and rested...tomorrow we go up, up, up.

Total Miles:1662.1
Miles Today:20.8
Camp 83:Seiad Valley RV Park

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