Overall PCT Day 120

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2026 PCT Day 4, 18 August 2026 (Tuesday)

Overall PCT Day 120

"That Reeks"

 

Start Location:	PCT Mi. 1582.6	Destination:	Etna Summit TH, Mi. 1601.3
PCT Miles Day 120:	18.7	Cum PCT Miles:	2155.8
Non-PCT Miles Day 120:	0.7	Cum All Miles:	2355.0
PCT Miles Remaining:	491.5
Elevation Gain Day 120:	2638	Cum Elevation Gain:	380,887

 

After X number of days on trail, you reach maximum reekiness. Yes, that is a scientific term, go ahead and look it up. If you look it up and can’t find it then you can probably safely assume that it is a scientific term that I just made up on the trail this morning. I feel like for me that number of days is around four or five. After that, it’s hard to notice a difference.

Etna is a small town near the PCT. I originally had not planned to stop there, but many hikers do go into town for at least part of a day. This reduces the food carry from the Mount Shasta area to Ashland, Oregon. There are multiple shuttle drivers in Etna and it is also generally considered to be fairly doable to hitch both into town and back to the trail. However, I originally didn’t want to spend the time to go into Etna, my plan was to partially resupply at Seiad Valley in a couple of days. However, after talking to some southbound hikers, I became convinced that Etna was a much better option as there are very limited resupply items in Seiad Valley.

One downside of Etna is that there are very limited lodging options. I ended up booking a place through Airbnb that indicated it was private. However, this was a bit misleading as what you were really getting was just one bed in a dormitory style cabin. Since this small cabin had six beds, you could potentially be sharing it with five strangers. However, at this time of year, there are far fewer PCT hikers passing through than during the busiest part of the hiking season, so I thought to myself that I might just end up having this place to myself anyway.

When I was walking through town, I ran into the girl from Belgium, Damien, that I mentioned yesterday. It was getting late in the day, and she was torn between spending the night in town or going back to the trail. The only real option to stay in town was to book a bed in the place I was at. I guess I didn’t throw off any creepy old guy vibes, because that’s what she decided to do. She ended up being a pretty easy to get along with roommate. This is just kind of one of those things that happens when you’re hiking a trail like the PCT that just doesn’t happen in normal life. It’s part of what makes hiking the PCT such a unique experience.

I wish that I had decided from the get go that I was going to go into Etna. I could’ve cut my food weight down by 2 1/2 days. Oh well, carrying the extra weight probably helped me get my trail legs back sooner. And it’ll have prepared me for my longest food carry which will be from Crater Lake to Bend, Oregon.

One other bonus of being in Etna is that one of the few options for food is a Mexican food truck. It turns out this truck has really good Mexican food, in fact it was probably some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in quite a long time. Etna is kind of a funny place. It’s not the best trail town, and it’s not the worst but I got the food and supplies I needed.

Phone Battery: 73%

Not Poison Oak...Maybe Thimbleberry

Not Poison Oak...Maybe a berry bush

Not Poison Oak

Entering Russian Wilderness

Breakfast View

In hiking circles, we call that "leaf tech."  This makes it much easier to collect water.

Not Poison Oak...Maybe Dogwood

Scenery from the trail

Paynes Lake, the last water source I need today

Nice view of the valley below

If only it were 2022, and if only there were no fire closures, this would be 1600 miles for me.

Lots of deer around the Etna area...and it's deer hunting season

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