Checking in from Etna

Daphne Jumilla

18 Aug 2025 — 1 min read

Quick report from Etna - the trail in California has welcomed us with open arms! We’ve walked about 100 miles in CA, bringing our total above 1000 miles 🥳 and the fire closure on the trail near Etna reopened - so it seems luck is on our favor!

On our last town stop in Seiad Valley, we met a bunch of nobo hikers at Brian’s place, an amazing trail angels that opens his house to the hikers, and we baked a blackberry pie with freshly picked blackberries.

The trail leading to Etna from Seiad Valley had a few trees we had to circumvent but also amazing views ✨

Finally in Etna we got a little room in an Airbnb for the night and went enjoyed cooking a homemade dinner and breakfast - or should I actually say Miles made us delicious food?

We also did laundry and apparently decided to reverse color coordinate our outfits for our walk to a coffee shop!

Next stop… Mount Shasta! 🏔️

GUEST POST: Weekend in Tahoe

This post was authored by Grace and Dominic! Hello PCT Blog Readers, Grace and Dom here. We’re excited to let Daphne and Miles focus on walking instead of writing and to provide an outsider’s view of their trek, fresh from a restful weekend in Tahoe on Sep 12-14.

Life on the Trail - an Outsiders Perspective

I was lucky (crazy?) enough to meet Daphne and Miles at Donner Summit ski lodge and join them for hike to South Lake Tahoe. I was gearing up for what was to be my longest backpacking trip ever while trying to comprehend this is just daily life for the hikers.

Walking to Sierra City!

We left Belden with 4000ft climb over 5 miles which we did at 7pm to avoid the heat of the day. We made it to the top and cowboy camped for the night. The journey from here on was the end of the burn, so the trail started getting “pretty

Chester - midway point - Belden

Upon returning from Alex and Allison’s wedding celebration in Portland, we headed back to the trail via rental car, eventually failing a hitching effort that turned into a 1h Uber. We made it to the trail on Labor Day night, and we started hiking from a campsite. We were

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GUEST POST: Weekend in Tahoe

Life on the Trail - an Outsiders Perspective

Walking to Sierra City!

Chester - midway point - Belden