July 11, 2022
Left Broken Arrow Campground near Diamond Lake with Colleen and family about 10am. I immediately got us lost by giving wrong directions. Nice!
After untangling my error, the road to Medford was followed easily. Fried chicken for lunch was purchased at Fred Meyer. To deposit our supply box, we stopped at Callahan’s Lodge to accomplish that and to eat lunch. While, there we did see a few PCT hikers and we questioned them about their travels and the trail conditions. The only useful info we got was that there was no snow between Seiad Valley and Callahan’s.
After lunch , we drove south on I-5 a ways until we crossed into California and turned onto the Klamath River Highway. A twisty-turny 45 miles brought us to Seiad Valley where we would begin our trek.
We said our farewells with hugs and looked around us at the 20 or so thru-hikers assembled in the shade. Without any good reason to hang around, packs were shouldered in the 105 degree heat and we headed down the road.
As we hiked, there was some shade but it was still plenty hot. In about a mile, we found the trail on the side of the road. Going up the trail was very hot and we took frequent shade breaks. We did expect this. Within a mile, we found our afternoon camp spot. There was some shade and the nearby spring’s trough was full of cold water. A couple other hikers set up the their camps near us while we cooked and prepared our dinners. As we, leaned up and prepared our tent for the evening, we decided today had gone well, and tomorrow would be even better.
Dogleggers on the Trail 
It was much cooler once we got to our campsite and we were pretty comfortable hanging out there.
Smiles and No-See-Um shared our first campsite. We would see them several times later in the days to come. Smiles was a section hiker and No-See-Um was a thru-hiker, starting at the Mexican border. I was impressed with the really nice hiking sun shirt No-See-Um wore and would like to get one for myself.
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